Efficient Water Use and Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction in Agricultural Land Use—The Aspect of Land Consolidation

• Published in: Sustainability 2022-11, Vol.14 (22), p.15453
• Main Authors: Kuburić, Miroslav, Trifković, Milan, Nestorović, Žarko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural industry; Agricultural land; Agricultural management; Agricultural production; Agricultural research; Agriculture; Consolidation; Cost control; Efficiency; Emissions; Emissions (Pollution); Emissions control; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Irrigation; Land use; Landowners; Mathematical models; Roads; Transportation networks; Water consumption; Water use
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su142215453

Efficient water utilization and greenhouse gas emissions have become the topic of wide scientific interest in the last few decades. In this research, we considered the reduction in the road length and the increase in the irrigation channel length after land consolidation. The efficiency of water use is considered as the function of the distance between the water source and crops. The reduction of greenhouse gases is considered as the function of the reduction in the length of the agricultural mechanized transport. A simple mathematical model was developed for calculating the reduction of the road network transport length. The results showed that land consolidation (LC) reduces the road network length, by itself, and provides conditions for an increase in the irrigation channel length. In the case study area, the road network length was reduced by more than one-third (36.8%) and the irrigation channel length was more than doubled (125.9%).