Water–energy nexus in Central Asia's lift irrigation schemes: Multi-level linkages

Akmal Kh Karimov, Rashid H. Toshev, Rustam Karshiev and Aziz A. Karimov

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2021, vol. 147, issue C

Abstract: Separating downstream agriculture from upstream hydropower in transboundary river basins complicates water management at the national level. The shift from hydropower to thermal power supply increases the competition for water between agriculture and energy generation, accelerates depletion of fossil energy resources, and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Because of the competition for scarce water between agriculture and energy generation, brackish groundwater irrigation has been explored as an option to cover the water deficit in Central Asia's lift irrigation zones. This study examines the combination of aquifer storage and recovery with drip irrigation to improve brackish groundwater quality in the Karshi Main Canal zone. In this zone, a cascade of sequential pump stations is used to lift water from the transboundary Amudarya River. The method used to evaluate the technology is a pilot-scale field study. The results show that wide-scale adoption of the technology can produce significant water (24%) and energy savings (19%), as well as reduced saline flows and emissions of greenhouse gases.

Keywords: Lift irrigation; Thermal energy generation; Managed aquifer recharge; Water quality; Central asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121004378
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:rensus:v:147:y:2021:i:c:s1364032121004378

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111148

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().