Climate change is predicted to negatively affect water availability the Middle East, especially in Jordan. With an increase of air temperature, an increase in crop water demand and thus irrigation is expected in the future. At the same time, precipitation is predicted to decrease. This will increase the pressure on the already scarce water resources in the region and will threaten food security.
The aim of this study is to quantify the water demand of different crops and to determine the additional amount of water amount required for irrigation at the Al-khanasri research site. We will further investigate how different climate change scenarios affect crop water demand in the future to determine the best management practices and best irrigation method.
We installed soil moisture probes below two agricultural fields, one with irrigation, one purely rainfed, and for two typical crops. This data will be used to calibrate a crop water demand model (AQUACROP) to simulate evapotranspiration and the soil water balance. Driven by climate model results, we will use this model to obtain future crop water demand of northern Jordan.