Spatio-temporal estimation of green and blue water consumptions and water and land productivity using satellite remote sensing datasets and WA plus framework: A case study of the Mahi Basin, India

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  • The agricultural activities contribute to the largest share of water consumption in the arid and semi-arid basins. In this study, we demonstrate the application of Water Accounting Plus (WA+) for estimation of the green water consumption (ETGreen) and blue water consumption (ETBlue) for assessing the water productivity (WP) and land productivity (LP) to identify the bright-spots and hot-spots at the district administrative unit level for effectively managing the scarce water resources and sustaining food security in a highly non-resilient semi-arid basin of India. The WA+ framework uses satellite remote sensing datasets from different sources for this purpose and we used the data from 2003 to 2020. The long-term average of ETGreen and ETBlue in the Mahi basin is found to be 15.8 km3/year and 12.32 km3/year, respectively. The blue water index (BWI) and green water index (GWI) in the basin vary from 0.282 to 0.598 and 0.40-0.72. We found that the BWI is highest for the districts of Gujarat, whereas, the GWI is highest for the districts of Madhya Pradesh. The long-term average of the LP and WP for both the irrigated and rainfed cereals in the basin is found as 2287.71 kg/ha & 1713.62 kg/ha and 0.721 kg/ m3 & 0.483 kg/m3 , respectively from 2003 to 2020. The WP (rainfed) of all the districts of the Gujarat is comparatively lower (varying from 0.34 kg/m3 to 0.5 kg/m3) than the districts of the Madhya Pradesh (varying from 0.59 kg/m3 to 0.70 kg/m3 ) and the Rajasthan (varying from 0.48 kg/m3 to 0.73 kg/m3 ). Based on the results, we found that the Ratlam district of the Madhya Pradesh has both highest LP and WP (irrigated) as 2573.96 kg/ha and 2.14 kg/m3, respectively among all the districts of the Mahi basin, and hence it is classified as the 'Bright spot-district'. The Anand district is found to have the lowest WP and LP as 0.44 kg/m3 and 2467.51 kg/ha, respectively and hence it is classified as the 'hot spot-district'. For rainfed cereals, we found that the Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh has the highest WP and LP as 0.59 kg/m3 and 1948.13 kg /ha, respectively, and the Anand district with the lowest WP as 0.34 kg/m3 and LP of 1572.21 kg/ha, respectively. Therefore, we classified the Neemach district as the 'Bright spot-district' and the Anand district as the hot spot-district for rainfed cereals. These findings will help develop sustainable and actionable agricultural water management plans by the policymakers and stakeholders in the basin.