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1 – 10 of over 3000Gawaher Muthanna and M.S.M. Amin
The purpose of this paper is to present a procedure to estimate the total irrigation water requirement for a command area of 2,500 hectares in an arid environment under various…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a procedure to estimate the total irrigation water requirement for a command area of 2,500 hectares in an arid environment under various crops and soil types using GIS for data storage, analysis and visualization of results.
Design/methodology/approach
Bani Al‐Harith agricultural area in Sana'a basin, Yemen was chosen for the study. ArcView GIS was used to plan for suitable crops and estimate the irrigation water requirements based on the farmer's preference and soil types. Using the available soil maps, the soil characteristics such as salinity, texture and suitable crop types were overlaid to produce the crop blocks map. The water balance equation was used to produce the crop water requirement map considering the crop coefficient for different crop stages. The total water demand for each irrigation block was calculated by summing the three components, namely percolation loss through the soil, maximum evapotranspiration of the crop and leaching requirement (LR) to maintain an acceptable salinity level.
Findings
The case study is an example of using GIS as an effective tool in irrigation planning. GIS facilities to acquire, store, analyze and display spatial data were used to produce the soil class map, soil profile map, crop map and water requirement map. The profile ECe values for the chosen crops is within the crop salinity tolerance for 100 percent yield except for blocks 4 and 5 where grape and coffee respectively are suggested to be grown. The profile ECe values are 18.37 dS/m in block 4 and 3.27 to 7.88 dS/m in block 5. The tolerance threshold of 100 percent yield for grape is 1.5 dS/m and for coffee is 3 to 6 dS/m. The salinity of the irrigation water was 2.08 dS/m. From the crop blocks map, the salinity tolerance level for 100 percent yield of onion for block 1 is 1.2 dS/m, tomato for block 2 is 2.5 dS/m, alfalfa for block 3 is 2 dS/m, grape for block 4 is 1.5/ dS/m, and the salinity tolerance level for 100 percent yield of coffee for block 5 is 5 dS/m. Leaching requirements were obtained by taking ECw value of 2.08 and ECe of 1.2, 2.5, 2, 1.5 and 5 for onion, tomato, alfalfa, grape and coffee respectively. The peak total water requirement occurred in May and was found to be 5,595 m3/ha, or 560 mm. The design irrigation water requirement for every block is shown in a map for easy visualization and manipulation to produce the best combination of soils, crops and water use.
Research limitations/implications
This method of determining the total irrigation water requirement is dependent on the selected irrigation system and crops whether shallow‐rooted, deep‐rooted or tree crops. The use of water in agriculture should be judicious, precise and sustainable. Application of GIS can be a useful tool in irrigation management since it provides rapid access to underlying information of crop suitability. The designer can try out various combinations of crops, to suit the soils and available water.
Practical implications
This methodology is useful for training irrigation engineers and water resource planners on the use of GIS technique to plan irrigation projects in arid areas.
Originality/value
This technique has never been applied to the study area.
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Sara M. Zaina, Fodil Fadli and Seyed Morteza Hosseini
The study aims to develop recommendations for optimal Internet of things (IoT) based solutions for a smart precision irrigation automation platform using morphological thinking…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to develop recommendations for optimal Internet of things (IoT) based solutions for a smart precision irrigation automation platform using morphological thinking (MT). The smart irrigation system (SIS) can be applied for green roof and green wall (GRGW) design by studying the relationships and configurations that will be analyzed, listed and synthesized, representing “solutions spaces” and their possibilities.
Design/methodology/approach
The research examines studying various cases of SIS; and assessing and analyzing the identified case studies through a decision support system (DSS) considering several factors regarding IoT, plant characteristics, monitoring, irrigation system and schedule, climate, cost and sensors used.
Findings
To develop recommendations for optimal IoT-based solutions for a smart precision irrigation automation platform.
Originality/value
The research paper analyzes and proposes a simultaneous solution to two conflicting problems. On the one hand, the paper proposes to apply greening of walls and roofs in hot arid regions, which will achieve greater environmental comfort. However, this is extremely difficult to implement in hot arid regions, since there is an objective problem – a lack of water. At the same time, the paper proposes the most rational approaches to organizing an irrigation system with the lowest water consumption and the highest efficiency for landscaping. Accordingly, this paper focuses on evaluating different types of SIS about the hot-arid climate in Qatar. The study aims to develop recommendations for optimal IoT-based solutions for a smart precision irrigation automation platform, which can be applied for green wall and roof design.
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D.C. Sirimewan, A.P.K.D. Mendis, Damitha Rajini, Aparna Samaraweera and Naiduwa Handi Chathuri Manjula
Sustaining the irrigated agriculture, while conserving the natural eco-system, are the two main objectives of sustainable water management (SWM) in irrigation. Achieving both the…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustaining the irrigated agriculture, while conserving the natural eco-system, are the two main objectives of sustainable water management (SWM) in irrigation. Achieving both the objectives simultaneously is a complex task in most developing countries. This requires a holistic approach of understanding the issues in irrigation water management (IWM) from social, economic and environmental perspectives. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the issues towards the SWM of irrigation systems in Sri Lanka to help maintain a stable relationship between the aforementioned two objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative interview survey was selected as the research strategy to achieve the research aim. 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in IWM sector to collect data in the Sri Lankan context. Data were analysed using code-based content analysis, based on directed approach.
Findings
Findings revealed the issues in SWM in terms of efficiency of irrigation infrastructure; equity of water distribution; environmental integrity and economic acceptability. Most of the issues were related to the inefficiency towards SWM of irrigation systems. Conflicts among water users, especially the people in downstreams aggravated the problem of equity of water sharing. Depletion of groundwater and waterlogging were the major issues towards environmental integrity. Loss of water happened due to the issues in different irrigation infrastructure components hindering economic acceptability.
Originality/value
Theoretical contribution includes an analysis of issues in IWM from a sustainability perspective. Practical implications include an overview of deficiencies in the SWM to generate appropriate strategies to achieve sustainability for decision-makers such as policymakers in the irrigation sector in developing countries similar to Sri Lanka.
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Rui Manuel de Sousa Fragoso and Carlos José de Almeida Noéme
This paper aims to assess the economic effects of climate change on the Mediterranean’s irrigated agriculture and how the adoption of alternative crop varieties adapted to the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the economic effects of climate change on the Mediterranean’s irrigated agriculture and how the adoption of alternative crop varieties adapted to the expected length of the growing season can be an effective adaptation measure.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of two irrigation areas in Southern Portugal is used to assess the response to climate change impacts on crop yields and irrigation requirements, and an agricultural supply model is calibrated using a positive mathematical programming (PMP) approach was developed.
Findings
Climate change reduces crop yields and causes a slight decrease in irrigation requirements, which could allow an increase in the irrigated area. However, positive impacts on rural areas regarding employment and investment are not expected. The adoption of adaptation measures based on alternative crop varieties, which could maintain crop yields at current levels, increases dramatically the economic value of water and mitigates losses in farm income.
Research limitations/implications
The impacts on output and input market prices, as well as other biophysical impacts (for instance, CO2 and water availability), are important in understanding the effects of climate change on irrigated agriculture, but they were not considered in this study. While this may be a limitation, it can also be a stimulus for further research.
Practical implications
This is an empirical paper, whose results contribute to improving knowledge about the effects of climate change on irrigated agriculture in Mediterranean areas, namely, its economic impacts on returns and the use of agricultural resources (land, water, labour and capital). Other practical implications of the paper are associated with the methodological approach, which provides a framework able to deal with the complexity and multidimensional effects of climate change.
Social implications
The results of the paper provide important information for scientists, politicians and other stakeholders about the design of more effective adaptation measures able to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Originality/value
Crop yields and irrigation requirements were previously calculated based on data generated by the regional climate models. This is the first time that an application is developed for Portugal. Two distinct profiles of irrigation areas were studied and a large set of crops was considered, which is not common in the existing studies. To specify the PMP approach used to calibrate the agricultural supply model, exogenous crop-specific supply elasticities were estimated through a least square model, which is not common in previous studies.
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DC Sirimewan, Aparna Samaraweera, NHC Manjula, Raufdeen Rameezdeen, MNN Rodrigo and EMAC Ekanayake
Irrigation System Management (ISM) poses many issues in terms of social and technical aspects. These can be further elaborated as the issues toward the efficiency of…
Abstract
Purpose
Irrigation System Management (ISM) poses many issues in terms of social and technical aspects. These can be further elaborated as the issues toward the efficiency of infrastructure, equity of water sharing, environmental integrity and economic acceptability. Water losses and the structural changes of the system caused many issues putting the irrigation system into distress. Hence, this urges the need for sustainable ISM to improve social and technical attributes in ISM. This paper aims to apply the Socio-Technical Systems (STSs) theory for sustainable ISM.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative expert opinion survey method was selected as the research strategy to approach the research aim. Sixteen industry professionals in the ISM sector were selected through the purposive sampling method to conduct semi-structured interviews to collect data in the Sri Lankan context. Code-based content analysis through a directed approach was used to analyse the data.
Findings
Four main categories of strategies were emerged from the research findings as “engineering strategies”, “operational strategies”, “management strategies” and “regulatory strategies” through STS approach for sustainable ISM. The STS framework was developed by combining engineering and operational strategies into the technical subsystem and the management and regulatory strategies into the social subsystem to approach the aim of achieving contemporary system management in irrigation in a sustainable manner.
Originality/value
The research revealed the links between the strategies emerged from various disciplines to minimise the issues in ISM from the perspectives of technical and social subsystems. The study contributes to knowledge by providing a framework for sustainable ISM by applying the socio-technical systems theory by integrating the concepts of sustainability.
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This study aims to provide a new method for precisely sizing photovoltaic (PV) arrays for standalone, direct pumping PV Water Pumping (PVWP) systems for irrigation purposes.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a new method for precisely sizing photovoltaic (PV) arrays for standalone, direct pumping PV Water Pumping (PVWP) systems for irrigation purposes.
Design/methodology/approach
The method uses historical weather data and considers daily variability in regional temperatures and rainfall, crop evapotranspiration rates and seasonality effects, all within a nonparametric bootstrapping approach to synthetically generate daily rainfall and crop irrigation needs. These needs define the required daily supply of pumped water to achieve a user-specified level of reliability, which provides the input to an intuitive approach for PV array sizing. An economic comparison of the costs for the PVWP versus a comparably powered diesel generator system is provided.
Findings
Pumping 22.8646 m³/day of water would meet the pasture crop irrigation needs on a one-acre (4046.78 m²) tract of land in South Florida, with 99.9% reliability. Given the specified assumptions, an 8.4834 m² PV array, having a peak power of 1.1877 (kW), could provide the 1.2347 (kWh/day) of hydraulic energy needed to supply this volume over a total head of 20 meters. The PVWP system is the low-cost option when diesel prices are above $0.90/liter and total installed PV array costs are fixed at $2.00/Watt peak power or total installed PV array costs are below $1.50/Watt peak power and diesel prices are fixed at $0.65/liter.
Originality/value
Because the approach is not dependent on the shapes of the sampling distributions for regional climate factors and can be adapted to consider different types of crops, it is highly portable and applicable for precisely determining array sizes for standalone, direct pumping PVWP systems for irrigating diverse crop types in diverse regions.
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Matthias Buchholz and Oliver Musshoff
Increasing environmental concerns have placed the need for an enhanced water resources management on the policy agenda. In this context, a restrictive regulation of water…
Abstract
Purpose
Increasing environmental concerns have placed the need for an enhanced water resources management on the policy agenda. In this context, a restrictive regulation of water withdrawals for irrigation has gained in importance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a reduction in water quotas and increased water prices affect risk‐efficient crop choices and the related economic implications for northern German farmers.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply a whole‐farm risk programming approach to a typical arable farm in northern Germany. By using irrigation field trials, production activities with varying irrigation intensities and inherently incorporated crop yield uncertainty are defined.
Findings
In contrast to increased water prices, a reduction in water quotas leads to higher water savings and lower economic disadvantages for farmers. Due to an adjusted portfolio crop choice, as well as irrigation intensity, the reduction in the expected total gross margin is partially offset.
Research limitations/implications
This example ensures volumetric water monitoring at the farm level which, however, remains a major pitfall in many other countries. From a methodological perspective, the crop yield distribution choice might affect the findings. Likewise, the consideration of downside risk in an irrigation context appears to be interesting for future research.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to compare the implications of differentiated water quotas and water pricing schemes suggested by the European Water Framework Directive, while taking risk‐efficient crop portfolio considerations into account. This approach facilitates water reallocation not only between crops, but also in terms of the crop‐specific irrigation intensity. Crop yields are based on a unique panel of micro data rather than expert opinions or simulations.
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Mannar Mannan J., Kanimozhi Suguna S., Dhivya M. and Parameswaran T.
The purpose of this paper aims to reduce the manpower, electricity, and water consumption for irrigation.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper aims to reduce the manpower, electricity, and water consumption for irrigation.
Design/methodology/approach
The IoT-based smart irrigation system designed with various sensors to collect farm field data, and stored all the data in the cloud for scheduling the irrigation.
Findings
This system reduces the water and electricity consumption, and labor cost.
Research limitations/implications
Difficult to implement on a small farm field with different crops.
Practical implications
Crop type, soil type and environment data should be considered for better saving of water.
Social implications
Reduces the water consumption, electricity, man power and increase production.
Originality/value
The soil type, crop type and environment data have been added before irrigation. The climate data also included before scheduling. Dynamic changing of irrigation timings based on the climate and sensor data.
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Steven Greenland, Elizabeth Levin, John F. Dalrymple and Barry O’Mahony
This paper aims to examine impediments to the adoption of sustainable water-efficient technological innovation in agriculture. Farming is the largest water consumer and food…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine impediments to the adoption of sustainable water-efficient technological innovation in agriculture. Farming is the largest water consumer and food production expansion in response to global population growth, combined with increasing droughts from climate change, threatens water and food insecurity for many countries. Yet, climate smart agriculture (CSA) innovation adoption has been slow, and in this regard, governments and the agricultural sector are not fulfilling their social responsibility and sustainability obligations.
Design/methodology/approach
Barriers to water-efficient drip irrigation (DI) adoption in Australia were investigated via 46 depth interviews with agricultural stakeholders and a survey of 148 farmers.
Findings
While DI water efficiency is recognised, this is not the key determinant of farmers’ irrigation method selection. Complex interrelationships between internal and external barriers impede DI adoption are identified. These include costs, satisfaction with alternative irrigation methods, farmer characteristics that determine the suitability of the innovation and the extent it is incremental or radical, plus various multidimensional risks. Government support of alternative, less water-efficient irrigation methods is also a critical barrier.
Originality/value
A conceptual framework for understanding barriers to sustainability oriented innovation adoption is presented. Its insights should be applicable to researchers and practitioners concerned with understanding and improving the adoption of socially responsible and sustainable innovation in a wide range of contexts. Recommendations for overcoming such adoption barriers are discussed in relation to the research focus of water-efficient agriculture and encouraging uptake of DI.
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Khaled Laoubi and Masahiro Yamao
The purpose of this paper is to propose the typology that links the characterization of the irrigated farms with their structural and functional aspects for the context of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose the typology that links the characterization of the irrigated farms with their structural and functional aspects for the context of sustainable irrigated agricultural development.
Design/methodology/approach
East Mitidja scheme is selected for this study. About 134 farms are selected from the irrigation scheme. Multiple correspondence and ascendant hierarchical classification are used as data mining tools to characterize the typology of irrigated farms.
Findings
The typology provides a way of understanding the diversity of farms with regard to their socio‐economic environment. It also helps to identify those farms that fall into broad categories of unsustainability. The latest implemented agricultural and irrigation policy has a differential effect on various types of farmers, favoring some and discouraging others. The socio‐economic constraints have prevented the implementation of various development programs. This situation leads to the unsustainable exploitation of the water and land resources and to the promotion of unsustainable irrigation scheme.
Practical implications
The findings and results may help decision makers to implement appropriate interventions in terms of resources, conditions and interests that are compatible with each identified class of farms.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to explore irrigated agriculture development issues in Algeria using multivariate methods. The typological method can help policymakers to identify priorities. It can also be used to predict how different farmers will likely respond to government programs and policies regarding irrigated agricultural development.
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