Line of action:

Drivers of biodiversity loss

Status:

Finalizado

Execution date:

2023

End date:

2025

Total budget:

€175,000.00

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

€140,000.00

Climate change projections indicate a reduction in water resources, changes in temporal and spatial patterns of precipitation, and increases in temperature and evapotranspiration. Irrigation, which is widely distributed and accounts for 70% of national water demand, is vulnerable to such projections.

The new Hydrological Planning cycle contemplates these effects in a time horizon of two additional planning cycles. However, the spatial and temporally distributed quantification of irrigation water demand based on climate projections according to different climate scenarios in the short (2011-2040), medium (2040-2070) and long term (2070-2100) has not been contemplated. Thus, this project aims to estimate the accounting of irrigation water assisted by remote sensing to determine the future water demands of irrigation in the mentioned conditions, so that they can be used as complementary information by different official agencies.

The general objective of the project is to quantify spatially and temporally distributed future water demand of irrigated crops incorporating climate projections according to different scenarios and in successive study periods in the short (2011-2040), medium (2040-2070) and long term (2070-2100).

To achieve this, count on these specific goals:

• Update the methodology and develop the tool to calculate the future water demand of irrigated crops based on the specific crop type and management, the state of knowledge on climate projections and adaptation scenarios.
• Determine spatially and temporally distributed current (baseline) and future water demand of irrigated crops incorporating climate projections according to different scenarios and in successive study periods in the short, medium and long term.
• Generate climate change adaptation scenarios based on improved water use efficiency and changes in land uses that form the mosaic of representative Agricultural Demand Units (ADUs).

• Bibliographic review on the study or research background for future water demands of irrigated crops in Spain under different climate change scenarios.
• Adaptation of the HidroMORE tool with the incorporation of the data generated in the climate projections into the remote sensing-assisted water balance.
• Elaboration of the framework and conceptual document on the incorporation of adaptation scenarios for future water demands.
• Selection of the crops and the representative Agricultural Demand Units (UDAs) to be analysed together with the Sub-Directorate General of Irrigation and the Hydrological Planning Offices concerned.
• Establishment of the baseline scenario based on the information generated on irrigation water demand in the SPIDER-SIAR 2014-2017 project on crops and representative ADUs.
• Obtaining daily climate projection data from the climate data download by https://adaptecca.es/.
• Obtaining information on current water demand based on the collection of information generated for the selected WUAs in the basin hydrological plans and in the SPIDER-SIAR project.
• Estimation of future water demand from the execution of the remotely assisted soil water balance model using the crop mosaic and the time series of satellite images generated in the SPIDER-SIAR project together with the climate data projected under different future climate scenarios and for successive study periods (short, medium and long).
• Obtaining statistical and cartographic information with the spatial and temporal aggregation of the outputs generated by the remote sensing-assisted soil water balance model in the representative WUAs.
• Statistical comparison of current and future demands based on information generated in other actions.
• Generation of adaptation scenarios for changes in agricultural use, based on the estimation of future water demand due to changes in the types of irrigated crops.
• Generation of adaptation scenarios for improvements in water efficiency based on the estimation of future water demand due to changes in irrigation efficiency.
• Dissemination and communication of the project.

• Technical and scientific results of high value have been achieved for the planning and management of water resources in Spain. Of particular note is the development of a robust methodology for estimating current and future water demand for irrigated crops, integrating climate projections and remote sensing.
• The work carried out also represents a contribution to public administrations and hydrological planning bodies, by generating detailed spatial and temporal information on the evolution of water demand for irrigation in 20 representative areas of Spain. This information provides a solid technical basis for guiding policies for adaptation, irrigation modernization and water resources planning in the short, medium and long term.