Characteristics and Driving Factors of Drainage Water in Irrigation Districts in Arid Areas

Shumin Han, Qiuli Hu, Yonghui Yang (), Jiusheng Wang, Ping Wang and Quan Wang

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2015, vol. 29, issue 14, 5323-5337

Abstract: Tarim Basin, the largest inland river basin in China, is facing declining runoff and deteriorating water quality due to agricultural reclamation. In this study, the spatial characteristics of drainage water in Tarim Irrigation District (which is in the upstream of Tarim Basin) are analyzed using long-term drainage, irrigation and agronomic data. The driving factors behind the spatial variations in total dissolved solids (TDS) are discussed along with the feasible approaches to reducing salt loads in the drainage waters. Cluster analysis reveals three distinct TDS clusters — Type-I (7436–9651 mg/l), Type-II (5899–7640 mg/l) and Type-III (3408–4084 mg/l) clusters. The spatial variations in TDS in the study area are not significantly influenced by irrigation water source, halide dissolution and ion exchange in soils or the wide use of water-saving technology. Reclamation of new arable lands, limitations on farmland areas or discharge canal lengths and the surrounding environmental conditions (such as reservoirs or wastelands) are the main factors driving the spatial variations in TDS in the region. It is suggested to reduce salt load in drainage waters by decreasing irrigation water amount, prohibiting reclamation of new farmlands, improving drainage systems and changing flow destination of drainage waters from rivers to deserts/wastelands. In-depth analysis of spatial variations in TDS along with the causes and countermeasures could benefit the optimization of agricultural drainage water and regional water management in the study area and other arid regions. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Keywords: Agricultural drainage water; Water quality; Cluster analysis; Drainage water management; Tarim Basin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11269-015-1120-x (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:29:y:2015:i:14:p:5323-5337

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-015-1120-x

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().