Technical and Agronomical Assessment of the Use of Desalinated Seawater for Coastal Irrigation in an Insular Context

Adrián Monterrey-Viña,Francisco J Díaz-Peña,Baltasar Peñate-Suárez,Ana Musicki-Savic

doi:10.3390/w12010272

Adrián Monterrey-Viña, Francisco J Díaz-Peña + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010272

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Journal: Water	Publication Date: Jan 17, 2020
Citations: 13	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias, University of La Laguna

Abstract

The growing need for alternative water resources for irrigation has led to advanced technological developments, which are addressing some of the challenges that our planet is facing regarding the water supply. The Canary Islands Archipelago (Spain) is a singular territory with several years of desalination experience while using desalinated seawater (DSW) for agricultural purposes. The current paper will address the conducted research of one of the case studies done into the Horizon 2020 project MAGIC, with the aim of analyzing the use of DSW for crop production in the Southeast of Gran Canaria Island. A methodology of surveying farmers in the area has been put in practice, as well as an assessment of potential soil degradation risks that are related to DSW irrigation (with fifteen years of DSW data). Additionally, local good practices to improve the DSW quality for irrigation are discussed. This study demonstrates an excellent endorsement of the surveyed farmers in the studied area regarding the use of DSW for irrigation: the strategy of combining this type of water with other water resources, such as groundwater and/or reclaimed water is very frequent and it can guarantee water and food security in the island’s territory.

Highlights

Freshwater supply has been altered worldwide due to human-induced changes, like habitat degradation, anthropogenic subsidence, climate-related risks, and the increasing disproportionate water consumption [1,2,3]; causing water scarcity and salinization in some regions and flooding in others [4,5,6]
There is an existing gap between water availability and demand, which requires the exploitation of non-conventional water resources to cover the high irrigation demands
For irrigation, such as the high energy cost of desalination, the high price, the brine discharge impacts in the coastal ecosystem, or the risk that it poses for the soil and crops

Summary

Introduction

Freshwater supply has been altered worldwide due to human-induced changes, like habitat degradation, anthropogenic subsidence, climate-related risks, and the increasing disproportionate water consumption [1,2,3]; causing water scarcity and salinization in some regions and flooding in others [4,5,6]. The growing need for Alternative Water Resources (ARW) (water desalination and reclaimed water) has led to technological developments, which address some of the aforementioned challenges that our planet is facing regarding worldwide water supply. Global desalination capacity is higher than 80 million m3 per day of freshwater from saline water sources (brackish (BW) or seawater (SW)). The use of SW and its transformation into potable or irrigation water has made population settlement and the development of arid geographic areas possible in the past decades [9]. Freshwater can be considered to be an infinite resource if obtained from desalination in arid areas near the coast.

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