Turiano et al. (2025) Evaluating Country-Scale Irrigation Demand Through Parsimonious Agro-Hydrological Modeling

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Identification

• Journal: Hydrology
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-09-18
• Authors: Nike Chiesa Turiano, Marta Tuninetti, Francesco Laio, Luca Ridolfi
• DOI: 10.3390/hydrology12090240

Research Groups

Information not available in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study introduces WaterCROPv2, an agro-hydrological model designed to estimate national-scale irrigation water demand, demonstrating enhanced reliability and accuracy through validation for maize cultivation in Italy, and identifying potential water savings from efficient irrigation technologies.

Objective

• To introduce and validate WaterCROPv2, a state-of-the-art agro-hydrological model, for estimating national-scale irrigation water demand, and to demonstrate its utility as a decision-support tool for optimizing water allocation and identifying water-saving strategies in agriculture.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: National scale (Italy), with regional analysis (e.g., Pianura Padana, Salentino).
• Temporal Scale: Hourly computations for model mechanics; daily for meteorological data; annual for validation (2010); decadal for application (2005-2015).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: WaterCROPv2 (agro-hydrological model).
• Data sources: Meteorological data; independent validation data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) for maize cultivation.

Main Results

• WaterCROPv2 incorporates advanced features including hourly time-step computations, detailed rainwater canopy interception, soil-dependent leakage dynamics, and localized daily evapotranspiration.
• The model demonstrates significantly enhanced reliability in estimating irrigation water needs across diverse climatic regions, validated against ISTAT data for maize cultivation in Italy in 2010.
• Spatial analysis reveals estimation errors align with precipitation patterns, with slight underestimation in wetter northern regions and overestimation in drier southern areas of Italy.
• WaterCROPv2 identifies optimal maize cultivation areas (e.g., Pianura Padana) requiring less than 200 mm of irrigation, and unsuitable regions (e.g., Salentino) requiring over 500 mm per season.
• Simulations indicate that a complete transition to micro-irrigation could reduce national agricultural water demand by 21%, with potential savings of 30–40% in traditionally water-rich regions.

Contributions

• Introduction of WaterCROPv2, a novel agro-hydrological model designed for national-scale irrigation water demand estimation, balancing accuracy with practical data requirements.
• Integration of advanced hydrological processes (hourly time-step, detailed canopy interception, soil-dependent leakage, localized evapotranspiration) into a national-scale model.
• Comprehensive validation of the model's accuracy against independent national statistical data (ISTAT) for maize cultivation in Italy.
• Demonstration of WaterCROPv2 as a strategic decision-support tool for identifying optimal cultivation areas, assessing regional water requirements, and quantifying potential water savings through efficient irrigation technologies.

Funding

Information not available in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Turiano2025Evaluating,
  author = {Turiano, Nike Chiesa and Tuninetti, Marta and Laio, Francesco and Ridolfi, Luca},
  title = {Evaluating Country-Scale Irrigation Demand Through Parsimonious Agro-Hydrological Modeling},
  journal = {Hydrology},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/hydrology12090240},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrology12090240}
}