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Sustainable Planning and Management of Water Resources in Agriculture

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 11083

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ioannis Panagopoulos

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Guest Editor

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, 19013 Anavissos, Greece
Interests: hydrology; hydrological processes in catchments; water resources; water quality; nutrient water pollution; river basin planning and management
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The effective management of water resources in terms of quantity and quality is the main target of the Water Framework Directive in Europe and relevant environmental legislation worldwide. Hydrologic extremes and water scarcity enhanced by a changing climate, water pollution, and bad practices in the agricultural sector can all affect the status of surface and groundwater resources and disturb the ecosystem functions and services delivered to societies. This Special Issue is envisioned to showcase the state-of-the-art in managing agricultural water resources at smaller (water body) to larger scales (river basins), demonstrating the design and operation planning of water projects and/or programs of measures that also address aspects of water resources management, such as biodiversity conservation and socio-economic stability. For example, of particular interest is the demonstration of nature-based solutions in agriculture, including or not construction works that can retain water and enhance the natural attenuation of pollution or flooding, and at the same time deliver one or more indirect benefits, such as amenity and recreational opportunities, micro-climate enhancement, sheltering for biodiversity etc. Studies are encouraged to present the governance and financial mechanisms that ensure the sustainability of water management. We hope that actual examples will help us to remark on significant water management efforts along with the benefits they deliver to societies, ecosystems and the environment.

Dr. Yiannis Panagopoulos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

agricultural water management
ecosystems
hydrology
nature-based solutions
water resources

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 610 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis on the Influencing Factors of Farmers’ Cognition on the Function of Agricultural Water Price—Taking Hexi Corridor as an Example

by Wei Qu, Jing Yan, Yanmei Tan and Qin Tu

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5197; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13095197 - 06 May 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1518

Abstract

Analyzing the farmer’s behavior and the water-saving incentive mechanism is of great significance to the implementation of the explicit subsidy policy of agricultural water prices. This paper introduces the concept of loss aversion from behavioral economics and conducts a theoretical analysis of the incentive mechanism of agricultural water prices to verify the hypotheses by using survey data from the three inland river basins in the Hexi Corridor, Northwest China. The results show that when farmers believe that their water-saving potential is relatively large, the loss aversion of farmers has a significantly positive impact on water-saving incentives under an explicit agricultural water price subsidy. In addition, irrigation canal evaluation and regional differences have negative and positive influences, respectively. Based on this, suggestions are made to actively promote the implementation of explicit subsidy of agricultural water prices in order to save irrigation water. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Planning and Management of Water Resources in Agriculture)

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12 pages, 4814 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Global Climate Pattern Impacts on Long-Term Olive Yields in Northwestern Africa: Case from Souss-Massa Region

by Houria Abahous, Lhoussaine Bouchaou and Abdelghani Chehbouni

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1340; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13031340 - 28 Jan 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1920

Abstract

In arid to semi-arid regions, vulnerability to climate change combined with the overexploitation of water resources is jeopardizing food security. In the Souss-Massa region in central Morocco, the rural population relies on growing olives for a living. The management of these orchards is mostly traditional under rainfed irrigation, which induces a high level of dependence on climate variability. In the present study, we investigate the long-term trends of the relationship between the observed olive yields and global climate patterns during the period 1973–2014. We apply lagged Spearman’s correlations and cross-wavelet analysis to detect the potential influence of El Niño-southern oscillation (ENSO), the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) and Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) on the yield variability of olive orchards. The results of a Mann-Kendall test show a statistically significant decreasing trend in olive yields during the studied period. Statistically significant negative correlations were observed for (lag = −1) with spring and summer NINO 3.4 and with summer and autumn PDO. No statistically significant correlations between olive yields and NAO and IOD were observed. The results of wavelet coherence between annual olive yields and PDO and ENSO revealed that the highest values of power spectrum coherence occurred during the (lag = 0) spring PDO and (lag = −1) spring ENSO, both with an antiphase relationship. During the studied period, the extreme events of El Niña and El Niño years corresponded to below average yields. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Planning and Management of Water Resources in Agriculture)

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25 pages, 4660 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Model-Based Approach for the Evaluation of the Net Contribution of the European Union Rural Development Program to the Reduction of Water Abstractions in Agriculture

by Konstantinos X. Soulis, Emmanouil Psomiadis, Paraskevi Londra and Dimitris Skuras

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 7137; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12177137 - 01 Sep 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2858

Abstract

Agriculture is an essential driving force in water resources management and has a central role in the European Union’s Rural Development Programme (RDP). In this study, the solution developed addresses countries characterised by relatively small farms, vast spatial and temporal variability and severe data scarcity. The proposed model-based approach is directly relevant to the evaluation of agricultural policies affecting water abstraction based on multisource data. The evaluation process utilises an entirely spatially distributed, continuous hydrological model. The model provides a gridded output of the main hydrological balance components, as well as vegetation water deficit and irrigation water requirements, on a daily temporal step on a country scale. It provides information at the farm level and facilitates the estimation of water abstractions in agriculture, taking into consideration all the pertinent information included in the Integrated Administration and Control System database that is maintained by RDPs in Europe. Remote sensing data also are used to validate crop patterns. The obtained results were analysed to estimate the net effect of the RDP to the reduction of water abstractions in agriculture. This work produces valuable information concerning the evaluation of agricultural policies and the assessment of land use, and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Planning and Management of Water Resources in Agriculture)

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Other

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22 pages, 2925 KiB

Open AccessCase Report

A Large-Scale Nature-Based Solution in Agriculture for Sustainable Water Management: The Lake Karla Case

by Yiannis Panagopoulos and Elias Dimitriou

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6761; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12176761 - 20 Aug 2020

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4006

Abstract

This study demonstrates a new nature-based solution (NBS) project in agriculture, the ‘Karla’ reservoir in Central Greece, a unique example at European scale, of a lake ecosystem which was dried and is now restored with the purpose to maximize the efficiency of water provision in agriculture and biodiversity enhancement. In this article, we present: (a) The historical developments from the existence of the old natural Lake Karla until the reconstruction of the homonymous artificial reservoir, (b) the environmental and economic benefits that the new project delivers, and (c) the governance and management mechanisms that can ensure the efficient operation of the project. The analysis shows that the reconstructed Lake Karla can serve as a multi-purpose project to combat water scarcity, achieving a twofold crop yield production and respective agricultural income in the surrounding area, securing the coverage of the water supply needs of the closest city, improving the status of groundwater resources, developing a natural shelter for biodiversity and emerging recreation and touristic opportunities. At the same time, its construction and operation costs can be recovered, and the proposed governance plan can ensure the viability of the whole project inspiring similar multi-purpose water retention projects for investment in agriculture and the environment in southern Europe but also in other water scarce regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Planning and Management of Water Resources in Agriculture)

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