Utilization of Unconventional Water Resources (UWRs) for Aquaculture Development in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions – A Review

Abstract

Today, increase of world’s population and climate change has resulted in the reduction of fresh water resources and the increase of arid and semi-arid areas, and thus, it is necessary to find a new solution to increase the production of food resources. Aquaculture is one of the sources of food production, which can play a key role in fighting poverty and hunger. Sustainable aquaculture is strongly dependents on water quantity and quality, and also, optimal fish production can be determined by the physical, chemical and biological quality of water. Due to the current restrictions and the global increase in demand for aquatic products, unconventional waters (UWs) have been used in aquaculture. UWs include: recycled water, sewage, saline water, agricultural drains and water resulting from the process of sweetening and desalination of salty water. Today, these water resources have been used to grow all kinds of aquatic animals to provide food and protein. Considering the limited water resources in the world, the use of UWs is very effective and efficient in managing drought, and is considered as one of the ways to develop food production for humans. Due to its importance in areas facing water scarcity, the use of UWRs to supplement or replace the use of conventional fresh water sources has been considered. In this review study, the importance of UWs and their sources, aquaculture products and aquatics that can be cultivated with the help of UWs are discussed.

Strategies for promoting sustainable aquaculture in arid and semi-arid areas – A review

“…Such fish farming has been developed in many countries, making their lands arable and productive. Some examples are the USA, South Africa, Mexico, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, and the central regions of Iran (Suloma and Ogata, 2006;Kaleem and Sabi, 2021;Graham et al, 2022;Soleimani-Sardo and Khanjani, 2022).…”

“…), barramundi or the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), Chinese carps -common carp (Cyprinus carpio), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), bighead carp (H. nobilis), mullets (Mugil cephalus and Liza ramada) and several catfishes species (Clarias gariepinus and Bagrus spp.) (Troell, 2009;Segovia Quintero, 2011;Sadek, 2011;Soleimani-Sardo and Khanjani, 2022). Tilapias can be raised intensively in monoculture as well as in polyculture systems with other compatible and commercial species, such as carps and mullets (El-Sayed, 2006).…”

Agricultural Water Quality Assessment and Application in the Yellow River Delta

“…The unconventional water could be combined with the Yellow River water for irrigation purpose, with the ratio between 1:2 and 1:20 (Table 10). This kind of utilization method has been processed in many countries, such as the USA, China, Australia, and so on [53]. Otherwise, we should pay attention to the specific ion salinity of the unconventional water, which affects crops by the high concentration of certain ions present in the irrigation water.…”

An improved machine learning model Shapley value-based to forecast demand for aquatic product supply chain

“…From the economic perspective, the per capita GDP of Yantai Port and its immediate hinterland has shown a downward trend in the past 2 years, the economic development speed has slowed down, and the annual output of aquatic products has also shown a downward trend in the past 2 years. According to the forecast results, the per capita GDP has shown an upward trend, but the increase is not large, and the annual output of aquatic products has shown a downward trend (Nianxin et al, 2022;Mojtaba and Hossein, 2023;Yuanjie et al, 2023). This shows that the economic development of Yantai Port and its hinterland city, Yantai City, is slow and the output is declining.…”