Abstract
Evaluating climate change impacts and the suitability of potential land resources is crucial for sustainable irrigated agricultural systems. This study applied a multi-criteria analysis supported by the Geographic Information System (GIS) application to produce irrigation suitability maps for the Anger River basin’s (Ethiopia) irrigation command area to optimize its irrigation system. Six irrigation suitability factors, such as distance to water sources (rivers), slope, land use/land cover, soil texture, drainage, and depth, including climate change impacts, were used. These factors were spatially analyzed using a comparison matrix and overlying the factors with 30 m resolutions to estimate the potential irrigable area. About 40% of the study area was classified as moderately to highly suitable for surface water irrigation systems. Moreover, we found that a large proportion of the study area is suitable for surface irrigation system, suggesting the relevance of implementing an enhanced irrigation system for improving the surface irrigation water productivity of the basin. However, future climate change is predicted to negatively affect the irrigation suitable area due to water scarcity. Therefore, this study provides useful information on the irrigation suitability and potential of the study area that could be used to facilitate the water resource development and food security plans.
Highlights
The worldwide growth of the population has noticeably increased the demand for natural resources, such as water, land, and food [1,2]
Intensive irrigation water use and the demand for crop production are expected to alter the microclimate of the irrigated areas [15]
Further analysis indicates that the average daily potential evapotranspiration (PET) of the area from MODIS global evapotranspiration (ET) ranges between 7 and 10 mm/day during the crop growing season [65,66]
Summary
The worldwide growth of the population has noticeably increased the demand for natural resources, such as water, land, and food [1,2]. Climate change, caused by an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and global warming [3,4,5], has created an overall decline in rainfall and drought problems This is further exacerbated by anthropogenic activities, such as over-farming, excessive irrigation, deforestation, and the over-exploitation of available water resources [6,7,8]. Agriculture is the backbone of the Sub-Saharan economy and has been mostly practiced under a rain-fed system that is rarely supplemented with irrigation In such systems, irrigation plays a significant role in alleviating poverty and facilitating sustainable development [12,13]. Alleviating poverty by practicing and enhancing irrigation systems, especially in developing countries (e.g., Ethiopia), is urgently needed
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