| Title | Assessing sustainability of agriculture through water footprint analysis and in-stream monitoring activities |
| Abstract | Agriculture is one of the main causes of water consumption and degradation. Assessing its sustainability is important to determining how the current use of water resources can affect their availability in the future and to safeguard their quantity and quality. In this context, this research was designed to develop a simple approach for the evaluation of agricultural sustainability, based on coupling the assessment of the total water footprint (WF) of catchment-scale crops and in-stream monitoring activities. The study focussed on a Mediterranean agricultural watershed (Celone, southeast Italy). Results for the study period (July 2010 June 2011) show the total WF to be 79.9 Mm(3) y(-1), subdivided into 30.3% green water, 0.5% blue water and 69.2% grey water, thus highlighting the importance of grey water in agricultural water use. The grey WF estimates are highly sensitive both to leaching and runoff fractions and applied water standards, and they are affected by large uncertainty. Tomato is the crop having the highest total crop water use (CWU), which is equal to 2521 mm (286 mm green CWU, 412 mm blue CWU, 1823 mm grey CWU). Legumes relied only on green water (217 mm green CWU). The sustainability assessment of present water consumption, subdivided into the three WF components, indicates sustainable use of green water, fluctuating sustainability of blue water resources, depending on the season and the environmental flow requirement, and unsustainable grey water production and water pollution level for the Celone River. The methodology employed in this paper could be useful in watershed planning and management, helping farmers and decision-makers choose suitable crops for locally sustainable water use. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
| Source | Journal of cleaner production 200, pp. 454–470 |
| Keywords | Water footprintGrey waterNitrogen pollutionNitrogen export coefficientsSoil-water balanceMediterranean basin |
| Journal | Journal of cleaner production |
| Editor | Butterworth-Heinemann,, Oxford, Regno Unito |
| Year | 2018 |
| Type | Articolo in rivista |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.229 |
| Authors | D'Ambrosio, Ersilia; De Girolamo, Anna Maria; Rulli, Maria Cristina |
| Text | 394634 2018 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.229 Scopus 2 s2.0 85050984384 ISI Web of Science WOS WOS 000445715400039 Water footprint Grey water Nitrogen pollution Nitrogen export coefficients Soil water balance Mediterranean basin Assessing sustainability of agriculture through water footprint analysis and in stream monitoring activities D Ambrosio, Ersilia; De Girolamo, Anna Maria; Rulli, Maria Cristina Politecnico Milan; CNR Agriculture is one of the main causes of water consumption and degradation. Assessing its sustainability is important to determining how the current use of water resources can affect their availability in the future and to safeguard their quantity and quality. In this context, this research was designed to develop a simple approach for the evaluation of agricultural sustainability, based on coupling the assessment of the total water footprint WF of catchment scale crops and in stream monitoring activities. The study focussed on a Mediterranean agricultural watershed Celone, southeast Italy . Results for the study period July 2010 June 2011 show the total WF to be 79.9 Mm 3 y 1 , subdivided into 30.3% green water, 0.5% blue water and 69.2% grey water, thus highlighting the importance of grey water in agricultural water use. The grey WF estimates are highly sensitive both to leaching and runoff fractions and applied water standards, and they are affected by large uncertainty. Tomato is the crop having the highest total crop water use CWU , which is equal to 2521 mm 286 mm green CWU, 412 mm blue CWU, 1823 mm grey CWU . Legumes relied only on green water 217 mm green CWU . The sustainability assessment of present water consumption, subdivided into the three WF components, indicates sustainable use of green water, fluctuating sustainability of blue water resources, depending on the season and the environmental flow requirement, and unsustainable grey water production and water pollution level for the Celone River. The methodology employed in this paper could be useful in watershed planning and management, helping farmers and decision makers choose suitable crops for locally sustainable water use. C 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 200 Postprint https //www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652618322182 Assessing sustainability of agriculture through water footprint analysis and in stream monitoring activities The Water Footprint Network method was applied to a Mediterranean watershed. The green and blue WF were assessed by performing a soil water balance. The grey water assessment was based on in stream monitoring activities. Grey water and blue water scarcity are sensitive to the water standards considered. Grey and blue water foootprint were found not to be sustainable at basin scale. D Ambrosio_De Girolamo_Rulli_JCP.pdf Articolo in rivista Butterworth Heinemann, 0959 6526 Journal of cleaner production Journal of cleaner production J. clean. prod. Journal of cleaner production. ersiliadambrosio D AMBROSIO ERSILIA annamaria.degirolamo DE GIROLAMO ANNA MARIA |
