Agro-environmental evaluation of irrigation land : I. Water use in Bardenas irrigation district (Spain)
2009
Causapé Valenzuela, Jesús
Non-point agrarian contamination makes its allocation to a specific territory difficult. This first part of the study seeks to analyze contamination resulting from water use in 54,438ha of Bardenas irrigation district included in the Arba basin (BID-Arba). To this end, water balances were carried out in BID-Arba by means of measuring or estimating the main inputs, outputs and water storage between 1 April 2004 and 30 September 2006. Also, the spatial-temporal variability in water use was analyzed. The semester error balances were acceptable (between 11% and -6%), which permits the attribution of the mass of pollutants exported in drainage to the irrigation area evaluated, the objective of the second part of the study. Irrigation efficiency (IE) in BID-Arba was high (90%) despite the fact that Irrigation Sub-District VII (ISD-VII), with considerable flood irrigation drainage (27%), and ISD-XI with considerable losses due to evaporation and wind drift in sprinkler irrigation systems (15%), brought down the average (IEVII =73%; IEXI =83%). Irrigation management was inadequate as there was a water deficit (WD) of 9%, partly affected by the 2005 drought (WDApr₋₀₅/Sep₋₀₅ =21%) and the low irrigation doses applied in ISD-XI (WDXI =12%). To sum up, intense re-use of water caused a water use index (percentage of water used by the crops) of 85% which surpassed 90% in periods of drought. Nevertheless, irrigation management should be improved in order to annul the water deficit and to maximize the productivity of the agrarian system.
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