Water-indexed benefits and impacts of California almonds

Fulton, Julian; Norton, Michael; Shilling, Fraser

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.12.063

Cited by 62 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Average BWF for almond is 3556 m 3 /ton and GWF is 2167 m 3 /ton (averaged over three study subregions and periods). A previous study [45] found that the BWF for almond in 2011 is 3652 m 3 /ton, which is very close to our estimate. Based on the water footprint estimation (BWF and GWF) for almond crops, we find (i) in Sub-5, water footprints (both BWF and GWF) are relatively higher during post-drought 1, but about similar during other periods, indicating relatively stable water use efficiency in Sub-5; (ii) Sub-18 shows relatively higher sensitivity to droughts (especially GWF), where GWFs during drought 1 and drought 2 are around 33% and 44% higher than post-drought 1; (iii) in Sub-13, water footprints (both BWF and GWF) gradually increase throughout the historical period, where the GWF during post-drought 2 is around 60% higher than drought 1; and (iv) on average, the GWFs in Sub-18 and Sub-13 are around 84% and 92% higher than that of Sub-5 respectively.…”

Section: Spatial and Temporal Variation In Water Footprintssupporting

confidence: 92%

Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of the Crop, Energy and Water Nexus in the Central Valley, California

Alam

Gebremichael

2019

Remote Sensing

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An integrated assessment of crop-energy-water (CEW) nexus is critical to understand the tradeoffs and synergies for better management of sustainable agricultural systems. In this study, we evaluate the historic evolution of CEW interactions in the Central Valley, California, a critical agricultural region that produces approximately 50% of US fruits, nuts and vegetables. Specifically, we consider three nexus elements, including water use for irrigation (blue water), energy use for groundwater pumping, and crop yield (for all crops aggregated, almond and cotton). To quantify the interactions between CEW elements, we estimate the water use for cropping (water footprint) and energy use for cropping (energy footprint). We conduct the analyses for four historical periods, i.e., 2007–2009 (Drought 1), 2010–2011 (Post-drought 1), 2012–2015 (Drought 2) and 2016–2018 (Post-drought 2). We find that the southern regions (San Joaquin and Tulare) are susceptible to greater stress on energy and water, especially during droughts. The groundwater footprint (GWF) has been continuously increasing due to greater crop water use and a shift from row crops to profitable water-intensive tree crops. The GWF in Tulare during Drought 2 was around 60% higher than Drought 1, where the GWF in Tulare was almost twice that of Sacramento. The energy and water uses for almond production have increased during the recent periods, whereas their uses have mostly decreased for cotton. On average, energy and water footprints under almond crop scenario are around 3–3.5 times as much as the footprints under all crops scenario.

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Section: Spatial and Temporal Variation In Water Footprintssupporting

confidence: 92%

Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of the Crop, Energy and Water Nexus in the Central Valley, California

Alam

Gebremichael

2019

Remote Sensing

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“…The results of this study show the actual water use of almonds and pistachios to be closer to an annual average of 380,000 ha-m in raw water use and 250,000 ha-m in net irrigation once precipitation has been removed. As Fulton, et al [30] point out, the California almond industry is an important and growing sector of the state's economy with an economic value accounting for 25% or approximately $5.1 billion of California's 2015 farm exports. Fulton, et al [30] found that the water footprint of almonds varied by different sections of the Central Valley and almond yields were higher in the southern part of the valley, which is associated with a hotter climate and therefore had a lower overall water footprint.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Fulton, et al [30] point out, the California almond industry is an important and growing sector of the state's economy with an economic value accounting for 25% or approximately $5.1 billion of California's 2015 farm exports. Fulton, et al [30] found that the water footprint of almonds varied by different sections of the Central Valley and almond yields were higher in the southern part of the valley, which is associated with a hotter climate and therefore had a lower overall water footprint. It has been commonly reported that it takes 4.16 L of water (the English unit of 1.1 gallons is the commonly cited metric in grey literature) to produce a single almond nut [38].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To estimate the area for the major crops in the entire Central Valley using the generalized CDL, we estimated area using the pixel-counting method but then bias-corrected based on a comparison with the county-reported annual crop reports provided by each individual county's Agricultural Commissioner. The reported area from each California county was collected from the local Agricultural Commissioner's annual reports for each major crop similar to the method used in Fulton, et al [30]; annual county crop reports are publicly available through the California Department of Food and Agriculture (https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/exec/county/CountyCropReports.html).…”

Section: County Crop Acreage Reportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Characterizing Crop Water Use Dynamics in the Central Valley of California Using Landsat-Derived Evapotranspiration

Schauer

Senay

2019

Remote Sensing

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Understanding how different crops use water over time is essential for planning and managing water allocation, water rights, and agricultural production. The main objective of this paper is to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of crop water use in the Central Valley of California using Landsat-based annual actual evapotranspiration (ETa) from 2008 to 2018 derived from the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model. Crop water use for 10 crops is characterized at multiple scales. The Mann-Kendall trend analysis revealed a significant increase in area cultivated with almonds and their water use, with an annual rate of change of 16,327 ha in area and 13,488 ha-m in water use. Conversely, alfalfa showed a significant decline with 12,429 ha in area and 13,901 ha-m in water use per year during the same period. A pixel-based Mann-Kendall trend analysis showed the changing crop type and water use at the level of individual fields for all of Kern County in the Central Valley. This study demonstrates the useful application of historical Landsat ET to produce relevant water management information. Similar studies can be conducted at regional and global scales to understand and quantify the relationships between land cover change and its impact on water use.

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“…We also find that several farmer and farm characteristics are significantly correlated with a lack of regulatory policy support, namely production of nuts and greater years of farming, while farms with higher income are more likely to support regulatory approaches. Nut tree farmers may be less likely to support regulatory approaches given their consistent need for water (Fulton et al 2018). Farmers who have been farming for longer may have a much longer history of regulatory compliance, which has been shown to negatively impact their support for environmental policies (Niles et al 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The carrot or the stick? Drivers of California farmer support for varying groundwater management policies

Niles

Wagner

2019

Environ. Res. Commun.

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Growing demand for groundwater, coupled with the projected threats to groundwater supplies and impacts, has led to an increased focus on policy options for groundwater management. Globally, agriculture is the largest human-use of water, making farmers a critical stakeholder for policy engagement. In California, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), a comprehensive groundwater policy, was signed into law in 2014. Here we explore farmer perspectives of groundwater availability and groundwater management policy preferences through a mail survey of farmers (n=137) in Yolo County, California, implemented in 2017. Overall, farmers expressed widespread concern for the five applicable 'undesirable results' considered under SGMA and the majority of farmers felt that these conditions were either occurring now or were likely to occur in the next ten years. The majority of farmers were supportive of individual or incentive-based policy options to address groundwater concerns (e.g. voluntary adoption of water management practices). However, a sizable group of farmers were also supportive of regulatory-based policy options (e.g. moratorium on drilling new wells). Multivariate regression models suggest that for both kinds of policies, individual support for SGMA positively predicts groundwater management policy support. However, for regulatory-based policies, subjective norms -a farmers' belief that the majority of other farmers support SGMA-is also an important predictor of regulatory policy approaches along with a number of other factors. These results suggest that, should regulatory approaches for SGMA implementation be necessary, fostering subjective norms among farmers may be an important mechanism to achieving farmer support.

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Water-indexed benefits and impacts of California almonds

Cited by 62 publications

References 22 publications

Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of the Crop, Energy and Water Nexus in the Central Valley, California

Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of the Crop, Energy and Water Nexus in the Central Valley, California

Characterizing Crop Water Use Dynamics in the Central Valley of California Using Landsat-Derived Evapotranspiration

The carrot or the stick? Drivers of California farmer support for varying groundwater management policies

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