IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v14y2024i1p5-d1551699.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrating Irrigation Decision Support Systems for Efficient Water Use: A Case Study on Mediterranean Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Raffaella Zucaro

    (Canale Emiliano Romagnolo, 40137 Bologna, Italy)

  • Silvia Baralla

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy, 00187 Rome, Italy)

  • Andrea Arzeni

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy, 60027 Osimo, Italy)

  • Antonella Bodini

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy, 60027 Osimo, Italy)

  • Roberta Ciaravino

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy, 80143 Napoli, Italy)

  • Nadia Salato

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy, 80143 Napoli, Italy)

  • Pietro Chinnici

    (Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Sciences, Università Degli Studi di Palermo, 90123 Palermo, Italy)

  • Nunzia Gabriella Fasolino

    (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy)

  • Emilia Pellegrini

    (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy)

  • Emanuela Sarzotti

    (Ente di Gestione delle Aree Protette del Ticino e del Lago Maggiore, 28062 Cameri, Italy)

  • Elisa Ascione

    (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy, 80143 Napoli, Italy)

  • Antonio Coppola

    (Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences (DCGS), University of Cagliari, 09127 Cagliari, Italy)

  • Myriam Ruberto

    (Canale Emiliano Romagnolo, 40137 Bologna, Italy)

Abstract

Irrigation plays a pivotal role in Southern Europe, and its importance is expected to further increase due to rising climatic variability. Concurrently, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) mandates the safeguarding of water bodies and the implementation of incentive pricing strategies to promote efficient water management. Within this context, Irrigation Scheduling Decision Support Systems (IS-DSS) could contribute to the achievement of these objectives, although there are still obstacles to their adoption due to uncertainties regarding their potential benefits. This paper aims to derive a pricing model that reflects actual water use through the adoption of an IS-DSS. The innovation of this study lies in showing that adopting an IS-DSS to reduce irrigation volumes can potentially lower concession fees in collective irrigation systems. Thus, it contributes to the fulfilment of the WFD’s objectives regarding incentive water pricing. Notably, the tool is evaluated using the case study of a farm located in the Mediterranean region. The results demonstrate the dual benefits of IS-DSS adoption: on the one hand, it helps preserve water resources with a 24% reduction in irrigation volumes; on the other, it decreases irrigation costs by 20% at the farm level and by 9.4% at the irrigation district level. Therefore, the presented study provides insights into the potential of IS-DSS to enhance water pricing policies to promote efficient water management in Southern European agriculture in alignment with the WFD requirements.

Suggested Citation

  • Raffaella Zucaro & Silvia Baralla & Andrea Arzeni & Antonella Bodini & Roberta Ciaravino & Nadia Salato & Pietro Chinnici & Nunzia Gabriella Fasolino & Emilia Pellegrini & Emanuela Sarzotti & Elisa As, 2024. "Integrating Irrigation Decision Support Systems for Efficient Water Use: A Case Study on Mediterranean Agriculture," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2024:i:1:p:5-:d:1551699
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/1/5/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/1/5/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dono, Gabriele & Giraldo, Luca & Severini, Simone, 2010. "Pricing of irrigation water under alternative charging methods: Possible shortcomings of a volumetric approach," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(11), pages 1795-1805, November.
    2. Silvia Santato & Jaroslav Mysiak & Carlos Dionisio Pérez-Blanco, 2016. "The Water Abstraction License Regime in Italy: A Case for Reform?," Working Papers 2016.29, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    3. Gabriele Dono & Luca Giraldo & Simone Severini, 2012. "The Cost of Irrigation Water Delivery: An Attempt to Reconcile the Concepts of Cost and Efficiency," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(7), pages 1865-1877, May.
    4. Ara, Iffat & Turner, Lydia & Harrison, Matthew Tom & Monjardino, Marta & deVoil, Peter & Rodriguez, Daniel, 2021. "Application, adoption and opportunities for improving decision support systems in irrigated agriculture: A review," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    5. Alfonso Expósito & Julio Berbel, 2017. "Why Is Water Pricing Ineffective for Deficit Irrigation Schemes? A Case Study in Southern Spain," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(3), pages 1047-1059, February.
    6. Cortignani, Raffaele & Dell’Unto, Davide & Dono, Gabriele, 2018. "Recovering the costs of irrigation water with different pricing methods: Insights from a Mediterranean case study," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 148-156.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Portoghese, Ivan & Giannoccaro, Giacomo & Giordano, Raffaele & Pagano, Alessandro, 2021. "Modeling the impacts of volumetric water pricing in irrigation districts with conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    2. Prakashan Veettil & Stijn Speelman & Guido Huylenbroeck, 2013. "Estimating the Impact of Water Pricing on Water Use Efficiency in Semi-arid Cropping System: An Application of Probabilistically Constrained Nonparametric Efficiency Analysis," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(1), pages 55-73, January.
    3. Buchholz, Matthias & Musshoff, Oliver, 2014. "The role of weather derivatives and portfolio effects in agricultural water management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 34-44.
    4. Monjardino, Marta & Harrison, Matthew T. & DeVoil, Peter & Rodriguez, Daniel & Sadras, Victor O., 2022. "Agronomic and on-farm infrastructure adaptations to manage economic risk in Australian irrigated broadacre systems: A case study," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    5. Bennie Grové & Johannes Jacobus Bezuidenhout & Nicolette Matthews, 2023. "Farm-level Hydroeconomic Analysis of Alternative Water Tariff Charges Using a Hybrid Solution Method," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 37(12), pages 4679-4692, September.
    6. Michael Gbenga Ogungbuyi & Juan P. Guerschman & Andrew M. Fischer & Richard Azu Crabbe & Caroline Mohammed & Peter Scarth & Phil Tickle & Jason Whitehead & Matthew Tom Harrison, 2023. "Enabling Regenerative Agriculture Using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-25, May.
    7. Shawei He & Keith Hipel & D. Kilgour, 2014. "Water Diversion Conflicts in China: A Hierarchical Perspective," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(7), pages 1823-1837, May.
    8. Berbel, Julio & Gutierrez-Marín, Carlos & Expósito, Alfonso, 2018. "Microeconomic analysis of irrigation efficiency improvement in water use and water consumption," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 423-429.
    9. Buttinelli, Rebecca & Cortignani, Raffaele & Caracciolo, Francesco, 2024. "Irrigation water economic value and productivity: An econometric estimation for maize grain production in Italy," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    10. Carlos Mario Gómez Gómez & C. D. Pérez-Blanco & David Adamson & Adam Loch, 2018. "Managing Water Scarcity at a River Basin Scale with Economic Instruments," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(01), pages 1-31, January.
    11. Lan Mu & Yuan Wang & Binrui Xue, 2024. "The Impacts of Agricultural Water Pricing on Sustainable Agricultural Production," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 38(3), pages 1061-1078, February.
    12. Huertas-Fernández, F. & Suárez-Rey, E.M. & Ramón, C.L. & Giménez, C. & Rueda, F.J., 2025. "The value of simulating the soil water and nitrogen dynamics in decision support systems for plot-scale agro-environmental management," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    13. Guo, Shibo & Zhao, Jin & Zhao, Chuang & Guo, Erjing & Liu, Zhijuan & Harrison, Matthew Tom & Liu, Ke & Zhang, Tianyi & Yang, Xiaoguang, 2024. "Adapting crop land-use in line with a changing climate improves productivity, prosperity and reduces greenhouse gas emissions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    14. Buchholz, Matthias & Holst, Gesa & Musshoff, Oliver, 2015. "Water and irrigation policy impact assessment using business simulation games: evidence from northern Germany," Department of Agricultural and Rural Development (DARE) Discussion Papers 260781, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development (DARE).
    15. Reidsma, Pytrik & Janssen, Sander & Jansen, Jacques & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2018. "On the development and use of farm models for policy impact assessment in the European Union – A review," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 111-125.
    16. Alfonso Expósito & Esther Díaz-Cano & Julio Berbel, 2024. "The Potential use of Reclaimed Water for Irrigation Purposes: Is it Overestimated?," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 38(12), pages 4541-4554, September.
    17. Zhisong Chen & Huimin Wang & Xiangtong Qi, 2013. "Pricing and Water Resource Allocation Scheme for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(5), pages 1457-1472, March.
    18. Cortignani, Raffaele & Dell’Unto, Davide & Dono, Gabriele, 2021. "Paths of adaptation to climate change in major Italian agricultural areas: Effectiveness and limits in supporting the profitability of farms," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    19. Rapeepan Pitakaso & Kanchana Sethanan & Kim Hua Tan & Ajay Kumar, 2024. "A decision support system based on an artificial multiple intelligence system for vegetable crop land allocation problem," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 342(1), pages 621-656, November.
    20. Selene Righi & Elena Vigan?, 2024. "Innovativeness in organic farming system: The case of the Marche region," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2024(3), pages 137-160.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2024:i:1:p:5-:d:1551699. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.