Regional Agricultural Water Footprint and Crop Water Consumption Study in Yellow River Basin, China

Abstract

The 12 main crops in the Yellow River Basin were selected as the research objects. Based on crop water consumption and effective precipitation, the regional crop water consumption and agricultural water footprint of the Yellow River Basin are studied. The results showed that the distribution of crop water consumption in the Yellow River Basin was similar to that of the annual average precipitation. Irrigation affected the data distribution in some areas. The areas with high crop water consumption value were mainly concentrated in the irrigation areas along the Yellow River. Rain-fed agriculture was dominant in other areas, and crop water consumption was relatively small. The total crop water consumption in the Yellow River Basin was 84.25 billion m 3 in 2017, 66% of which is in Henan and Shandong provinces and 60% is for wheat and maize. The proportion of green water to crop water consumption in the Yellow River Basin was 78.7%. The spatial distribution of green water consumption in crops was basically the same as that of crop water consumption. The agricultural water footprint of the Yellow River Basin is 49.45 billion m 3 , accounting for 58.7% of the crop water consumption. The proportion of green water consumption to total water consumption of most crops is more than 80%, and the lowest is 58% for wheat. 56% of blue water in the river basin is used for wheat. Crop water consumption coefficient reflects the level of water use in production. The average crop water consumption coefficient in the Yellow River Basin is about 0.622 m 3 /kg.

Assessment of the spatiotemporal evolution and driving forces of meteorological drought in the North China Plain

“…Prolonged meteorological droughts often lead to a decline in soil moisture, which adversely affects agricultural production, so measures such as irrigation can be effective in mitigating drought characteristics and stabilizing extreme climate variability (Wu et al, 2022), and it is recommended that drought‐resistant crop varieties should be planted in drought‐prone regions (Cheng et al, 2021). Moreover, the constraint factor on the occurrence of drought in the NCP in winter is T mean (Figure 7), so measures such as deep ploughing and mulching can be taken in winter to ensure the temperature for normal crop growth and to improve the water utilization efficiency, thus enhancing the drought resistance of crops (Rao & Gopinath, 2016; Yin et al, 2019). Remarkably, the collection of natural rainfall through the construction of small reservoirs can interfere with the regional water cycle system, affecting the water balance in the formation of droughts (Wang, Wang, et al, 2022).…”

Landscape Ecological Risk Assessment Based on Land Use Change in the Yellow River Basin of Shaanxi, China

“…Therefore, studying the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of land use types and controlling the overall ecological risk in the watershed is beneficial for prescribing the best methods to counteract landscape degradation based on the different risk levels, and give appropriate management and control suggestions. Sustainable development in the Yellow River Basin has important practical and theoretical significance [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”