Project 02/1: Agricultural water demand under climate change

Agricultural water demand will rise due to climate change, but the expected amounts are unknown and depend on climatic conditions and cropping systems. Also, water resources are already overexploited, i.e. a rise in demand cannot be met in a sustainable manner. This study will quantify the water demand of different crops and assess the additional water amount required for irrigation. We analyze  the actual situation by applying a process-based model, which is calibrated and validated by on-site measurements of meteorological boundary conditions and soil moisture. Crops are differentiated by crop-specific parameters. This yields location-specific estimates on agricultural potentials and required water for different crops, now and in the future. In the long run, we aim at extrapolating the local scale data to a regional scale where scenarios of e.g. mixed cropping systems can be explored.

Team

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