AQUACOAST: A Simulation Tool to Explore Coastal Groundwater and Irrigation Farming Interactions

Abstract

In the framework of coastal groundwater-dependent irrigation agriculture, modelling becomes indispensable to know how this renewable resource responds to complex (usually not conceptualized nor monitored) biophysical, social, and economic interactions. Friendly user interfaces are essential to involve nonmodeling experts in exploiting and improving models. Decision support systems (DSS) are software systems that integrate models, databases, or other decision aids and package them in a way that decision makers can use. This paper addresses these two issues: firstly with the implementation of a System Dynamics (SD) model in Vensim software that considers the integration of hydrological, agronomic, and economic drivers and secondly with the design of a Venapp, push-button interfaces that allow users access to a Vensim model without going through the Vensim modelling environment. The prototype designed, the AQUACOAST tool, gives an idea of the possibilities of this type of models to identify and analyze the impact of apparently unrelated factors such as the prices of cultivated products, subsidies or exploitation costs on the advance of saltwater intrusion, and the great threat to coastal groundwater-dependent irrigation agriculture systems.

SAT: A Software for Assessing the Risk of Desertification in Spain

“…(i) GDM1 (rangelands): water erosion in rangelands and shrublands [28,37,44,45] for Dehesas in Cáceres province (DL3) and Sierra de Los Filabres in Almería province (DL5) (ii) GDM2 (croplands): water erosion in extensive croplands for olive orchards (DL1) and wheat/ sunflower crops rotation (DL2) in Córdoba province [46] (iii) GDM3 (irrigation agriculture): hydrological models linked to groundwater-based irrigation agriculture [36,47,48] for Eastern La Mancha aquifer in Ciudad Real and Albacete provinces apply to DL4…”

“…e former relies on the current stock of natural resources, the physical framework (climate and soil type), and a limiting factor, the dynamics of which can be affected by the stock of resources. In fact, soil erosion, soil salinization, saltwater intrusion, and others have an inhibitory effect on resource regeneration that can be irreversible once critical thresholds are exceeded [36].…”

Artificial intelligence-based decision support systems in smart agriculture: Bibliometric analysis for operational insights and future directions

“…The higher central aspect of C1 indicates that the articles published within the scope of agriculture, article, and classification are concerned more with crop classification. Some of the recent publications within C1 focus on digital soil mapping (Lagacherie et al, 2022), an intelligence-based approach for agricultural soil prediction (Nguyen et al, 2022), AI-based apple leaf disease classification (Al-Wesabi et al, 2022), and simulating various water-deficit regimes for irrigation scheduling optimization (Martínez-Valderrama et al, 2020). Recent publications indicate that C1 is more inclined toward procedures and classification of multiple aspects of agriculture segments.…”

Scientific Programming Tools for Water Management

“…rough this application, the authors found that the new algorithm might provide valuable reference information for groundwater quality monitoring management. e paper "AQUACOAST: A Simulation Tool to Explore Coastal Groundwater and Irrigation Farming Interactions" [2] introduces a tool to analyse the impact of apparently unrelated factors such as the prices of crops, subsidies, or exploitation costs on the advance of saltwater intrusion, a great threat to coastal groundwater-dependent irrigation agriculture systems. e tool implements a system dynamics model in Vensim software that considers the integration of hydrological, agronomic, and economic drivers, and a Venapp push-button interface that allow users access to a Vensim model without going through the Vensim modelling environment.…”