Conceptual principles of water resources management in irrigated agriculture

Abstract

<p>Climate change manifested in Ukraine by rapid (over 0.6<sup>o</sup>C in 10 years) increase in average annual air temperature causes a progressive deterioration of natural water supply significantly increasing the need for irrigation to ensure sustainable agriculture.</p><p>"Irrigation and Drainage Strategy in Ukraine until 2030" provides for an  increase of irrigated lands area up to 1.5-1.7 million hectares and the corresponding significant increase in water consumption from the current 1.5-1.8 billion m<sup>3</sup> to 5-6 billion m<sup>3</sup>. Given that climate change has a negative impact not only on the state of natural water supply, but also on the state of available water resources, their rational use in irrigation is an important component of sustainable water management.</p><p>Effective tools for its implementation in irrigation are decision support systems. Their usage provides a capability to achieve maximum irrigation efficiency when complying with the following provisions:</p><p>- Irrigation should maintain root layer moisture content in a narrow range of high values (from 0.8-0.85 of field capacity to field capacity);</p><p>- Tensiometric pressure should be used as a criterion of moisture content and moisture availability for plants;</p><p>- Water retention curves should be used to determine field capacity, pre-irrigation thresholds, and optimal ranges of moisture available to plants;</p><p>- Moisture transfer models for saturated-unsaturated soils stated in terms of pressure can accurately predict irrigation schedules and rates;</p><p>- The combined use of several methods for evapotranspiration assessment improves the accuracy of calculations;</p><p>- Remote sensing data can be used to tranfer irrigation schedules and rates predictions to the areas not covered by instrumental monitoring tools.</p><p>The application of these principles provides for</p><p>- an increase in crop yields accompanied by irrigation water volumes reduction;</p><p>- irrigation with environmentally friendly rates minimizing water losses for infiltration, and the development of flooding and secondary salinization processes.</p><p>The introduction of these principles in practice will increase the sustainability of water management in agriculture in the conditions of climate change, and the use of decision support systems at full scale will ensure the maximal materialization of the potential of crops’ varieties and hybrids.</p>

Chisel Tillage Under Spring Barley in the Forest-Steppe

“…The priorities for the development of agriculture in foreststeppe have changed significantly. The reasons for this were specified by Hanhur et al (2022) and Romashchenko (2023) as following:…”

Determination of Water Demand for Irrigation Based on the Climatic Water Balance in the Eastern Forest Steppe of Ukraine in View of the Natural Water Supply

“…The results of the research [5][6] indicate that even today crop cultivation in the entire territory of the steppe and in most of the forest-steppe zone is carried out in conditions of a significant (from 150 to 450-500 mm and more) deficit of the climatic water balance, which necessitates significant expansion of irrigation application as a mandatory element of technologies for highly efficient and sustainable cultivation of most crops. In view of the significant potential of reclaimed land in Ukraine, namely 2178.3 thousand hectares of irrigated land, of which about 540 thousand hectares are actually irrigated, the issue of their effective use remains open and is the main measure of active adaptation of agriculture to climate change [8][9][10][11][12].…”