| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.19 MB | Adobe PDF |
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
To improve water use efficiency and productivity, particularly in irrigated areas, reliable
water accounting methodologies are essential, as they provide information on the status and trends
in irrigation water availability/supply and consumption/demand. At the collective irrigation system
level, irrigation water accounting (IWA) relies on the quantification of water fluxes from the diversion
point to the plants, at both the conveyance and distribution network and the irrigated field level.
Direct measurement is the most accurate method for IWA, but in most cases, there is limited metering
of irrigation water despite the increasing pressure on both groundwater and surface water resources,
hindering the water accounting procedures. However, various methodologies, tools, and indicators
have been developed to estimate the IWA components, depending on the scale and the level of detail
being considered. Another setback for the wide implementation of IWA is the vast terminology
used in the literature for different scales and levels of application. Thus, the main objectives of this
review, which focuses on IWA for collective irrigation services, are to (i) demonstrate the importance
of IWA by showing its relationship with water productivity and water use efficiency; (ii) clarify the
concepts and terminology related to IWA; and (iii) provide an overview of various approaches to
obtain reliable data for the IWA, on the demand side, both at the distribution network and on-farm
systems. From the review, it can be concluded that there is a need for reliable IWA, which provides
a common information base for all stakeholders. Future work could include the development of
user-friendly tools and methodologies to reduce the bridge between the technology available to
collect and process the information on the various water accounting components and its effective use
by stakeholders.
Description
Keywords
water demand water availability hydrant distribution network remote sensing beneficial use water losses irrigation efficiency irrigation requirements monitoring
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Ferreira, A.; Rolim, J.; Paredes, P.; Cameira, M.d.R. Methodologies for water accounting at the collective irrigation system scale aiming at optimizing water productivity. Agronomy 2023, 13, 1938
Publisher
MDPI