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标题：Water and energy footprint of irrigated agriculture in the Mediterranean region
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作者：A Daccache ; J S Ciurana ; J A Rodriguez Diaz 等
期刊名称：Environmental Research Letters
印刷版ISSN：1748-9326
电子版ISSN：1748-9326
出版年度：2014
卷号：9
期号：12
页码：124014
DOI：10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124014
语种：English
出版社：IOP Publishing Ltd
摘要：Irrigated agriculture constitutes the largest consumer of freshwater in the Mediterranean region and provides a major source of income and employment for rural livelihoods. However, increasing droughts and water scarcity have highlighted concerns regarding the environmental sustainability of agriculture in the region. An integrated assessment combining a gridded water balance model with a geodatabase and GIS has been developed and used to assess the water demand and energy footprint of irrigated production in the region. Modelled outputs were linked with crop yield and water resources data to estimate water (m³ kg⁻¹) and energy (CO₂ kg⁻¹) productivity and identify vulnerable areas or 'hotspots'. For a selected key crops in the region, irrigation accounts for 61 km³ yr⁻¹ of water abstraction and 1.78 Gt CO₂ emissions yr⁻¹, with most emissions from sunflower (73 kg CO₂/t) and cotton (60 kg CO₂/t) production. Wheat is a major strategic crop in the region and was estimated to have a water productivity of 1000 t Mm⁻³ and emissions of 31 kg CO₂/t. Irrigation modernization would save around 8 km³ of water but would correspondingly increase CO₂ emissions by around +135%. Shifting from rain-fed to irrigated production would increase irrigation demand to 166 km³ yr⁻¹ (+137%) whilst CO₂ emissions would rise by +270%. The study has major policy implications for understanding the water–energy–food nexus in the region and the trade-offs between strategies to save water, reduce CO₂ emissions and/or intensify food production.