Water resources management must find a solution for competition among multi-users in agriculture. In particular, water for irrigation purposes, which has traditionally been the main factor to be satisfied, now competes with other strategic uses. Added to these socio-political changes are the climatic changes which influence both the water supply and demand, particularly for agriculture, which is greatly influenced by meteorological conditions (evapotranspiration, soil–crop–atmosphere water exchange, crop phenology). The aim of the paper is to discuss the potential effect of climatic changes on agricultural water requirements and on agricultural drought risk in the Region of Umbria, Italy. An analysis aimed at detecting the presence of trends in a set of meteorological, agrometeorological and drought indices was carried out in five different areas. Time trends for all variables were analysed using both parametric and nonparametric approaches. The results show that over the past 54 years the trends are higher in southeastern Umbria. In particular, significant upward time trends for the thermometric regime and downward trends for the rainfall regime were found. The irrigation requirements and the drought index show high upward trends at some locations where expected irrigation demand increments were estimated
Changes in water resources availability for crop systems: a case study in the region of Umbria
TODISCO, Francesca;VERGNI, LORENZO;VINCI, Alessandra
2007
Abstract
Water resources management must find a solution for competition among multi-users in agriculture. In particular, water for irrigation purposes, which has traditionally been the main factor to be satisfied, now competes with other strategic uses. Added to these socio-political changes are the climatic changes which influence both the water supply and demand, particularly for agriculture, which is greatly influenced by meteorological conditions (evapotranspiration, soil–crop–atmosphere water exchange, crop phenology). The aim of the paper is to discuss the potential effect of climatic changes on agricultural water requirements and on agricultural drought risk in the Region of Umbria, Italy. An analysis aimed at detecting the presence of trends in a set of meteorological, agrometeorological and drought indices was carried out in five different areas. Time trends for all variables were analysed using both parametric and nonparametric approaches. The results show that over the past 54 years the trends are higher in southeastern Umbria. In particular, significant upward time trends for the thermometric regime and downward trends for the rainfall regime were found. The irrigation requirements and the drought index show high upward trends at some locations where expected irrigation demand increments were estimatedI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
