Need idea on how to go about this research "Evaluation of water use sustainability in irrigation as an adaptive response to climate change".

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please i need idea on how to go about this research "EVALUATION OF WATER USE SUSTAINABILITY IN IRRIGATION AS AN ADAPTIVE RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE". If i need to 1. rephrase the topic, 2. indicators to evaluate water use sustainability 3. tools/methodology to be used in the study. Thanks

5 Answers

  1. Gloria, unfortunately, increased rain fall most likely means less water for crops. Unless reservoirs are built to hold the excess rainfall, then all the extra rain means is that the streams and rivers would have some extra sediment removed. And the net result would be less water for crops.

  2. Ok Silvia, thank you. will get back to you.

  3. Water Use Efficiency (WUE) as opposed to sustainability tends to be the standard for expressing what you're talking about, at least in my context. Are you looking at modelling or an evaluation of existing material? CSIRO (AUS) have done some work on benchmarking although not sure how it would translate to a non-Australian context. http://www.csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Sustainable-Agriculture-Flagship/WUE.aspx. If you're looking at crop modelling in an integrated water quantity context, the platform we use in our work (Mekong, Brahmaputra, Murray Darling Basin among others) may be of use to you http://ewater.com.au/products/ewater-source/.

    2 Comments

    1. Meryl, I am pursuing an alternative design of r.o. membrane desalination. One thing I am concerned about is the depletion of ground water. One reason for this is that water attracts water and it can be shown in the past that when ground water has been depleted, the land itself can become arid. Whether it's in Australia, the Middle East or the U.S., a solution to lowering the cost of desalination could allow for water over time to be pumped back into the ground. I am going to be doing some math which would help to explain why I think using 40 to 80 bars of pressure to desalinize water is not necessary. Then if costs can be lowered sufficiently, a proper land/water management can be achieved. As for sustainability, when a net water balance is able to be maintained, the future population growth (if it happens) would not be a burden to a system that is already stressed.

    2. thank you Meryl, most of the work i have viewed too are from Australia and Indonesia, haven't come across much research in that context in Africa. But my thought is sustainable water use should encompass both efficiency and conservation except if its too broad.

  4. Gloria, I have one project that I am working on. While it has little to do with water except for it derives energy from it's usage, I do like your query. Myself, I have specific thoughts on climate change and how to account for it's cause. It's effect is something that at first may seem random. With water usage, conservation only allows for using a limited supply. And with climate change, an increase in rain fall may not be of value. Storms that could produce a rainfall of .5 cm/hr. may create more run off than a rain that lasts longer but has less volume. Saturation does become an issue. As such, flooding decreases the value of rain because of the crops it will kill. Sustainability comes from moderate levels of predictable rain fall. This would be one reason why limiting the effects of climate change could be important.

    1 Comment

    1. thank you James, yes with climate change there's increase in rainfall intensity but not enough to sustain irrigation.

  5. I trust in pure organic farming traditional methods. But i believe you need to rephrase the topic but change the water use sustainability to irrigation water efficiency. and you can even read this paper to get some idea https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/aj/abstracts/93/2/281 the pdf file is also posted in the link. Let me know what you think.