Irrigation modernization in the Ebro – Aragón region of Spain: Past and future trends
Loading...
Date
2024
Authors
Playán Jubillar, EnriqueGimeno, Yolanda
Lorenzo González, María Ángeles
Jiménez, A.
López-Pardo, J.R.
Oliván, I.
Castillo, R.
Carbonell, X.
Fábregas, M.
Vicente, L.M.
Gálvez, L.
Lax, J.A.
Quílez y Sáez de Viteri, Dolores
Balcells Oliván, María
Solano, D.
Aguaviva, J.
Paniagua Antón, Pilar
Zapata Ruiz, María Valvanera
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Typology
Journal ContributionArticle
Abstract
Irrigation modernization has been analyzed in the part of the Aragón region within the Ebro River Basin, in northeastern Spain. A geodatabase was built with 1144 irrigation cartographical units (ICUs) adding up to 476 k ha with access to water and equipped with on-farm irrigation hardware. ICUs were classified in eight categories related to irrigation modernization. The classification revealed that in the past two decades an integral irrigation modernization was achieved in 103 k ha. In a second modernization, 13 k ha were transformed to reduce their dependence on grid energy. A third type of modernization, oriented to the digitalization of irrigation management processes, is only incipient at this time. Public investments in modernization during this period were estimated at 36.8?M€/year. This intense, publicly co-funded, policy-driven process will be far from sufficient to complete the modernization of all irrigated land in the study area in another twenty-year period. In a concurrent process, obsolete, socially unfavored and structurally deficient irrigated areas are being abandoned for irrigation and even for farming. Specific indicators were proposed to approach the abandonment process, revealing that irrigation intensity in temperate climate, riparian ICUs was only 20?%. Irrigation in the study area needs to progress towards sustainable intensification, concentrating agricultural production in areas equipped with the technology and the water management capacities required to face the current agronomical and environmental challenges. The on-going processes of irrigation modernization, new irrigation developments and irrigation abandonment should be coordinated to serve this purpose.
Description
Keywords
Bibliographic citation
Playán, E., Gimeno, Y., Lorenzo-González, M. A., Jiménez, A., López-Pardo, J. R., Oliván, I., Castillo, R., Carbonell, X., Fábregas, M., Vicente, L. M., Gálvez, L., Lax, J. A., Quílez, D., Balcells, M., Solano, D., Aguaviva, J., Paniagua, P., & Zapata, N. (2024). Irrigation modernization in the Ebro – Aragón region of Spain: Past and future trends. Agricultural Water Management, 302, 108975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2024.108975
AGROVOC subjects
Agricultura de regadioModernización
Base de datos espacial
Inversión pública
Desviación del uso de la tierra
Other field subjects
Base De Datos EspacialDesviación Del Uso De La Tierra
Inversión pública
Modernización
Regadio
Sponsorship
Esta investigación ha sido financiada por el Departamento de Agricultura, Ganadería y Medio Ambiente del Gobierno de Aragón y el Fondo Europeo Agrícola de Desarrollo Rural (FEADER) de la Unión Europea a través del Programa de Desarrollo Rural. El código de la subvención es #GCP2021001800 y el título de la subvención es «Grupo Operativo Partenariado del Agua de la cuenca del Ebro-Aragón».