Managing food and bioenergy crops with declining groundwater levels in the North China Plain

Yang, Xiaodi; Chen, Yuanquan; Pacenka, Steven; Steenhuis, Tammo S.; Sui, Peng

doi:10.1016/j.fcr.2019.02.003

Cited by 30 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Research in the Northeast United States, for example, modelled the potential yield of different energy crops for that region, finding short rotation willow to be the most favourable albeit dependent on various market conditions and incentives (Brandt et al, ). Research in China has explored the balances and trade‐offs between bioenergy crops, food crops and local water table depletion with a goal of informing governmental policy on the optimal management of these resources (Yang, Chen, Pacenka, Steenhuis, & Sui, ). Biofuel research in Germany alternately has explored GHG abatement in the transportation sector given its wide‐ranging impact, finding that a prioritized focus on land passenger transport is key (Millinger, Meisel, & Thrän, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research in China has explored the balances and trade-offs between bioenergy crops, food crops and local water table depletion with a goal of informing governmental policy on the optimal management of these resources (Yang, Chen, Pacenka, Steenhuis, & Sui, 2019). Biofuel research in Germany alternately has explored GHG abatement in the transportation sector given its wide-ranging impact, finding that a prioritized focus on land passenger transport is key (Millinger, Meisel, & Thrän, 2019).…”

Section: Kingdom and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How much heat can we grow in our cities? Modelling UK urban biofuel production potential

et al. 2019

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Biofuel provides a globally significant opportunity to reduce fossil fuel dependence; however, its sustainability can only be meaningfully explored for individual cases. It depends on multiple considerations including: life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, air quality impacts, food versus fuel trade‐offs, biodiversity impacts of land use change and socio‐economic impacts of energy transitions. One solution that may address many of these issues is local production of biofuel on non‐agricultural land. Urban areas drive global change, for example, they are responsible for 70% of global energy use, but are largely ignored in their resource production potential; however, underused urban greenspaces could be utilized for biofuel production near the point of consumption. This could avoid food versus fuel land conflicts in agricultural land and long‐distance transport costs, provide ecosystem service benefits to urban dwellers and increase the sustainability and resilience of cities and towns. Here, we use a Geographic Information System to identify urban greenspaces suitable for biofuel production, using exclusion criteria, in 10 UK cities. We then model production potential of three different biofuels: Miscanthus grass, short rotation coppice (SRC) willow and SRC poplar, within the greenspaces identified and extrapolate up to a UK‐scale. We demonstrate that approximately 10% of urban greenspace (3% of built‐up land) is potentially suitable for biofuel production. We estimate the potential of this to meet energy demand through heat generation, electricity and combined heat and power (CHP) operations. Our findings show that, if fully utilized, urban biofuel production could meet nearly a fifth of demand for biomass in CHP systems in the United Kingdom's climate compatible energy scenarios by 2030, with potentially similar implications for other comparable countries and regions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Kingdom and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

How much heat can we grow in our cities? Modelling UK urban biofuel production potential

et al. 2019

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“…Since the 1980s, the intensive winter wheat-summer maize double-cropping system ("wheat-maize" hereafter) has come to dominate the NCP, occupying 70% of the area's arable land 4 (Fig. 1c, d, S3), and consuming 700-1000 mm yr -1 of water 7,8 . Water consumption exceeds average annual precipitation (667 mm; range 391-986 mm) ( Fig.…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversified crop rotations enhance groundwater and economic sustainability of food production

Yang

Steenhuis

Davis

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Earth’s water resources are critical for supporting livelihoods and food security but are being increasingly overexploited to support global agriculture. Diversifying cropping systems could potentially resolve unsustainable water use but trade-offs with other aspects of sustainability and food security have not yet been assessed. We perform a detailed meta-analysis to systematically compare 31 different crop rotations in China– in terms of actual evapotranspiration (ETa), effect on groundwater depth, grain yield, economic output, and water use efficiency (WUE) – and identify configurations that can achieve co-benefits across multiple dimensions. We find that a combination of lowering the cropping index (i.e., harvest frequency), incorporating fallow periods, and introducing higher value crops into the currently dominant winter wheat-summer maize double cropping system can reduce growing season ETa by as much as 31%, mitigate groundwater decline by 19% or more, and increased economic output and economic WUE by more than 11% and 3%, respectively. We also find that multiple diversified wheat-maize–based rotations– all with rotation lengths greater than two years– achieve co-benefits across all evaluated dimensions. This study provides new empirical evidence of the opportunities for diversified crop rotations to balance the multiple objectives of food production, sustainable groundwater use and farmer profitability. Extending this solution to other water-stressed agricultural regions could be an effective strategy in achieving more sustainable food production globally.

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“…In the NCP, an average of 78.8% of the total water consumption is used for agriculture irrigation, and more than 50% of which is for winter wheat due to the rather scarce rainfall during its growing period [25,26]. Since the 1960s, the depletion of groundwater resources in the northern NCP was aggravated by the increasing sown area of winter wheat, for instance, the groundwater level in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region decreased by 20-40 m. Water resources have become the main constraint for agriculture production [10,24,26,27].…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, the groundwater resources were depleted increasingly since 1960s, due to the agricultural development. The contradiction of grain production increase and groundwater resources decrease in the NCP has always been a policy concern in China [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatio-Temporal Pattern Change of Winter Wheat Production and Its Implications in the North China Plain

Zhang

2019

Sustainability

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The North China Plain (NCP) is the most important winter wheat production region and an area of water shortage in China. The stability of winter wheat (T. aestivum L.) production in spatial pattern and the sustainability of water resources have been a major policy concern in China. This study explored the barycenter shift and change trends of wheat total production during 1998–2015, using methods of barycenter model, Sen’s slope, and Mann Kendall test, and analyzed the influence of external factors and the response of water resources. Results indicated that the barycenter of wheat production moved southwards by 115.16 km during 1998–2015, with an average speed of 6.77 km/year. For the entire NCP, the total production showed phased changes during the study period: It decreased during 1998–2003, and then continuously increased during 2004–2015. Of the wheat production increase in the NCP, yield increase and sown area expansion averagely contributed 64.5% and 35.5%, respectively, and the contribution proportion of yield increase continuously increased since 2003. At county level, total wheat production showed a significant increase and decrease trend in 87 and 29 counties, mainly distributed in the southern and northern NCP, respectively. The increase of total production at county level was mainly contributed by yield growth in the southern NCP, while the decrease in the north was due to the reduction of sown area to great extent. The southward shift was jointly resulted by the spatial variation of input factors, benefit, and water prices. These spatial pattern changes alleviated the water pressure in the north region to some extent, in the case of ensuring the production increase of winter wheat. Therefore, the current spatial shift should be continuously promoted in the future.

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Managing food and bioenergy crops with declining groundwater levels in the North China Plain

Cited by 30 publications

References 58 publications

How much heat can we grow in our cities? Modelling UK urban biofuel production potential

How much heat can we grow in our cities? Modelling UK urban biofuel production potential

Diversified crop rotations enhance groundwater and economic sustainability of food production

Spatio-Temporal Pattern Change of Winter Wheat Production and Its Implications in the North China Plain

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