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Sustainable Development of Irrigated Agriculture

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2020) | Viewed by 6197

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Center for Advanced Studies in Management and Economics, University of Évora, 2, 7004-516 Évora, Portugal
Interests: supply chain management; agribusiness; entrepreneurship and innovation; natural and environmental economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Departament of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georesources, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: regulation; benchmarking; public policies; PPPs; privatizations; local public services; infrastructure; water; solid waste; transport; health sector
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The expected growth of the world population will lead to a high increase in demand for food, but available land upon which to expand agricultural areas on a large scale is limited. In addition, as most areas utilize rainfed agriculture, the solution may be augmenting crop yields, enhancing the efficiency of irrigated agriculture, and promoting the transition from rainfed to irrigated agriculture under water-scarce conditions. In arid and sub-arid regions, where increased crop production is probably more needed, the availability of water is chronically short, and the possibility of extracting freshwater from new sources has high marginal costs. These regions will be also the most affected by climate change.

The intensification and expansion of irrigated agriculture will inflict negative environmental impacts upon already fragile regions. Alternative water sources, such as irrigation of low-quality water, treated effluents, and desalinated water, can help to mitigate the pressure on the demand for water and the competition with domestic use. However, the environmental costs associated with the salinity of soils and the contamination of groundwater and surface water are high.

This Special Issue focuses on the sustainable development of irrigated agriculture. The aim is to present original research articles providing highlights of key issues, such as the risks associated with the expansion of irrigated areas in arid and semiarid regions, interactions between agricultural production and the availability of land and water resources, economic efficiency of irrigation, assessment of climate change impacts on irrigated agriculture, and design of water policies and water markets.

Thus, considering previous studies, the challenge is to design strategies for increasing crop yields while preserving soil and water resources for agricultural use. Thus, advanced models that measure irrigation efficiency and simulate the complex interactions between physical, chemical, biological, and socio-economic processes are welcome contributions to this Special Issue.

Prof. Rui Manuel de Sousa Fragoso
Prof. Rui Cunha Marques
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Sustainable irrigated agriculture
  • Water scarcity
  • Climate change
  • Irrigation efficiency
  • Irrigation performance
  • Irrigation technology
  • Modeling
  • Economic impact
  • Water policies
  • Water markets
  • Drought
  • Adaptation
  • Stochastic
  • Multi-objective

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 1595 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Irrigation Management in Paddy Rice Agriculture: A Comparative Case Study of Karangasem Indonesia and Kunisaki Japan
by Matthew Scott Jansing, Faezeh Mahichi and Ranahansa Dasanayake
Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 1180; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031180 - 6 Feb 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5609
Abstract
Irrigated paddy rice agriculture accounts for a major share of Asia Pacific’s total water withdrawal. Furthermore, climate change induced water scarcity in the Asia-Pacific region is projected to intensify in the near future. Therefore, methods to reduce water consumption through efficiency measures are [...] Read more.
Irrigated paddy rice agriculture accounts for a major share of Asia Pacific’s total water withdrawal. Furthermore, climate change induced water scarcity in the Asia-Pacific region is projected to intensify in the near future. Therefore, methods to reduce water consumption through efficiency measures are needed to ensure the long-term (water) sustainability. The irrigation systems, subak of Karangasem, Indonesia, and the tameike of Kunisaki, Japan, are two examples of sustainable paddy rice irrigation. This research, through interviews and an extensive survey, comparatively assessed the socio-environmental sustainability of the two irrigation management systems with special reference to the intensity and nature of social capital, equity of water distribution, water demand, water footprint, and water quality, etc. The prevailing social capital paradigm of each system was also compared to its overall managerial outcomes to analyze how cooperative action contributes to sustainable irrigation management. Both systems show a comparable degree of sustainable irrigation management, ensuring an equitable use of water, and maintain relatively fair water quality due to the land-use practices adapted. However, the systems differ in water demand and water efficiency principally because of the differences in the irrigation management strategies: human and structural. These findings could help devise mechanisms for transitioning to sustainable irrigation management in the commercially-oriented paddy rice agricultural systems across the Asia-Pacific region. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development of Irrigated Agriculture)
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