Sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, California

The sustainability of irrigated agriculture in many arid and semiarid areas of the world is at risk because of a combination of several interrelated factors, including lack of fresh water, lack of drainage, the presence of high water tables, and salinization of soil and groundwater resources. Nowher...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2005-10, Vol.102 (43), p.15352-15356
Main Authors: Schoups, G, Hopmans, J.W, Young, C.A, Vrugt, J.A, Wallender, W.W, Tanji, K.K, Panday, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Agrology
Brackish
California
Conservation of Natural Resources
Demography
Environmental science
Freshwater
Groundwater
hydrologic models
Hydrological modeling
irrigated farming
irrigated soils
Irrigation
Irrigation water
Physical Sciences
Salts
Sodium Chloride
Soil
Soil salinity
soil salinization
soil salts
Soil water
Surface water
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable development
vadose zone
Water Supply
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The sustainability of irrigated agriculture in many arid and semiarid areas of the world is at risk because of a combination of several interrelated factors, including lack of fresh water, lack of drainage, the presence of high water tables, and salinization of soil and groundwater resources. Nowhere in the United States are these issues more apparent than in the San Joaquin Valley of California. A solid understanding of salinization processes at regional spatial and decadal time scales is required to evaluate the sustainability of irrigated agriculture. A hydro-salinity model was developed to integrate subsurface hydrology with reactive salt transport for a 1,400-km2 study area in the San Joaquin Valley. The model was used to reconstruct historical changes in salt storage by irrigated agriculture over the past 60 years. We show that patterns in soil and groundwater salinity were caused by spatial variations in soil hydrology, the change from local groundwater to snowmelt water as the main irrigation water supply, and by occasional droughts. Gypsum dissolution was a critical component of the regional salt balance. Although results show that the total salt input and output were about equal for the past 20 years, the model also predicts salinization of the deeper aquifers, thereby questioning the sustainability of irrigated agriculture.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0507723102