Histograms of crop mixes illustrate the crop shifting for the most prominent crops in each case study area. Alfalfa is reduced in five of the six study areas (all but San Joaquin) due to its high water consumption. All optimizations maintain or increase net farm profit in each HUC. The percentages shown on the x axis represent the extent to which any single crop can be reduced in each HUC. Credit: Nature Water (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s44221-023-00155-9 Across the world, irrigation dominates freshwater consumption, accounting for 88% of all the freshwater consumed on a global scale. In the western United States, this is no different, as irrigated farming is the leading driver of water depletion in the region. In addition, climate change has caused it to become increasingly difficult for the western United States to meet the water needs of farms, cities and ecosystems. In a paper published in Nature Water , researchers from the University of Delaware, Sustainable Waters—a global organization focused on water scarcity challenges—and Virginia Tech looked at six agriculturally important river basins in the western U.S. that are experiencing water scarcity: the Great Salt Lake, the Lower Colorado River, the Rio Grande, Snake River, Platte River and the San Joaquin River. They also determined which crops are currently being grown in the areas and examined how switching to less water-intensive crops would help with water scarcity while also allowing farmers to remain economically viable. Kyle Davis, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, as well as a resident faculty member with UD’s Data Science Institute, and Dongyang Wei, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences, were part of the research group from UD. The lead author on the paper was Brian […]
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