Decreasing Dust Over the Middle East Partly Caused by Irrigation Expansion

Xia, Wenwen; Wang, Yong; Wang, Bin

doi:10.1029/2021ef002252

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…These factors are not explicitly considered in the scenario simulations performed here. We further acknowledge that the RFtoIF transition may disturb local hydrological cycle and affect the precipitation, evapotranspiration, surface temperature, and other land atmospheric interactions [69][70][71]. These factors can affect the water scarcity estimates as well.…”

Section: Discussion and Synthesismentioning

confidence: 96%

Water scarcity challenges across urban regions with expanding irrigation

Rathore,

Kumar,

Hanasaki

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Irrigation expansion is often posed as a promising option to enhance food security. Here, we assess the influence of expansion of irrigation, primarily in rural areas of the contiguous United States (CONUS), on the intensification and spatial proliferation of freshwater scarcity. Results show RFtoIF transition will result in an additional 169.6 million hectares or 22% of the total CONUS land area facing moderate or severe water scarcity. Analysis of just the 53 large urban clusters with 146 million residents shows that the transition will result in 97 million urban population facing water scarcity for at least one month per year on average versus 82 million before the irrigation expansion. Notably, none of the six large urban regions facing an increase in scarcity with RFtoIF transition are located in arid regions. in part because the magnitude of impact is dependent on multiple factors including local water demand, abstractions in the river upstream, and the buffering capacity of ancillary water sources to cities. For these reasons, areas with higher population and industrialization also generally experience a relatively smaller change in scarcity than regions with lower water demand. While the exact magnitude of impacts are subject to simulation uncertainties despite efforts to exercise due diligence, the study unambiguously underscores the need for strategies aimed at boosting crop productivity to incorporate the effects on water availability throughout the entire extent of the flow networks, instead of solely focusing on the local level. The results further highlight that if irrigation expansion is poorly managed, it may increase urban water scarcity, thus also possibly increasing the likelihood of water conflict between urban and rural areas.

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Section: Discussion and Synthesismentioning

confidence: 96%

Water scarcity challenges across urban regions with expanding irrigation

Rathore,

Kumar,

Hanasaki

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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show abstract

“…These factors are not explicitly considered in the scenario simulations performed here. We further acknowledge that the RFtoIF transition may disturb local hydrological cycle and affect the precipitation, evapotranspiration, surface temperature, and other land atmospheric interactions [53][54][55] . These factors can affect the water scarcity estimates well.…”

Section: Discussion and Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition from Rain-fed to Irrigation-fed Agriculture in Rural Areas to Exacerbate Urban Water Scarcity

Rathore

Kumar

Hanasaki³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Irrigation expansion is often posed as a promising option to enhance food security. Here, we assess the influence of expansion of irrigation, primarily in rural areas of the contiguous United States (CONUS), on the intensification and spatial proliferation of surface freshwater scarcity. Our study shows that the rainfed to irrigation-fed (RFtoIF) transition of water-scarce croplands can impact scarcity in both transitioned and non-transitioned regions, with the magnitude of impact being dependent on multiple factors including local water demand, abstractions in the river upstream, and the buffering capacity of ancillary water sources to cities. Overall, RFtoIF transition will result in an additional 169.6 million hectares or 22% of the total CONUS land area facing moderate or severe water scarcity. Analysis of just the 53 large urban clusters with 146 million residents shows that the transition will result in 97 million urban population facing water scarcity for at least one month per year on average versus 82 million before the irrigation expansion. While these reported figures are subject to simulation uncertainties despite efforts to exercise due diligence, the study unambiguously underscores the need for strategies aimed at boosting crop productivity to incorporate the effects on water availability throughout the entire extent of the flow networks, instead of solely focusing on the local level. The results further highlight that if irrigation expansion is poorly managed, it may increase urban water scarcity, thus also possibly increasing the likelihood of water conflict between urban and rural areas.

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“…Previous studies focused on revising the aerosol module to improve the simulation of aerosols. Some tuned the wet scavenging coefficients and others included missing sources for aerosol emissions (Xia et al., 2022). This study provides a very different but efficient way to mitigate the biased aerosol simulation by improving the simulated rainfall intensity spectrum.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Suppressing Excessive Light Rain on Aerosol Radiative Effects and Health Risks

et al. 2022

Self Cite

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Aerosols modulate Earth's energy balance both directly and indirectly. Directly they scatter or absorb solar radiation, and indirectly they alter cloud micro-and macro-physical properties by serving as cloud ice and condensation nuclei (Boucher et al., 2013;Y. Wang et al., 2014). The effective radiative forcing (ERF, defined as Earth's energy imbalance to a radiative perturbation) (Forster et al., 2016;Myhre et al., 2013) from aerosol-radiation-interaction (ERFari) and aerosol-cloud interaction (ERFaci) due to changes in aerosol concentrations in the industrial era (present-day, PD) relative to preindustrial (PI) levels has been quantified by global climate models (GCMs). In the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), the total (shortwave + longwave) ERF due to anthropogenic aerosols (ERFari + aci) was estimated to be −1.17 ± 0.30 W/m 2 , with ERFari of −0.25 ± 0.22 W/m 2 and ERFaci of −0.92 ± 0.34 W/m 2 , respectively (Zelinka et al., 2014). Its updated value from CMIP6 models is −1.04 ± 0.20 W/m 2 , with −0.23 ± 0.19 W/m 2 from ERFari and −0.81 ± 0.30 W/m 2 from ERFaci (Smith et al., 2020). Observationally, Chung et al. (2005) estimated ERFari to be −0.35 W m −2 with a range of −0.6 to −0.1 W m −2 from satellite and ground-based observations. Using satellite-based estimation, Jia

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Decreasing Dust Over the Middle East Partly Caused by Irrigation Expansion

Cited by 19 publications

References 79 publications

Water scarcity challenges across urban regions with expanding irrigation

Water scarcity challenges across urban regions with expanding irrigation

Transition from Rain-fed to Irrigation-fed Agriculture in Rural Areas to Exacerbate Urban Water Scarcity

Impacts of Suppressing Excessive Light Rain on Aerosol Radiative Effects and Health Risks

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