Prioritization of surface water distribution in irrigation districts to mitigate crop yield reduction during water scarcity

Abstract

The vulnerability of conventional operational systems in agricultural water distribution systems becomes controversial under successive water shortages. Accordingly, inadequate, unfair, and unreliable surface water distribution has led to crop yield reduction and economic damage. To address these issues, a novel configuration of an automated operating system was developed to mitigate crop yield reductions during times of water scarcity. Using centralized model predictive control (CMPC), an automatedwater distribution control system was developed in MATLAB version (2018a) and integrated with the Aquacrop model to provide an intelligent daily water distribution prioritization within irrigation districts. This study also investigated technical and environmental perspectives in enriching the resilience of agricultural water distribution systems influenced by the water shortage periods. A controversial irrigation district located in central Iran was selected as the test case located in a basin where reported socio-economic and environmental concerns are among the highest in Iran. Application of the developed configuration of the CMPC led to 4.1%, 5.7%, 5.6%, and 7.3%, increasing the crop yield under the water shortage scenarios of 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30%, respectively. Likewise, employing the intelligent operation led to the economic benefit of 8.5, 11.3, 11.9, and 16.8 M US$ by conserving crop production of 3841.4, 5104.8, 5367.6, and 7543.0 tons, respectively, under the scenarios as mentioned above. The proposed method enables water authorities to promote the surface water distribution system in practical, implementable, and step-by-step planning to increase individual and public profits and environmental achievements by reducing water extraction from tube-wells based on the actual water demand potential.