Abstract
The water crisis has become increasingly serious, particularly in arid and semiarid areas. Agricultural water productivity (AWP) is an important indicator for evaluating water use efficiency and agricultural water management. This study uses water consumption derived from satellite data, combined with statistical survey information, to analyze the spatiotemporal variations and driving factors of AWP at the region and county scales over the past 15 years (2002–2015) in the Turpan region (China). The results showed the increasing change trends of AWP throughout Turpan and its three counties. A multiple regression analysis was applied to evaluate AWP, agricultural production and water consumption with driving factors. The contribution of agricultural factors (fertilizer amount, pesticide use and irrigation area) was 86.3% for change of production and 93.3% for change of water consumption in Turpan. The synchronous changes associated with the similar factor contributions resulted in a nonsignificant change in AWP for the whole region. However, the significant increase in AWP in Toksun County was caused by a weakened effect of synchronous changes due to the difference between the largest contributing factors (irrigation area for production at 29.3% and temperature for water consumption at 35.4%). The different change trends of the AWP at regional and county levels indicated that agricultural planting structure adjustment could be an effective way to improve water productivity. This paper provides objective and new information to understand the effects of AWP changes at regional and county scales, which is beneficial for irrigation agriculture development in Turpan.
Highlights
The sustainable use of water resources in arid areas has become a focus of research worldwide.The Turpan Basin is the second lowest land area in the world
Hu et al (2002) investigated the water use efficiency of cotton in the Tarim Basin, and the results showed that the crop water productivity (CWP) of cotton varied from
Zhang et al (2013) investigated the water use efficiency of melon in greenhouses with furrow irrigation and drip irrigation in Mangubulake Village, Erpu Township, Turpan region, and the results showed that the CWP of melon for the two irrigation methods was 3.24 kg/m3 and 10.17 kg/m3, respectively [31]
Summary
The sustainable use of water resources in arid areas has become a focus of research worldwide.The Turpan Basin is the second lowest land area in the world. The sustainable use of water resources in arid areas has become a focus of research worldwide. Due to the scarcity of precipitation in the area, the region has an extremely limited water supply, with 1437 m3 of water resources per capita in 2008 [1]. The shortage of water resources and the low utilization rate of water resources have become constraints on the social and economic development and ecological conservation of Lake Aiding. The competition among water uses has become increasingly intense, and the excessive exploitation of water resources has caused the groundwater level to sharply drop, resulting in the shrinkage of Lake Aiding [2]. The fragile ecosystem has further deteriorated, and the coordinated and sustainable development of the regional environment, society and economy has become threatened
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