Sustainability of water and energy use for food production based on optimal allocation of agricultural irrigation water

ABSTRACT

Food security is inextricably linked with water and energy use in irrigated agriculture. This article develops an optimization model to evaluate the sustainability of water and energy use for food production, and the coordination among water, energy and carbon footprints. A case study of Heping Irrigation District, China, demonstrates the applicability of the model. We find that 87.47, 86.12, and 83.67 million m³ of irrigation water allocation are sustainable for high, normal, and low flow levels, respectively, considering economic, social and environmental benefits. The structure of surface water and groundwater allocation remains consistent for different subareas.

KEYWORDS:

• Agricultural water allocation
• water and energy footprint
• carbon emission
• optimization model
• sustainability assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province of China [E2018004]; and the Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Science Foundation [LBH-Z18019].