Socio-Economic Impact of Evaporation Losses from Reservoirs Under Past, Current and Future Water Availability Scenarios in the Semi-Arid Segura Basin

Valero, José Francisco Maestre; Martínez-Granados, David; Álvarez, Victoriano Martínez; Calatrava, Javier

doi:10.1007/s11269-012-0245-4

Cited by 40 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The SRB is a predominantly agricultural region, where the adoption of the most efficient irrigation technologies is widespread (drip irrigation represents more than 90%) and vegetables can be grown in the open field during winter due to its mild climate conditions. This area is a model of high-return agriculture which is referred to as 'the orchard of Europe' [20]. The official water resources available in the SRB amount to 1602 Mm 3 /year, which include surface and groundwater resources (854 Mm 3 /year), water transferred from Central Spain through the inter-basin Tajo-Segura (T-S) aqueduct (322 Mm 3 /year), reclaimed water (144 Mm 3 /year), irrigation returns (124 Mm 3 /year) and DSW (158 Mm 3 /year) [21].…”

Section: Water Management In the Study Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of the Agricultural Supply of Desalinated Seawater in Southeastern Spain

Álvarez

Valero

González-Ortega

et al. 2019

Water

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The increasing shortage of water for crop irrigation in arid and semiarid regions is encouraging the use of non-conventional resources. In the last decade, seawater desalination has consolidated its position as an alternative source to increase the supply for agricultural irrigation in Spain and Israel, where the farmers’ acceptance is progressively rising, despite the supply price being much higher than that of other conventional water sources. This article describes the current situation of desalinated seawater production and supply to agriculture in the southeast of Spain, and analyzes key questions such as its role in regional water planning, the infrastructure needed for conveyance and distribution, the energy requirements, the production and distribution costs, and the final price to farmers. The study is based on descriptive and quantitative data collected from desalination plants and irrigation district managers through technical questionnaires and personal interviews. The results show how seawater desalination is effectively alleviating the regional constraints in the irrigated agriculture supply, and why it is becoming strategic to maintaining food production and socioeconomic development. However, the high-energy requirements and associated costs in comparison with other water sources limit a more widespread use for agriculture, and for this reason desalinated water still only plays a complementary role in most irrigation districts.

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Section: Water Management In the Study Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of the Agricultural Supply of Desalinated Seawater in Southeastern Spain

Álvarez

Valero

González-Ortega

et al. 2019

Water

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“…Water when harvested is commonly stored in dams, but approximately up to half of it may be lost due to evaporation leading to a huge waste of our resources (Maestre-Valero et al 2013;Martinez-Granados et al 2011;Gallego-Elvira et al 2013). Estimating evaporation from lakes and reservoirs is not a simple task as there are a number of factors affecting the evaporation rate, notably the climate and physiography of the water body and its surroundings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating Evaporation from Lakes and Reservoirs under Limited Data Condition in a Semi-Arid Region

Majidi

Alizadeh

Faridhosseini

et al. 2015

Water Resour Manage

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The Bowen ration energy balance (BREB) is considered as a standard method for estimating lake evaporation. The BREB method however requires numerous input data which may not be readily available especially in developing countries. This limitation could be solved by using methods with fewer data requirements. Evaporation from lakes and reservoirs in Iran is commonly estimated using pan evaporation because there have not been a consensus on which methods are most applicable under the limited data condition and arid climate. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine the most appropriate evaporation methods over Doosti dam reservoir in Iran. Eighteen existing methods were tested and ranked based on the BREB method. The Jensen-Haise, Makkink, Penman and deBruin methods were among the most consistent methods with BREB in which the RMSD values were obtained 1.2, 1.34, 1.62 and 1.65 mm d −1 , respectively. Finally, we concluded that methods which rely only on air temperature, or air temperature combined with sunshine data (e.g., Jensen-Haise and Makkink), were relatively cost-effective options for estimating evaporation at the study area due to their simplicity, least sensitivity and high accuracy.Nomenclature E the evaporation rate (mm d −1 ) R n the net radiation (W m −2 ) N the change in the energy storage in the water (W m −2 ) λ the latent heat of vaporization c the specific heat of water (J kg −1 ) F in and F out the heat fluxes from water flows in and out of the water body (W m −2 ) F P the heat inflow from precipitation (W m −2 ) Water Resour Manage G the heat conducted from the lake to the sediments (W m −2 ) β Bowen ratio (dimensionless) P the atmospheric pressure (kPa) c B the specific heat of air at constant pressure (0.61°C −1 ) T a the air temperature (°C) (°F for the Blaney-Criddle Jensen-Haise and Stephens-Stewart equations) T w the water surface temperature (°C) e s the saturation vapor pressure at the water surface temperature (Pa) e a the atmospheric vapor pressure (Pa) e a * the saturated vapor pressure at temperature of the air (mb) Δ the slope of the saturated vapor pressure-temperature curve (Pa°C −1 ) γ the psychometric coefficient (Pa°C −1 ) u the wind speed (m s −1 ) α Priestley-Taylor empirically derived constant (dimensionless) R s the incoming solar radiation (W m −2 ) C the mass-transfer coefficient (dimensionless) A s the area of the water body (hec) D the hours of daylight D TA the total annual hours of daylight SVD the saturated vapor density at mean air temperature (g m −3 ) e * a,max the saturated vapor pressures at maximum air temperature (Pa) e * a,min the saturated vapor pressures at minimum air temperature (Pa) E BREB the estimated evaporation values using BREB method (mm d −1 ) E eq the estimated evaporation values obtained by any methods (mm d −1 )

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“…The mildtemperature winters allow vegetables to be grown in the open field. This area, with high-return agriculture, is usually referred to as 'the orchard of Europe' [34], since exports of horticultural products to EU countries may exceed 70% of the total production. It plays a major role in the basin's economy in terms of production and employment.…”

Section: Segura River Basin (Srb) and Tagus-segura Water Transfer (Tswt)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the Water Source on the Carbon Footprint of Irrigated Agriculture: A Regional Study in South-Eastern Spain

et al. 2021

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Curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change is a major global challenge. Although irrigated agriculture consumes considerable energy that generates GHG emissions, the biomass produced also represents an important CO2 sink, which can counterbalance the emissions. The source of the water supply considerably influences the irrigation energy consumption and, consequently, the resulting carbon footprint. This study evaluates the potential impact on the carbon footprint of partially and fully replacing the conventional supply from Tagus–Segura water transfer (TSWT) with desalinated seawater (DSW) in the irrigation districts of the Segura River basin (south-eastern Spain). The results provide evidence that the crop GHG emissions depend largely on the water source and, consequently, its carbon footprint. In this sense, in the hypothetical scenario of the TSWT being completely replaced with DSW, GHG emissions may increase by up to 50% and the carbon balance could be reduced by 41%. However, even in this unfavourable situation, irrigated agriculture in the study area could still act as a CO2 sink with a negative total and specific carbon balance of −707,276 t CO2/year and −8.10 t CO2/ha-year, respectively. This study provides significant policy implications for understanding the water–energy–food nexus in water-scarce regions.

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Socio-Economic Impact of Evaporation Losses from Reservoirs Under Past, Current and Future Water Availability Scenarios in the Semi-Arid Segura Basin

Cited by 40 publications

References 25 publications

Characterization of the Agricultural Supply of Desalinated Seawater in Southeastern Spain

Characterization of the Agricultural Supply of Desalinated Seawater in Southeastern Spain

Estimating Evaporation from Lakes and Reservoirs under Limited Data Condition in a Semi-Arid Region

Influence of the Water Source on the Carbon Footprint of Irrigated Agriculture: A Regional Study in South-Eastern Spain

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