Abstract
Water use by the agricultural sector along with inefficient irrigation methods and climate change has led to the depletion and insecurity of water resources and consequent instability of the agricultural system. Defining benchmarks and comparing them is essential for sustainable system management performance. The sustainability performance of an agricultural system depends on various factors related to water, energy, and food. This study selects and ranks sustainability performance indicators (SPIs) of agricultural systems with the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Expert opinions on agricultural sustainability were obtained from Iran’s Regional Water Organization. The factors and variables affecting the management of water resources in agricultural systems in a basin area are evaluated with 17 SPIs (10 indicators of water resources sustainability, 3 energy sustainability indicators, and 4 food sustainability indicators) that measure the sustainability of agricultural systems. The AHP reduced the number of indicators to a small number of effective indicators. Results of pairwise comparison and the subsequent determination of the weight of each indicator show that the indicators of water consumption, groundwater level stability, vulnerability of water resources, and water stress have the largest weights (i.e., importance) for agricultural system sustainability at the basin scale. These selected indicators can be applied to agricultural water systems (AWSs).
Highlights
Water use by the agricultural sector along with inefficient irrigation methods and climate change has led to the depletion and insecurity of water resources and consequent instability of the agricultural system
sustainability performance indicators (SPIs) are selected as a combination of indicators of water, energy and food sectors so that the future conditions of agricultural systems can be examined by changing water, energy and food demands, and supply and demand sustainability
According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this structure can be formed in such a way that the first level includes the goal of sustainable development
Summary
Water use by the agricultural sector along with inefficient irrigation methods and climate change has led to the depletion and insecurity of water resources and consequent instability of the agricultural system. Results of pairwise comparison and the subsequent determination of the weight of each indicator show that the indicators of water consumption, groundwater level stability, vulnerability of water resources, and water stress have the largest weights (i.e., importance) for agricultural system sustainability at the basin scale. These selected indicators can be applied to agricultural water systems (AWSs). Sustainable agricultural development protects land, water, animal and plant resources in an environmentally friendly manner without degradation that is technically appropriate, economically reasonable, and socially acceptable (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United N ations[2]). It is imperative to evaluate the structure of the Nexus between water systems and other systems with integrated sustainability indicators for effective policy making
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