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Irrigated areas drive irrigation water withdrawals

Author

Listed:
  • Arnald Puy

    (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and High Meadows Environmental Institute
    University of Bergen)

  • Emanuele Borgonovo

    (Boconi University)

  • Samuele Lo Piano

    (School of the Built Environment, University of Reading)

  • Simon A. Levin

    (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and High Meadows Environmental Institute)

  • Andrea Saltelli

    (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC))

Abstract

A sustainable management of global freshwater resources requires reliable estimates of the water demanded by irrigated agriculture. This has been attempted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) through country surveys and censuses, or through Global Models, which compute irrigation water withdrawals with sub-models on crop types and calendars, evapotranspiration, irrigation efficiencies, weather data and irrigated areas, among others. Here we demonstrate that these strategies err on the side of excess complexity, as the values reported by FAO and outputted by Global Models are largely conditioned by irrigated areas and their uncertainty. Modelling irrigation water withdrawals as a function of irrigated areas yields almost the same results in a much parsimonious way, while permitting the exploration of all model uncertainties. Our work offers a robust and more transparent approach to estimate one of the most important indicators guiding our policies on water security worldwide.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnald Puy & Emanuele Borgonovo & Samuele Lo Piano & Simon A. Levin & Andrea Saltelli, 2021. "Irrigated areas drive irrigation water withdrawals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24508-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24508-8
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    Cited by:

    1. Sangha, Laljeet & Shortridge, Julie, 2023. "Quantification of unreported water use for supplemental crop irrigation in humid climates using publicly available agricultural data," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    2. Zajac, Zuzanna & Gomez, Oscar & Gelati, Emiliano & van der Velde, Marijn & Bassu, Simona & Ceglar, Andrej & Chukaliev, Ordan & Panarello, Lorenzo & Koeble, Renate & van den Berg, Maurits & Niemeyer, S, 2022. "Estimation of spatial distribution of irrigated crop areas in Europe for large-scale modelling applications," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    3. Arnald Puy & Razi Sheikholeslami & Hoshin V. Gupta & Jim W. Hall & Bruce Lankford & Samuele Lo Piano & Jonas Meier & Florian Pappenberger & Amilcare Porporato & Giulia Vico & Andrea Saltelli, 2022. "The delusive accuracy of global irrigation water withdrawal estimates," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-4, December.
    4. Olivera-Guerra, Luis-Enrique & Laluet, Pierre & Altés, Víctor & Ollivier, Chloé & Pageot, Yann & Paolini, Giovanni & Chavanon, Eric & Rivalland, Vincent & Boulet, Gilles & Villar, Josep-Maria & Merlin, 2023. "Modeling actual water use under different irrigation regimes at district scale: Application to the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient method," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    5. Lankford, Bruce A., 2023. "Resolving the paradoxes of irrigation efficiency: Irrigated systems accounting analyses depletion-based water conservation for reallocation," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    6. Jingxiu Qin & Weili Duan & Shan Zou & Yaning Chen & Wenjing Huang & Lorenzo Rosa, 2024. "Global energy use and carbon emissions from irrigated agriculture," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.

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