Agricultural Water Management Model Based on Grey Water Footprints under Uncertainty and its Application

Ge Song, Chao Dai, Qian Tan and Shan Zhang
Additional contact information
Ge Song: College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Chao Dai: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Qian Tan: College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Shan Zhang: College of Water Resources & Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 20, 1-18

Abstract: The grey water footprint theory was introduced into a fractional programming model to alleviate non-point source pollution and increase water-use efficiency through the adjustment of crop planting structure. The interval programming method was also incorporated within the developed framework to handle parametric uncertainties. The objective function of the model was the ratio of economic benefits to grey water footprints from crop production, and the constraints contained water availability constraints, food security constraints, planting area constraints, grey water footprint constraints and non-negative constraints. The model was applied to the Hetao Irrigation District of China. It was found that, based on the data in the year of 2016, the optimal planting plans generated from the developed model would reduce 34,400 m 3 of grey water footprints for every 100 million Yuan gained from crops. Under the optimal planting structure, the total grey water footprints would be reduced by 21.9 million m 3 , the total economic benefits from crops would be increased by 1.138 billion Yuan, and the irrigation water would be saved by 44 million m 3 . The optimal results could provide decision-makers with agricultural water use plans with reduced negative impacts on the environment and enhanced economic benefits from crops.

Keywords: grey water footprint; fractional programming model; interval parameter; crop planting structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5567/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5567/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:20:p:5567-:d:274864

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().