Impact of climate change on regional irrigation water demand in Baojixia irrigation district of China

Water scarcity in China would possibly be aggravated by rapid increase in water demand for irrigation due to climate change. This paper focuses on the mechanism of climate change impact on regional irrigation water demand by considering the dynamic feedback relationships among climate change, irrigation water demand and adaptation measures. The model in implemented using system dynamics approach and employed in Baojixia irrigation district located in Shaanxi Province of China to analyses the changes in irrigation water demand under different climate change scenarios. Obtained results revealed that temperature will be the dominant factor to determine irrigation water demand in the area. An increase of temperature by 1 °C will result in net irrigation water demand to increase by about 12,050?×?10⁴ m³ and gross water demand by about 20,080?×?10⁴ m³ in the area. However, irrigation water demand will not increase at the same rate of temperature rise as the adaptation measures will eventually reduce the water demand increased by temperature rise. It is expected that the modeling approach presented in this study can be used in adopting policy responses to reduce climate change impacts on water resources.     

Adaptation of land management in the Mediterranean under scenarios of irrigation water use and availability

Meeting the growing demand for food in the future will require adaptation of water and land management to future conditions. We studied the extent of different adaptation options to future global change in the Mediterranean region, under scenarios of water use and availability. We focused on the most significant adaptation options for semiarid regions: implementing irrigation, changes to cropland intensity, and diversification of cropland activities. We used Conversion of Land Use on Mondial Scale (CLUMondo), a global land system model, to simulate future change to land use and land cover, and land management. To take into account future global change, we followed global outlooks for future population and climate change, and crop and livestock demand. The results indicate that the level of irrigation efficiency improvement is an important determinant of potential changes in the intensity of rain-fed land systems. No or low irrigation efficiency improvements lead to a reduction in irrigated areas, accompanied with intensification and expansion of rain-fed cropping systems. When reducing water withdrawal, total crop production in intensive rain-fed systems would need to increase significantly: by 130% without improving the irrigation efficiency in irrigated systems and by 53% under conditions of the highest possible efficiency improvement. In all scenarios, traditional Mediterranean multifunctional land systems continue to play a significant role in food production, especially in hosting livestock. Our results indicate that significant improvements to irrigation efficiency with simultaneous increase in cropland productivity are needed to satisfy future demands for food in the region. The approach can be transferred to other similar regions with strong resource limitations in terms of land and water.     

干旱缺水地区缓解水危机的途径: 水资源需求管理的政策效应

水资源短缺是制约干旱区经济发展的瓶颈因素,缓解水资源供需矛盾必须引入水资源需求管理政策。基于市场机制的价格调整和基于行政管理的数量控制是水资源需求管理的两种重要手段。论文基于分布式水资源-经济模型,在用水需求零增长、用水结构升级调整的情景下,研究了水价调整和水量控制在抑制农业用水需求中的政策效应。结果表明,因现行灌溉水价过低,农户对水价上涨不敏感,水量控制比水价调整更加有效。如果要达到相同的节水效果,水价调整政策下农户收入损失比水量控制要更大。水价调整政策下农户收入损失由于成本上涨和作物结构转换导致,水量控制政策下农户收入损失主要是作物种植规模压缩所致,两种政策均需考虑一定的利益补偿。水价调整和水量控制都会导致种植结构转换,但对区域粮食安全影响不大,对经济作物的影响较大,水价上涨会减少用水量多的作物种植,水量控制会使作物种植结构由单方水效益低的作物转向单方水效益高的作物。     

Climate change, water availability and future cereal production in China

Climate scenarios from a regional climate model are used to drive crop and water simulation models underpinned by the IPCC A2 and B2 socio-economic development pathways to explore water availability for agriculture in China in the 2020s and 2040s. Various measures of water availability are examined at river basin and provincial scale in relation to agricultural and non-agricultural water demand and current and planned expansions to the area under irrigation. The objectives are to understand the influences of different drivers on future water availability to support China's food production. Hydrological simulations produce moderate to large increases in total water availability in response to increases in future precipitation. Total water demand increases nationally and in most basins, but with a decreasing share for agriculture due primarily to competition from industrial, domestic and municipal sectors. Crop simulations exhibit moderate to large increases in irrigation water demand which is found to be highly sensitive to the characteristics of daily precipitation in the climate scenarios. The impacts of climate change on water availability for agriculture are small compared to the role of socio-economic development.The study identifies significant spatial differences in impacts at the river basin and provincial level. In broad terms water availability for agriculture declines in southern China and remains stable in northern China. The combined impacts of climate change and socio-economic development produce decreases in future irrigation areas, especially the area of irrigated paddy rice. Overall, the results suggest that there will be insufficient water for agriculture in China in the coming decades, due primarily to increases in water demand for non-agricultural uses, which will have significant implications for adaptation strategies and policies for agricultural production and water management.     

Economic impacts of climatic variability and subsidies on European agriculture and observed adaptation strategies

In order to assess agricultural adaptation to climate impacts, new methodologies are needed. The translog distance function allows assessing interactions between different factors, and hence the influence of management on climate impacts. The Farm Accountancy Data Network provides extensive data on farm characteristics of farms throughout the EU15 (i.e. the 15 member states of the European Union before the extension in 2004). These data on farm inputs and outputs from 1990−2003 are coupled with climate data. As climate change is not the only change affecting European agriculture, we also include effects of subsidies and other changes on inputs and outputs of farms throughout Europe. We distinguish several regions and empirically assess (1) climate impacts on farm inputs and outputs in different regions and (2) interactions between inputs and other factors that contribute to the adaptation to these impacts. Changes in production can partly be related to climatic variability and change, but also subsidies and other developments (e.g. technology, markets) are important. Results show that impacts differ per region, and that ‘actual impacts’ cannot be explicitly separated into ‘potential impacts’ and ‘adaptive capacity’ as often proposed for vulnerability assessment. Farmers adapt their practices to prevailing conditions and continuously adapt to changing conditions. Therefore, ‘potential impacts’ will not be observed in practice, leaving it as a mainly theoretical concept. Factors that contribute to the adaptation also differ per region. In some regions more fertilizers or more irrigation can mitigate impacts, while in other regions this amplifies impacts. To project impacts of future climate change on agriculture, current farm management strategies and their influence on current production should be considered. This clearly asks for improved integration of biophysical and economic models.     

Blue water scarcity in the Black Sea catchment: Identifying key actors in the water-ecosystem-energy-food nexus

Large-scale water scarcity indicators have been widely used to map and inform decision makers and the public about the use of river flows, a vital and limited renewable resource. However, spatiotemporal interrelations among users and administrative entities are still lacking in most large-scale studies. Water scarcity and interrelations are at the core of the water-ecosystem-energy-food nexus. In this paper, we balance water availability in the Black Sea catchment with requirements and consumptive use of key water users, i.e., municipalities, power plants, manufacturing, irrigation and livestock breeding, accounting for evaporation from major reservoirs as well as environmental flow requirements. We use graph theory to highlight interrelations between users and countries along the hydrological network. The results show that water scarcity occurs mainly in the summer due to higher demand for irrigation and reservoir evaporation in conjunction with relatively lower water resources, and in the fall-winter period due to lower water resources and the relatively high demand for preserving ecosystems and from sectors other than irrigation. Cooling power plants and the demands of urban areas cause scarcity in many isolated locations in the winter and, to a far greater spatial extent, in the summer with the demands for irrigation. Interrelations in water scarcity-prone areas are mainly between relatively small, intra-national rivers, for which the underlying national and regional governments act as key players in mitigating water scarcity within the catchment. However, many interrelations exist for larger rivers, highlighting the need for international cooperation that could be achieved through a water-ecosystem-energy-food nexus.     

Global evaluation of the effects of agriculture and water management adaptations on the water-stressed population

Fresh water is one of the most important resources required for human existence, and ensuring its stable supply is a critical issue for sustainable development. The effects of a general set of agriculture and water management adaptations on the size of the world’s water-stressed population were assessed for a specific but consistent scenario on socio-economic development and climate change during the 21st century. To maintain consistency with agricultural land use change, we developed a grid-based water supply–demand model integrated with an agro-land use model and evaluated the water-stressed population using a water withdrawals-to-availability ratio for river basins. Our evaluation shows that, if no adaptation options are implemented, the world’s water-stressed population will increase from 1.8 billion in 2000 to about 3.3 billion in 2050, and then remain fairly constant. The population and economic growth rather than climate change will be dominant factors of this increase. Significant increase in the water-stressed population will occur in regions such as North Africa and the Middle East, India, Other South Asia, China and Southeast Asia. The key adaptation options differ by region, depending on dominant crops, increase in crop demand and so on. For instance, ‘improvement of irrigation efficiency’ and ‘enhancement of reclamation water’ seem to be one of important options to reduce the water stress in Southeast Asia, and North Africa and the Middle East, respectively. The worldwide implementation of adaptation options could decrease the water-stressed population by about 5 % and 7–17 %, relative to the scenario without adaptations, in 2050 and 2100, respectively.     

The vulnerability of hydropower production in the Zambezi River Basin to the impacts of climate change and irrigation development

The Zambezi River Basin in southern Africa is relatively undeveloped from both a hydropower and irrigated agriculture perspective, despite the existence of the large Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams. Accelerating economic growth increases the potential for competition for water between hydropower and irrigated agriculture, and climate change will add additional stresses to this system. The objective of this study was to assess the vulnerability of major existing and planned new hydropower plants to changes in climate and upstream irrigation demand. Our results show that Kariba is highly vulnerable to a drying climate, potentially reducing average electricity generation by 12 %. Furthermore, the expansion of Kariba generating capacity is unlikely to deliver the expected increases in production even under a favourable climate. The planned Batoka Gorge plant may also not be able to reach the anticipated production levels from the original feasibility study. Cahora Bassa’s expansion is viable under a wetting climate, but its potential is less likely to be realised under a drying climate. The planned Mphanda Nkuwa plant can reach expected production levels under both climates if hydropower is given water allocation priority, but not if irrigation is prioritised, which is likely. For both Cahora Bassa and Mphanda Nkuwa, prioritising irrigation demand over hydropower could severely compromise these plants’ output. Therefore, while climate change is the most important overall driver of variation in hydropower potential, increased irrigation demand will also have a major negative impact on downstream plants in Mozambique. This implies that climate change and upstream development must be explicitly incorporated into both project and system expansion planning.     

湖泊水动力模型外部输入条件不确定性和敏感性分析

以我国典型的大型浅水湖泊太湖为研究区域,采用国内外常用的环境流体动力学模型(EFDC),结合拉丁超立方取样(LHS)方法,研究湖泊水动力模型中4个重要的外部输入条件,即3个边界输入条件(出入湖流量、风速、风向)和1个初始输入条件(初始水位),对模型水动力模拟结果(水位、水龄以及流场)的影响与贡献.结果表明,初始水位的设定对模拟全湖水位和水龄产生决定性影响,不确定性的贡献率分别达到85.73%和66.125%,对垂向平均流速影响的贡献率只有3%;风速对表面流速模拟结果影响较大,贡献率达到58.70%,而对水位和水龄的贡献率分别为5.25%和3.00%.在垂向上,各层流速受外部输入条件不确定性的影响规律相似,贡献率排序为风速(55%~60%)>风向(10%~15%)>初始水位≈出入湖流量(1%~5%).因此在模拟大型浅水湖泊水动力过程时,可以根据不同的输出目标能够有针对性地提高外部输入条件的准确度,为提高模型精确度提供有效信息.     

湖泊水动力模型外部输入条件不确定性和敏感性分析

以我国典型的大型浅水湖泊太湖为研究区域,采用国内外常用的环境流体动力学模型(EFDC),结合拉丁超立方取样(LHS)方法,研究湖泊水动力模型中4个重要的外部输入条件,即3个边界输入条件(出入湖流量、风速、风向)和1个初始输入条件(初始水位),对模型水动力模拟结果(水位、水龄以及流场)的影响与贡献.结果表明,初始水位的设定对模拟全湖水位和水龄产生决定性影响,不确定性的贡献率分别达到85.73%和66.125%,对垂向平均流速影响的贡献率只有3%;风速对表面流速模拟结果影响较大,贡献率达到58.70%,而对水位和水龄的贡献率分别为5.25%和3.00%.在垂向上,各层流速受外部输入条件不确定性的影响规律相似,贡献率排序为风速(55%~60%)>风向(10%~15%)>初始水位≈出入湖流量(1%~5%).因此在模拟大型浅水湖泊水动力过程时,可以根据不同的输出目标能够有针对性地提高外部输入条件的准确度,为提高模型精确度提供有效信息.     

Groundwater-dependent irrigation costs and benefits for adaptation to global change

The effects of a 1.5 °C global change on irrigation costs and carbon emissions in a groundwater-dependent irrigation system were assessed in the northwestern region of Bangladesh and examined at the global scale to determine possible global impacts and propose necessary adaptation measures. Downscaled climate projections were obtained from an ensemble of eight general circulation models (GCMs) for three representative concentration pathways (RCPs), RCP2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5 and were used to generate the 1.5 °C warming scenarios. A water balance model was used to estimate irrigation demand, a support vector machine (SVM) model was used to simulate groundwater levels, an energy-use model was used to estimate carbon emissions from the irrigation pump, and a multiple linear regression (MLR) model was used to simulate the irrigation costs. The results showed that groundwater levels would likely drop by only 0.03 to 0.4 m under a 1.5 °C temperature increase, which would result in an increase in irrigation costs and carbon emissions ranging from 11.14 to 148.4 Bangladesh taka (BDT) and 0.3 to 4% CO₂ emissions/ha, respectively, in northwestern Bangladesh. The results indicate that the impacts of climate change on irrigation costs for groundwater-dependent irrigation would be negligible if warming is limited to 1.5 °C; however, increased emissions, up to 4%, from irrigation pumps can have a significant impact on the total emissions from agriculture. This study revealed that similar impacts from irrigation pumps worldwide would result in an increase in carbon emissions by 4.65 to 65.06 thousand tons, based only on emissions from groundwater-dependent rice fields. Restricting groundwater-based irrigation in regions where the groundwater is already vulnerable, improving irrigation efficiency by educating farmers and enhancing pump efficiency by following optimum pumping guidelines can mitigate the impacts of climate change on groundwater resources, increase farmers’ profits, and reduce carbon emissions in regions with groundwater-dependent irrigation.     

Assessing local climate vulnerability and winegrowers’ adaptive processes in the context of climate change

Adaptation to climate change is a major challenge facing the viticulture sector. Temporally, adaptation strategies and policies have to address potential impacts in both the short- and long term, whereas spatially, place-based and context-specific adaptations are essential. To help inform decision-making on climate change adaptation, this study adopted a bottom-up approach to assess local climate vulnerability and winegrowers’ adaptive processes in two regulated wine-producing areas in the Anjou-Saumur wine growing sub-region, France. The data used for this study were collected through individual semi-structured interviews with 30 winegrowers. With a focus on wine quality, climate-related exposure, and sensitivity were dependent on many contextual factors (e.g., northern geographical position, wine regulatory frameworks, local environmental features) interacting with the regional oceanic climate. Climate and other non-climate-related variables brought about important changes in winegrowers’ management practices, varying in time and space. This ongoing process in decision-making enhanced winegrowers’ adaptive responses, which were primarily reactive (e.g., harvesting, winemaking) or anticipatory (e.g., canopy and soil management) to short-term climate conditions. Winegrowers described changing trends in climate- and grapevine (Vitis) -related variables, with the latter attributed to regional climate changes and evolving management practices. Regarding future climate trends, winegrowers’ displayed great uncertainty, placing the most urgent adaptation priority on short-term strategies, while changing grapevine varieties and using irrigation were identified as last resort strategies. The study concluded by discussing the implications of these findings in the context of climate change adaptation in viticulture.     

基于静态多区域CGE模型的黄河流域灌溉水价研究

黄河流域属于水资源匮乏地区,据黄河水资源公报,2011 年农田灌溉用水量占流域总用水量的73.9%,故灌溉水价与流域农业、社会经济系统关系密切.鉴于此,论文基于多区域静态CGE模型,研究黄河流域不同省区在灌溉水量不同减少幅度情况下农业灌溉水价的变化,以及水价不同提高幅度下对社会经济系统和灌溉用水量的影响.结果表明:① 农业灌溉水价随着灌溉用水量的减少而增加;另一方面,5 种水量减少情况下模拟结果中各省区最终灌溉水价主要由水价变动构成,说明初始水价较低;② 在水价不同提高幅度下,实际GDP降低,居民的实际消费水平降低;③ 在水价提高15%的情况下,流域总灌溉用水量减少了9.087×10⁸ m³,占流域总灌溉用水量的1.5%;④ 系统敏感性分析(SSA)表明,模型模拟结果较稳健.     

城市水资源供需系统优化分析

运用系统动力学的方法,研究了城市水资源供需系统的优化分析。系统中主要包括了人口、工业生产、水资源供应和污染等4个状态变量,其中总可供水量是系统的控制变量;得出水价和水污染整治投资比例是两个关键因素,系统运行结果表明,只有二者相互协调,共同发挥作用,才能保证城市水资源的可持续利用,缺一不可。论文以长春市为例,分析了城市水资源供需系统的动态变化,并提出了解决水资源短缺以及水体污染的控制方案。     

西北地区县域农业水资源平衡问题研究

水土资源不匹配和水资源时空分布不均的自然本底,加之人口大量增加和经济高速发展的驱动,使得西北地区农业水资源供需矛盾十分突出。论文系统分析了县域单元农业水资源平衡的两个层次及其计算方法,并对西北地区314个县域单元进行了实证研究。天然状态下农田水量平衡模型计算结果表明:西北地区各个县域单元降水均不能满足各种作物的水分需求,亏水为水量平衡的首要特征。就各省而言,新疆为亏水量最高的省份,其多年平均作物亏水量达628.02mm,陕西最小,其值为87.51mm。人工状态下水土资源平衡模型结果表明:受灌溉水平的影响,西北地区各个县域单元水量平衡差异明显。各省份中,新疆水土资源利用处于水少地多的超量承载状态,其它各省灌水量略有盈余,灌溉面积的扩大尚有一定潜力。     

Complementarity between mitigation and adaptation: the water sector

The water cycle, a fundamental component of climate, is likely to be altered in important ways by climate change. Climate change will most likely worsen the already existing water related problems. Then the question is how should policy makers respond to this dilemma. Climate change mitigation, through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and sequestration is not a sufficient response. Adaptation will also need to feature as a response strategy. Mitigation and adaptation need to be viewed as complementary responses to climate change. Complementarity between adaptation and mitigation in the water sector will be addressed in this paper. The paper will also outline the main impacts of climate change on water resources and identify those areas that are most dependent and vulnerable to hydrological systems (e.g., hydroelectric systems, irrigation, agriculture) and any changes thereof resulting from climate change. It will aim to assess the impact of water demand and water use, with a view to identifying the main relationships between mitigation and adaptation in the water sector and the means through which individual mitigation and adaptation actions can potentially interact with each other for the benefit of the water sector as a whole. It will also explore the implications of climate change on the management of water resources. Adaptation and mitigation options would be considered in the context of their socio-economic and environmental impacts and their contribution to sustainable development. A brief evaluation of how this information can be directly used for planning purpose will also be presented.

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Scarce water resources and priority irrigation schemes from agronomic crops

Global environmental change places unavoidable pressure on water resources and agronomic crop production systems. Irrigation development is a credible measure to alleviate the challenge of food safety under water shortages, but it needs sufficient basis. The aim of this study is to address the problem of balancing water scarcity with food requirements, which are the key components of water security in regions with population growth. Marginal water productivity (MWP) indices for irrigation water performance and productivity evaluation were established in the current study. Based on the analysis of the regional water-crop relationship and spatial differences of MWP in China, the priorities for developing irrigation areas in different types of regions are discussed in this study. The results show that high MWPs are mainly in semi-arid regions with precipitation (P) between 500 and 1000 mm, while low MWPs mostly occur in areas with P more than 1000 and less than 500 mm. The significance and spatial distribution patterns of MWP are different than those of conventional irrigation water use efficiency evaluation indices, so its role cannot be replaced for the real production capacity of irrigation water evaluation. The strategies for global environmental change adaptation suggested in this study are taking MWP for irrigation water productivity evaluation and the priority irrigation schemes for agronomic crop determination; increasing MWP by means of irrigation efficiency and crop variety improvement worldwide; and raising global food production through the expansion of irrigation area in the regions hold high MWP and abundant water resources.

     

白洋淀水体富营养化和沉积物污染时空变化特征

雄安新区成立以后,在白洋淀流域实施了一系列污染综合整治措施.为评估白洋淀污染状况并识别主要污染来源,本文在淀内采集了30个水体样品和29个沉积物样品,分析了水体中的COD、TP、TN、NH~+_4-N和Chla这5项指标和沉积物中TN、TP和重金属(Cd、Zn、Cu、Pb、Ni、As和Cr),结合历史监测数据分析了白洋淀污染时空分布特征及其影响因子.结果表明, 2019年白洋淀淀内水体整体处于富营养化状态, 30个采样点中"轻度富营养化"点位8个,"中度富营养化"16个,"重度富营养化"6个,与1991～2017年相比,淀区北部地区多数点位的营养程度明显下降,污染整治措施基本上遏制了水体污染加重趋势.沉积物营养盐污染依然严重,TN含量在1 483.7～14 234.1 mg·kg~(-1)之间,平均值为5 054.9 mg·kg~(-1),变异系数高达46.5%,TP含量在360.3～1 964.4 mg·kg~(-1)之间,平均值为925.4 mg·kg~(-1),变异系数为25.7%.重金属地累积指数计算表明沉积物中I_(geo)平均值均小于1,属于清洁或轻度污染,主要污染物为Cd、Zn和Cu.重金属生态风险除部分点位(L3、L21、L28和L29)处于重度和严重生态风险等级外,淀区整体处于中等风险水平.整体上,白洋淀水体污染区域正在从北部向南部转移,主要影响因素从外源污染向淀中村和沉积物污染引起的内源污染转变.     

Forecasting industrial water demand in Huaihe River Basin due to environmental changes

A framework is proposed for forecasting industrial water demand in the context of climate change, economic growth, and technological development. The framework was tested in five sub-basins of Huaihe River of China, namely Upstream of Huaihe River (UH), Middlestream of Huaihe River (MH), Downstream of Huaihe River (DH), Yishusi River (YSSR), and Coastal River of Shandong Peninsula (CSP) to project future changes in industrial water demand under different environment change scenarios. Results showed that industrial water demand in Huaihe River basin will increase in the range of 10 to 44.6% due to economic development, water-saving technological advances, and climate change. The highest increase was projected by general circulation model (GCM) BCC-CSM1–1 (179.16 × 108 m³) and the lowest by GCM GISS-E2-R (132.4 × 10⁸ m³) in 2020, while the GCM BNU-ESM projected the highest increase (190.57 × 10⁸ m³) and GCM CNRM-CM5 the lowest (160.41 × 10⁸ m³) in 2030. Among the different sub-basins, the highest increase was projected in MH sub-basin where industrial water demand is already very high. On the other hand, the lowest increase in industrial water demand was projected in UH sub-basin. The rapid growth of high water-consuming industries and increased water demand for cooling due to temperature rise are the major causes of the sharp increase in industrial water demand in the basin. The framework developed in the study can be used for reliable forecasting of industrial water demand which in turn can help in selection of an appropriate water management strategy for adaptation to global environmental changes.     

滏阳河流域的水资源问题

根据对华北地区水资源短缺最严重的滏阳河流域的实证研究表明,随着部门和上下游用水者之间用水竞争程度的加剧,流域从开放向闭合的转变,地下水位的逐年下降及引致的环境问题,节水的空间也变得十分有限。解决未来水资源短缺的问题很大程度上将依赖于如何运用政策、制度和经济措施实现水资源的优化配置和综合管理,提高灌区的运行绩效和实现有效的产权制度创新。