Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 years

The impact of climate variability on the water requirements of crops is a key issue in a globalized world with unprecedented population and unevenly distributed water resources. Changes of hydro-climatic forcings may have significant impacts on water resources use, considering the possible effects o...

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Main Authors: Matteo Rolle, Stefania Tamea, Pierluigi Claps
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2022-01-01
Series:Environmental Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac57e4
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author Matteo Rolle
Stefania Tamea
Pierluigi Claps
author_facet Matteo Rolle
Stefania Tamea
Pierluigi Claps
author_sort Matteo Rolle
collection DOAJ
description The impact of climate variability on the water requirements of crops is a key issue in a globalized world with unprecedented population and unevenly distributed water resources. Changes of hydro-climatic forcings may have significant impacts on water resources use, considering the possible effects on irrigation requirements and crop water stress. In this work, a comprehensive estimation of crop water requirements over the 1970–2019 period is presented, considering 26 main agricultural products over a 5 arcmin resolution global grid. The assessment is based on a daily-scale hydrological model considering rainfed and irrigated scenarios, driven by hydro-climatic forcings derived from ERA5, the most recent climate reanalysis product within the Climate Change Service of the Copernicus Programme. Results show the heterogeneous impact of climate variability on harvested areas of the world, quantified by water stressed days and irrigation requirement rates. Increases of irrigation requirement rates were found on more than 60% of irrigated lands, especially in regions like South Europe, North-East China, West US, Brazil and Australia, where the mean rate increased more than 100 mm yr ^−1 from 1970s to 2010s. The daily analysis of water requirements shows that crops require significantly more days of irrigation per season, especially in Europe, Africa and South-East Asia. Statistically significant trends of water stress duration were found over 38% of rainfed croplands, while only 6% of croplands has been affected by negative trends and shorter stress duration, mainly in India, Malaysia, North Europe and coastal regions of central western Africa.
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spelling doaj.art-ac1c9523f3de44c3a38deaa1d4e8caf52023-08-09T15:26:52ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117404401710.1088/1748-9326/ac57e4Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 yearsMatteo Rolle0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8082-766XStefania Tamea1Pierluigi Claps2Department of Environmental, Land, and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino , Turin, ItalyDepartment of Environmental, Land, and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino , Turin, ItalyDepartment of Environmental, Land, and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino , Turin, ItalyThe impact of climate variability on the water requirements of crops is a key issue in a globalized world with unprecedented population and unevenly distributed water resources. Changes of hydro-climatic forcings may have significant impacts on water resources use, considering the possible effects on irrigation requirements and crop water stress. In this work, a comprehensive estimation of crop water requirements over the 1970–2019 period is presented, considering 26 main agricultural products over a 5 arcmin resolution global grid. The assessment is based on a daily-scale hydrological model considering rainfed and irrigated scenarios, driven by hydro-climatic forcings derived from ERA5, the most recent climate reanalysis product within the Climate Change Service of the Copernicus Programme. Results show the heterogeneous impact of climate variability on harvested areas of the world, quantified by water stressed days and irrigation requirement rates. Increases of irrigation requirement rates were found on more than 60% of irrigated lands, especially in regions like South Europe, North-East China, West US, Brazil and Australia, where the mean rate increased more than 100 mm yr ^−1 from 1970s to 2010s. The daily analysis of water requirements shows that crops require significantly more days of irrigation per season, especially in Europe, Africa and South-East Asia. Statistically significant trends of water stress duration were found over 38% of rainfed croplands, while only 6% of croplands has been affected by negative trends and shorter stress duration, mainly in India, Malaysia, North Europe and coastal regions of central western Africa.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac57e4water requirementirrigationcrop water stressclimate impactERA5soil water balance
spellingShingle Matteo Rolle
Stefania Tamea
Pierluigi Claps
Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 years
Environmental Research Letters
water requirement
irrigation
crop water stress
climate impact
ERA5
soil water balance
title Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 years
title_full Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 years
title_fullStr Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 years
title_full_unstemmed Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 years
title_short Climate-driven trends in agricultural water requirement: an ERA5-based assessment at daily scale over 50 years
title_sort climate driven trends in agricultural water requirement an era5 based assessment at daily scale over 50 years
topic water requirement
irrigation
crop water stress
climate impact
ERA5
soil water balance
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac57e4
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AT stefaniatamea climatedriventrendsinagriculturalwaterrequirementanera5basedassessmentatdailyscaleover50years
AT pierluigiclaps climatedriventrendsinagriculturalwaterrequirementanera5basedassessmentatdailyscaleover50years