The water footprint concept has created great awareness of sustainable water use and consumption. Applied to crop production, the green water footprint (WF) relates to rain water consumed, the blue WF to irrigation water consumed and the grey WF to water required for diluting agri-chemicals. We focussed on the green and blue WF and its variability for major arable crops in Europe. Crop growth and yield are affected by water availability and water stress during the season. Crop evapotranspiration and dry matter yield were modelled using FAO’s water balance model Aquacrop with reference evapotranspiration based on the assumptions by Allen. Weather input was collected for around 50 meteorological stations for the period 1992-2012. Soil, crop characteristics and field management for experimental fields enabled model calibration. Calibrated model runs were subsequently conducted for wheat, barley, grain maize, potato and sugar beet where applicable, and on the dominant soils for a particular region. The green and blue water footprints were calculated by dividing the total volume of green and blue water use during the growing season by the quantity of the production, respectively. The results demonstrated that the WF of cereals is larger than the WF of tuber and root crops, and that within each crop group there is a difference between different crops. This difference depends largely on the proportion of marketable produce to biomass produced per surface area. The calculated WF compared favourably with internationally available values, but is also subject to a large variability owing to both crop water use and yield differences between years, soils, and even more so between regions across Europe. In general, the drier the year, soil or region, the larger the water footprint. The WF for wheat, for example, can be up to five times larger for dry regions in southern Europe as compared to high yielding north-western European regions. Despite the demonstrated large variability, the water footprint is a policy-relevant concept and measurable indicator that supports European water governance.

Variability in the water footprint of arable crop production across European regions / Gobin, A.; Kersebaum, K. C.; Eitzinger, J.; Trnka, M.; Hlavinka, P.; Kroes, J.; Takac, J.; Ventrella, D.; Natali, F.; DALLA MARTA, A.; Orlandini, S.; Rajala, S.; SAINIO-PELTONEN, P.; Saue, T.; Saylan, L.; Vucetic, V.; ZOUMIDES TARQUIS, C.; Nejedlik, P.. - ELETTRONICO. - (2016), pp. 17-17. (Intervento presentato al convegno Water Footprint of agricultural products: progress, challenges and solutions tenutosi a Wageningen nel 7-9 March 2016).

Variability in the water footprint of arable crop production across European regions.

NATALI, FRANCESCA;DALLA MARTA, ANNA;ORLANDINI, SIMONE;
2016

Abstract

The water footprint concept has created great awareness of sustainable water use and consumption. Applied to crop production, the green water footprint (WF) relates to rain water consumed, the blue WF to irrigation water consumed and the grey WF to water required for diluting agri-chemicals. We focussed on the green and blue WF and its variability for major arable crops in Europe. Crop growth and yield are affected by water availability and water stress during the season. Crop evapotranspiration and dry matter yield were modelled using FAO’s water balance model Aquacrop with reference evapotranspiration based on the assumptions by Allen. Weather input was collected for around 50 meteorological stations for the period 1992-2012. Soil, crop characteristics and field management for experimental fields enabled model calibration. Calibrated model runs were subsequently conducted for wheat, barley, grain maize, potato and sugar beet where applicable, and on the dominant soils for a particular region. The green and blue water footprints were calculated by dividing the total volume of green and blue water use during the growing season by the quantity of the production, respectively. The results demonstrated that the WF of cereals is larger than the WF of tuber and root crops, and that within each crop group there is a difference between different crops. This difference depends largely on the proportion of marketable produce to biomass produced per surface area. The calculated WF compared favourably with internationally available values, but is also subject to a large variability owing to both crop water use and yield differences between years, soils, and even more so between regions across Europe. In general, the drier the year, soil or region, the larger the water footprint. The WF for wheat, for example, can be up to five times larger for dry regions in southern Europe as compared to high yielding north-western European regions. Despite the demonstrated large variability, the water footprint is a policy-relevant concept and measurable indicator that supports European water governance.
2016
Final EURO-AGRIWAT conference Water Footprint of agricultural products: progress, challenges and solutions
Water Footprint of agricultural products: progress, challenges and solutions
Wageningen
Gobin, A.; Kersebaum, K. C.; Eitzinger, J.; Trnka, M.; Hlavinka, P.; Kroes, J.; Takac, J.; Ventrella, D.; Natali, F.; DALLA MARTA, A.; Orlandini, S.; Rajala, S.; SAINIO-PELTONEN, P.; Saue, T.; Saylan, L.; Vucetic, V.; ZOUMIDES TARQUIS, C.; Nejedlik, P.
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Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/1067986
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