Work

Climate change adaptation from the farmer's perspective: an exploration of adaptation pathways with a global hydro-economic model of groundwater-fed irrigation (HELGA)

Year: 2024

Type: other

Abstract: Groundwater fed irrigation is on the rise because of increasing food demand and the falling reliability of surface water resources due to climate change. However, overexploitation of groundwater eventually threatens the viability of agriculture; falling groundwater levels become too deep to sustain the costs of groundwater extraction. We explore whether this economic limit is reached using a newly developed hydro-economic model HELGA: Hydro-Economic Limits as a Global Analysis. We subsequently use HELGA to evaluate adaptation strategies from the farmer’s perspective, assessing the costs and benefits of groundwater extraction for agriculture. Under different scenarios that include climate, socio-economy and farmers traits.

Source: Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14204215

Authors: Melo León, Sioux Fanny, van Beek, Rens, Reinhard, Stijn, Bierkens, Marc

Institutions: Utrecht University, Wageningen University & Research, Deltares

Language: English

Topic: Water resources management and optimization

Subfield: Ocean Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Clean water and sanitation, Climate action, Zero hunger

Open Access status: green

Funder: European Commission