جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "water footprint" در نشریات گروه "کشاورزی"

Accurate knowledge of water balance components is necessary to optimize water consumption in agriculture. On the other hand, measuring water balance components is expensive and difficult. Therefore, the use of models that can simulate water balance values is important for water management in agriculture and water used by plants. Crop simulation models have been turned into essential tools for studying plant production systems. In the SSM-iCrop2 models, it is presumed that diseases and weeds are optimally managed and will not affect growth and yield. Additionally, except in cases where the model accounts for specific nutrients such as nitrogen, it is generally assumed that nutrient deficiencies are eliminated through fertilization. Therefore, parameterized and evaluated models are designed to fit these conditions. These factors are present in the field and affect crop growth and yield as well as water use. However, in several cases it is required to estimate yield and water balance components and irrigation water volume under grower conditions. Naturally, models parameterized using experiments are unable to simulate these conditions. Therefore, a model must be prepared so that it can simulate the real conditions of farmers. In this study, the SSM-iCrop2 model has been calibrated for the real conditions of farmers, and the purpose of this study is to use the SSM-iCrop2 model in simulating water performance and water balance for farmers.

In this study, the SSM-iCrop2 model was calibrated for farmers conditions using variables such as yield and harvest index, which are available for farmers’fields or are cheap to measure. The effect of factors such as pests and diseases, weeds and unsuitable nutrients, density and sowing date entered the model along with the calibration of three parameters of radiation use efficiency, maximum leaf area and maximum harvest index for farmers’ fields. Calibration was done by comparing the performance of farmers against the performance simulated by the model and by changing the parameters of radiation use efficiency (IRUE), maximum leaf area (LAIMX) and maximum harvest index (HIMAX). This calibration was done at Hashem Abad station in Gorgan for irrigated rice (paddy) and wheat. The simulated actual yield was calibrated with the actual yield. Due to the acceptable simulation of actual yields after calibration, it was presumed that other estimates made by the model are also reliable.

Measurement of water balance and other estimates of the model from growth and yield formation in the grower fields is expensive, but a calibrated model can estimate them at a low cost. In this study, it was shown that with the model calibrated for farmers' conditions, not other easily measured information (such as the irrigation water volume) can be obtained, with the assumption that the model accurately captures this information as well as performance. To evaluate the simulated real performance model, it was compared with the actual performance of farmers (Agricultural Jihad Report) after calibration. In addition to phenology, the SSM model simulates traits related to growth and yield, evapotranspiration values, irrigation water volume, runoff, available soil water during planting and harvesting, cumulative drainage, etc. The output of the model shows the amount of irrigation water is needed for a certain amount of performance in a given place (with specified rainfall and transpiration). The irrigation water volume calculated by the model was compared with the results of field tests from previous studies conducted by researchers at agricultural research centers. It was found that the model's output and the observed values were in good agreement. The root mean square error for rice and wheat was 216.6 and 157.6 kg per hectare, respectively, and the coefficient of variation and correlation coefficient were 4 and 85% for rice and 3 and 94% for wheat, respectively. Then, the irrigation water volume estimated by the model was evaluated and validated with the measured irrigation water volume in different crops (in Golestan province for different years). Based on the results of the evaluation, the coefficient of variation and the correlation coefficient for the simulated irrigation water volume were 8.9 and 98%, respectively, compared with the observed value. This calibration was done for rice (paddy) and irrigated wheat in the fields of Gorgan town, and the simulation and running were done using the meteorological statistics recorded in Hashem Abad weather station, Gorgan. Noting the fact that the actual yield has been simulated with good accuracy after the calibration, it was assumed that the other estimates of the model are also reliable. Thus, the calibrated model estimates them with low cost and appropriate accuracy and can complement field experiments.

This study discovered that the SSM_iCrop2 model, when calibrated for the conditions of farmers' fields, can accurately simulate both growth and yield traits as well as water balance characteristics. Notably, the model provides reliable estimates of irrigation water volume in farming scenarios, a crucial factor for agricultural planning and drought adaptation.

The increase in water demand, especially in the production of agricultural products, has led to increased competition for fresh water. Therefore, improving agricultural water productivity and reducing water stress caused by agricultural production is an important measure to improve the sustainable use of water resources. One of the most important indicators proposed for water management is the concept of water footprint, which can be used as a useful tool to measure and predict the amount of water consumed in the agricultural sector and the required demand. In addition, water stress and water poverty indicators are among the other widely used indicators to evaluate water scarcity. Iran is an arid and semi-arid country that has faced severe water shortage and this has had adverse effects on the economy, ecosystem functions, and the welfare of the country's people. The agricultural sector is one of the most important and largest consuming sectors of water resources in Iran, so more than 92% of freshwater resources are consumed in this sector, so the knowledge of water resources allocated for the production of agricultural products is important for managers. And the country's policymakers are very important. So, one of the main solutions to reduce water shortage is to reduce water consumption in the agricultural sector. Among agricultural products, rice is one of the most important food products, which feeds more than half of the world's population. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to use the indicators of water footprint, water stress, and water poverty to evaluate the water scarcity of water in rice production in Iran.

Among the agricultural products, rice is a valuable food and the most important and widely consumed grain. The study area is the rice-producing provinces. which feeds more than half of the world's population. It accounts for about 19% of the world's dietary energy. After wheat, this product is known as one of the most important food items. The average area under rice cultivation (ha), production (ton), yield (tons/ha) as well as the necessary data and information were collected concerning the water resources available for rice production from the Ministry of Jihad Agriculture and the Water Resources Management Company of Iran. The evaluation of water footprint components, including blue, green, and gray water footprints, is based on the method provided by Hoekstra et al. (2011). The water stress index of rice is calculated as a ratio of the total water footprint in rice production to the total water resources available in the region. The amount of water poverty caused by rice production is defined by the product of the total water footprint in rice production and the value of the rice water stress index. Finally, the amount of export and import of virtual water due to rice production in Iran has been estimated.

On average, the total footprint of rice is 3037 m-3 t and the total volume resulting from its production is 4313 MCM, with the share of blue, green, and gray water footprints being 91.68, 6.93, and 1.39 %, respectively. The available water resources (AWR) for rice production in the producing provinces are 21,992 MCM, of which 6,872 and 15,210 MCM are related to blue water and green water, respectively. The results of the investigation of the water stress index (RWSI) caused by rice cultivation in Iran, which is the result of dividing the total water footprint in rice production by the available water resources, is on average equal to 0.5 (out of 1.9), which shows Iran is in moderate water stress of rice production. Changes in water stress in rice production on a provincial scale showed that the provinces of Qazvin, Zanjan, Isfahan, North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, and Sistan and Baluchistan have water stress with a value between 0.6 and 1.2 are high and very high water stress in rice production, while the provinces of Mazandaran, Guilan, Golestan, Fars, and Khuzestan are in the range of less than 0.3 (low water stress) Also, the water poverty caused by rice production is equal to 1073 MCM in Iran, which is the highest and lowest amount of water poverty in Guilan and Khuzestan provinces (290 and 11 MCM).

Water sustainability in rice production in Iran has been investigated using water stress, water poverty, and water footprint, as well as the amount of exports and imports. Among the components of the water footprint, the highest value is related to the blue water footprint, and the lowest is related to the green water footprint. The high blue water footprint shows that most of the surface water and groundwater is used for rice production, and the low green water footprint shows that the amount of rainfall is not enough for rice cultivation in Iran. According to the results, the amount of gray water footprint in rice production is more than the green water footprint, this issue shows that the low yield of rice in the studied provinces as well as the high consumption of fertilizers and chemical pesticides cause the increase of gray water footprint in rice has been produced. Assessing water scarcity using the water footprint approach can be useful for identifying the risks of high rice production due to the potential of water scarcity. The dependence and high consumption of blue water compared to green water have increased the water shortage related to the production of rice. Therefore, it is necessary to change the pattern of water resource allocation based on the status of water resources and water scarcity indicators.

The present study evaluates the water shortage indices in the agricultural sector of Jiroft Plain, taking into account the framework of water footprint during the 2008 to 2019. In this study, water stress, agricultural water stress, blue water scarcity, water self-sufficiency, water dependency and water poverty indices were evaluated. The results showed that the annual average of agricultural water resources is 1425 MCM, and the amounts of green and blue water resources are 11 and 1413 MCM, respectively. The annual average agricultural water footprint of Jiroft Plain is 354 MCM. The share of blue, green and gray water footprint is 40, 14 and 26%, respectively. The average water stress index is 37%, which shows that the moderate water stress in Jiroft plain. The average AWSI and BWS is 0.84 and 0.77, respectively, which are located in the class with high stress. The water self-sufficiency and dependency are 89% and 11%, respectively, which indicates high self-sufficiency and low dependency of the study area in terms of importing agricultural products. The high water self-sufficiency index despite the lack of rainfall in Jiroft Plain has caused high water poverty in the region. The most important reason for the high WSS is the high diversity of agricultural products in the food basket of this region. As an example, citrus fruits, dates, wheat, barley, potatoes and onions are cultivated in Jiroft plain.

an attempt was made to simulate and evaluate the water footprint of agricultural products under the conditions of climate change in the Kashf River watershed. I, WEAP was used for the integrated assessment of water resources. Also, the MABIA tool available in the WEAP was used to simulate the effects of climate change on crops such as wheat, barley, alfalfa, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and fodder corn. The simulation of water and carbon footprints was done using the outputs of WEAP and MABIA models for the years 2013-2040.respectively. The biggest decrease in yield in the middle scenario was attributed to the two products barley and alfalfa with 25.7 and 25.6 percent. Also, the highest amount of change in net water requirement belongs to potato crops equal to 64.8%, and onion at 59.37% in the pessimistic scenario compared to the current conditions. In general, from the calculation of the water footprint, it was found that the highest water footprint of the selected products is sugar beet, fodder corn, onion, alfalfa, tomato, and cucumber with 18, 15, 14, 14, 13, and 12 thousand cubic meters. The lowest carbon footprint was assigned to wheat, barley, alfalfa, and fodder corn products, the water footprint of agricultural products will be larger than the green water footprint. The increase in evaporation and transpiration and the decrease in rainfall at the basin level, show the negative consequences of the climate change phenomenon for the farmers of the region.

Due to the increase in population and the need to provide food and preserve the environment, the importance of the water crisis has increased in the years leading to the third millennium and the beginning of the 21st century. The reduction of underground and surface water resources and the destruction of the environment and water ecosystems are signs of the water crisis in Iran and the world. On the other hand, the production of agricultural products is associated with the creation of environmental effects, especially water and soil pollution (due to the use of pesticides and as a result, the loss of environmental balance). Therefore, there is a need for policy-makers to have indicators in the field of the effects of agricultural activities on natural resources and the environment, so that they can measure the economic and environmental effects. The water footprint index was first introduced by Hoekstra and Hung in 2002; and over recent years, it has been widely used by experts in different parts of the world. The water footprint is a multidimensional indicator that shows the volume of water consumed by the type of water source and the volume of polluted water by the type of pollutant. All components of the total water footprint are determined by time and place. The water footprint consists of three components, including blue water footprint, green water footprint and gray water footprint. Therefore, given the importance of sustainability of water resources, in this study, by considering the components of water footprint as inputs in the production function, the economic-environmental efficiency was estimated using the Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) for the production of barley in Iran; specifically, Water Footprint- Stochastic Frontier Approach (WF-SFA) framework was used to analyze the economic-environmental efficiency of barley production. Thus, in this study, in order to estimate the environmental effects, the water footprint index was used and the economic-environmental efficiency of barley production was estimated. For this purpose, the components of barley water footprint were calculated in the provinces producing this product. Then, the economic-environmental efficiency of barley production in the provinces of Iran was calculated. In the first step, in order to calculate the water footprint, meteorological data was collected for the cities that had the highest level of barley cultivation in each province. This information included average wind speed (m/s), maximum temperature (c), minimum temperature (c), average temperature, 24-hour precipitation (mm), maximum relative humidity (%), minimum relative humidity (%), average relative humidity (%), sunny hours and daily radiation amount. The total water footprint during crop growth (WF) is the sum of blue, green and gray water components. After calculating the components of barely water footprint in the provinces of the country following Battese and Coelli (1995), an SFA model was created for barely production. In the year t, for the i province, the basic stochastic frontier production where yit is the product obtainable from input Xit (subtraction of inputs) and β is the vector of unknown parameters; in addition, vit represents random errors that are assumed to have a normal distribution with zero mean and variance σv2 and is distributed independently of uit.In this study, in order to calculate the economic-environmental efficiency using the stochastic frontier production function, the appropriate production function form was first selected. The forms of the production function examined in this study are Cobb-Douglas and Translog. After choosing the appropriate production function and model type, the stochastic frontier production function was estimated by the maximum likelihood method as well as the economic-environmental efficiency of barley production was estimated. By examining different barley producing provinces, it could be seen that the highest amount of total water footprint was related to the provinces of Ilam, Kerman, Sistan and Baluchistan and South Khorasan and the lowest amount was related to the provinces of Tehran, Golestan, Qazvin and Ardabil. The total amount of water footprint for most provinces was in the range of 3 to 4 thousand cubic meters. Also, the results showed that the barley water footprint in Iran did not follow a very specific geographical pattern, but in tropical and low-rainfall provinces such as Sistan and Baluchistan, the water footprint was higher and the main difference between the water footprints of the provinces was due to the blue water footprint. The results of the estimation of the stochastic frontier production function of barley production using the variable efficiency model over time showed that the combined input variables, blue water footprint and green water footprint had a significant effect on the production of this product. In this regard, the positive coefficient of the combined input variable (X1) and the green water footprint (X4) indicated that assuming the constancy of other conditions, a 1% increase in the amount of each of these variables would lead to an increase of about 1% in the production of barley among the provinces. These findings indicated the low level of accumulation of combined inputs in the production of barley due to the low production rate of this product and also the low amount of precipitation in the country. The labor force variable (X2) was not statistically significant; and the coefficient of this variable in the estimated production function indicated that the labor force had a very small positive effect on the efficiency of barley production. Therefore, due to the very low contribution of labor in barley production, it is expected that the amount of barley production in Iran will increase with the increase in the degree of mechanization.  The final results showed that the provinces of Ilam, Qom, and Isfahan had the lowest economic-environmental efficiency, and the provinces of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan had the highest economic-environmental efficiency in barley production, respectively. The overall average economic and environmental efficiency of wheat production was estimated at 0.94. Furthermore, the results of the estimation of the inefficiency model showed that the economic and environmental efficiency of barley production was higher for regions with higher per capita GDP and more rainfall. In other words, the variables of per capita GDP and annual rainfall negatively affect the economic and environmental inefficiency of barely. So, it is suggested to evaluate the effects of human and social capital on the economic-environmental efficiency of agricultural production in future studies. It is also suggested to follow the following methods to reduce pollution and preserve the environment: changing production methods, more efficient management and the use of superior technologies by ineffective provinces (for example, new irrigation methods to reduce the water footprint), the use of green fertilizers and so-called low-risk chemical fertilizers approved by international organizations to reduce the gray water footprint as one of the factors that reduce the efficiency and biological control instead of using pesticides (to reduce the gray water footprint) to eliminate pests. On the other hand, encouraging incentives and punishments are also very effective for farmers. The government should think of incentive measures to encourage efficient sectors; for example, it can give the priority of using resources with lower prices to farmers who produce less environmental pollution by using fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Paying subsidies to efficient producers is also effective. On the other hand, environmental regulations should be set for producers. Establishing a tax on undesirable products to increase the motivation of producers and farmers to use environmentally friendly methods and techniques is also very effective.

Investigating and identifying the actual amount of water used for different agricultural products is of particular importance, and considering such evaluations, appropriate solutions can be provided to reduce agricultural water consumption, which is of great importance. The water footprint index as a global index shows the actual amount of water consumed by products based on the conditions and climate of each region. On the other hand, the phenomenon of climate change is one of the most important environmental challenges that has a significant impact on water resources. Therefore, it is important and necessary to evaluate this phenomenon in order to predict its impact on water consumption in the agricultural sector. In this research, the simulation of climate parameters using the MIROCES2L model of the 6th Report of the General Oceanic Atmospheric Circulation under three scenarios SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5 in Birjand plain has been done and then using those results to calculate the footprint prediction The blue water and green water traces of the strategic product of saffron were carried out in the Birjand Plain region. The results of the first part showed that the minimum temperature and maximum temperature in all three scenarios in the future (2050-2022) generally increased and the precipitation parameter increased in autumn and winter and decreased in spring and summer. In the second part, the prediction of saffron crop performance by NIO model showed that under three scenarios SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 in the future (2022-2038) on average 0.13, 0.21 respectively and 0.05 kg/ha has decreased compared to the observation period (2005-2021) and the results showed that with the increase in water demand in the future period, the water footprint, the green water footprint and the total water footprint of the saffron crop under the influence of climate change In the future period, it has increased by almost 2 times compared to the observation period. Also, the ratio of blue water consumption to green water in this product has increased in the future under all three scenarios compared to the observation period from 1.91 to 2.04. Therefore, despite the phenomenon of climate change, increase in temperature, increase in water demand, and finally increase in the footprint of water consumption in surface and underground water sources in the Birjand plain in the coming years, it is necessary to implement a suitable model of water consumption in the plain and To use appropriate and effective solutions to reduce the water footprint in the study area, the methods of reducing the area under cultivation, less irrigation, changing the cultivation pattern and changing the agricultural calendar should also be proposed and implemented.

Examining the current situation of agriculture shows that despite the potential to increase the agricultural products, due to the lack of a proper management system, the possibility of optimal use of water and soil resources has not been possible. In this regard, it is necessary and necessary to examine the solutions for optimal use of water through a review of the allocation of water resources and its management. In this research, using the evaluation of the water footprint index, the water footprint of alfalfa, watermelon, fodder corn, wheat, rapeseed, cucumber and onion products in Razavi Khorasan, Kerman and Isfahan provinces were calculated and compared with each other to determine Which province has more favorable planting conditions for each product from the point of view of the water footprint index.Uneven distribution of rainfall and lack of water in many parts of the world have created many problems for the production of agricultural products and even the provision of safe drinking water. As some scenarios predict, by 2025, 60% of the world's regions will experience water stress due to the increased use of water resources. Most of these regions are located in Africa, Asia and Latin America.Therefore, due to the lack of proper time and place distribution of rainfall, agricultural management to increase the efficiency of water consumption is much more difficult than in countries with favorable water conditions.

One of the goals of life cycle assessment is environmental decision-making regarding cleanup of contaminated sites, contaminated water, and water restoration with different methods. Water shortage problems are becoming more serious due to the decrease in rainfall, increase in population, the reduction of water resources and lack of legal framework for water management. Therefore, a proper analysis of the effects and results of the methods used for water purification, groundwater polluting factors, and various water supply processes is necessary, and one of the tools that can perform such an analysis is life cycle assessment. (LCA) is based on a complete understanding of the system from real data. In this research, the analysis of life cycle assessment of wastewater treatment processes, desalination, water footprint has been done considering different water sources. The results of this analysis showed that the most studied topic in the evaluation of the life cycle of wastewater treatment and the most studied type of wastewater was urban wastewater. The least studied subject was river engineering. Among different countries, Iran's share of life cycle assessment studies on water management is the lowest, and due to the importance of life cycle assessment and the environmental impact of various methods and processes on the supply of water needed in the agricultural, drinking and industrial sectors, attention is paid and it requires more studies in this field.

Water is a basic element for human stability and social economic activities. However, water scarcity is one of the biggest problems facing many societies around the world. Today, many regions of the world are affected by water shortages. Population growth in the future has caused a greater demand for food, which has a direct impact on water consumption in the agricultural sector. Hormozgan province is in the south of Iran and has an arid and extra-arid climate, and the problem of lack of water resources is an important and undeniable fact. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the changes in the agricultural water footprint and the lack of water resources for providing an optimized cultivation model to reduce the water footprint and preserve water resources. Based on this, the main goals of this research are: (1) Estimation of water footprint components of the agricultural section, (2) Calculation of water scarcity indicators including water stress, agricultural water stress, and Blue Water Scarcity (BWS), (3) Estimation of water poverty and (4) Calculation of self-sufficiency and water dependence indicators during from 2008 to 2019.

In this study, agricultural water footprint components, including green, blue, and gray water footprints were estimated based on the method described by Hoekstra et al (2007) in Hormozgan Province. Also, regional agricultural water shortage in this research is measured using the water stress index, agricultural water stress, water shortage, water poverty, self-sufficiency index, and water dependency, which is the known method for assessing water scarcity. The ratio of the use of water resources (water consumption) to the number of available water resources.Hormozgan province has an area of about 68000 km2, which is the eighth province of the country. In terms of climate condition, this province is located in the hot and dry region of Iran and its climate is influenced by desert and semi-desert climate. The average annual temperature of this area is about 27˚c. The average rainfall in Hormozgan province is 188 mm. Information related to cultivated area, production per unit area, yield, planting and harvesting dates, growth cycle length, fertilizer consumption for the studied agricultural products was prepared from the Agricultural Jihad Organization and the information related to water resources such as available water resources, total water consumption, water consumption in the agricultural sector in two sectors, surface and underground water of the province for the statistical period of 2017 to 2018 was prepared from the Regional Water Company of Hormozgan province. Also, information related to the population and per capita consumption of each product has been collected from the Program and Budget Organization.

The total volume of the water footprint of Hormozgan province is 1698.02 MCM, of which 1484.64 MCM (79.19 %) is blue water, 75.51 MCM (6.65 %) is green water, and 137.86 MCM (14.16 %) is related to gray water. The average water resources available during the studied period is 2583.70 MCM, of which 1584.55 MCM is related to blue water resources and 999.15 MCM to green water resources. The comparison of water stress, agricultural water stress, and blue water scarcity indices in crop productions showed that the average WSI is 0.91 and its value is always higher than 0.85 during the study period, which shows that Hormozgan province facing severe and extreme water stress. The average AWSI and BWS during the studied period are 1.38 and 1.19. These indicators highlight the fact that Hormozgan Province is facing a critical level in terms of water shortage the agricultural production systems. The average water poverty in agricultural section is 4919.59 MCM. In the following, regarding the indicators of water dependency (39.21 %) and water self-sufficiency (60.79 %), despite the severe water shortage in Hormozgan Province, it has a high level of water self-sufficiency in the production of agricultural products. It is necessary to develop crops that have less water footprint by modifying the cultivation pattern.

Bluewater resources are the main water resources available in the agricultural sector in Hormozgan Province. This issue can be a reason for the high-water self-sufficiency index compared to the water dependency index. On the other hand, AWSI is higher than WSI, which indicates high water stress in the agricultural sector. Since the share of the blue footprint is more than other components of the water footprint, BWS is more than WSI. As a result, the water resources of this province are not rich and this province has high water poverty. However, the AWSI can reveal the situation of agricultural water shortages in arid agricultural areas more clearly. Strategies for agricultural development and water use formulation in the Iranian South-producing areas should be made based on the areas' AWSI performance. Moreover, it should be noted that the intensification of water resources in certain areas is caused by producing agricultural products for other regions due to the mismatch of agricultural production and population. This phenomenon has not been quantified or analyzed in this paper but needs to be studied in the future.

Sustainability of groundwater resources means ensuring the permanent availability of essential groundwater services for a long-time. This research was conducted to investigate the sustainability of groundwater resources in the prohibited plain of Behshahr- Bandar-e-Gaz by using water expoliation and green water scarcity indices. Initially, the green water deficit index was calculated based on the concept of water footprint. The water exploitation index was obtained according to the long-term average of annual fresh water resources based on the components of well and qanat discharge, total recharge and return flow. The indices were calculated for the common cropping pattern of the region (spring wheat and rice) for a 33-year period (1982- 2015). The green water deficit index was 2.68 and 2.54 for spring wheat and rice cropping system, respectively. Also, the water exploitation index was 18 percent and 17.8 percent, respectively. Increase in evapotranspiration under spring wheat cropping reduced soil water content and ultimately led to excessive instability of groundwater resources in the study area. Based on the results, the use of water expoliation index can improve the sustainability of groundwater resources in Behshahr Bandar-e-Gaz plain rather than the green water scarcity index.

Agriculture has the largest share of total water consumption in the world. Among the cereals, the high consumption and demand of wheat has made it a strategic product. Due to the high level of wheat cultivation in the world, the amount of water used for its production can significantly affect the total water used in the agricultural sector and pose a serious threat to access to water resources. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the water shortage in wheat production in Iran, emphasizing the framework of the water footprint in the country during the statistical period of 2007-2018. The results of this study showed that the share of blue, green and gray water footprints is 71.76, 15.87 and 13.11% of the total water footprint in the production of Faryab wheat and 55 and 38.34% of the green water footprint respectively. And it forms gray in dry wheat in Iran. Also, the results showed that the average water stress index of wheat production in the country is 0.6, and the range of spatial changes of this index varies from 0.01 in Guilan to 3.01 in Ardebil at the North. The highest level of water self-sufficiency index (lowest dependency index) is related to North Khorasan, Khuzestan and Fars provinces with an average value of 70% and the lowest level of self-sufficiency index is related to Guilan province (2%), Mazandaran 9% and Tehran 16% (highest dependency index). The present study will be very helpful for making decisions about the sustainable management of water resources for wheat production in Iran.

Climate change and global warming have increased the intensity of droughts and their continuation. This phenomenon causes improper distribution of precipitation and the available water sources. Temperature and precipitation change under climate change and the agricultural products is affected by these two factors. Iran is the largest producer and exporter of saffron in the world, so that about 90% of the production and cultivated area of saffron in the world belongs to Iran. Meanwhile, 96% of Iran's saffron is produced in Khorasan. Saffron is one of the most efficient agricultural products in terms of water consumption, and it is considered an under-expected plant in terms of the need for nutrients. The aim of this research is investigating the changes in the water footprint of saffron under the past climate changes during the 2006 to 2017 in Khorasan region.
 
In this study, Fuzzy Clustering Method (FCM) was used for clustering homogeneous agroclimatic regions of saffron production using precipitation data (p), minimum and maximum temperature (Tmax, Tmin), humidity, (RH%) count of sunny hours (SH) and wind speed (WS). Then the water footprint components, including green, blue and gray water footprints and the economic value of the water footprint components in the production of saffron during the 2006-2017 were estimated using Hoekstra and Chapagain concept. Finally, the trends of water footprint components and climatic factors were investigated using Man-Kendall trend analysis test and regression analysis.
 
Saffron production regions in Khorasan were divided into three homogenous agroclimatic regions with the help of FCM. Based on the results, the weighted average water footprint of saffron in Khorasan is 2833 M3/kg, respectively, the share of blue, green and 89.81, 18.11. The share of gray water footprint is very small and around 0.005%; The highest water footprint is related to Bejestan county (cluster 2) (4176.8 M3/kg) and the lowest water footprint is related to Beshrouye county (cluster 3) (1609.5 M3/kg). The average economic value of saffron is 0.61 $/M3, the highest and lowest of which belong to Beshrouye and Bejestan counties, respectively (1.03 and 0.40 $/M3). The results of the analysis of the saffron yield trend and water footprint showed that the saffron water footprint components during the studied period have a significant decreasing trend and the saffron yield also has an increasing trend during this period. The results of regression analysis showed that in all clusters, performance has a negative coefficient and a significant value. This means that more than anything, increasing the yield will reduce the water footprint. Also, the trend of climatic variables showed that temperature is increasing and humidity and precipitation are decreasing, but this trend is statistically no significance and weak.
 
The three provinces of North, Razavi and South Khorasan have the highest level of cultivation and production of saffron in Iran. Based on the results, the average annual production of saffron in three clusters is equal to 157.8 tons/year during the studied period. The highest yield of saffron is related to cluster 3 and Faruj county (4.3 kg/ha) and the lowest yield is related to cluster 1 and Bejestan county (2.5 kg/ha). The weighted average of the total water footprint of saffron is 2833 M3/kg, the largest share of water footprint is related to cluster 1 and Bejestan county (3884.8 M3/kg), which according to the results has the lowest yield, and the lowest share of water footprint is related to Cluster 2 and Torbat Heydarieh county (1331.1 M3/kg). According to the results, the highest and lowest economic value of the total water footprint of saffron in the study area is related to cluster 1 in Beshroieh (1.03 $/M3) and Bejestan (0.40 $/M3), respectively. The trend analysis of water footprint components showed that during the studied period, the water footprint components in all three clusters had a significant decreasing trend, and the yield of saffron also had an increasing trend. The trend of climatic variables confirms the increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation, therefore, climate change has occurred in the region, and according to the change of climatic variables and the impact of water footprint on climate change, it is possible to adapt this species to the change by changing the cultivation period or changing the genotype.

Urban gardens are important not only in terms of landuse but also in terms of the urban infrastructure, and their protection is an intergenerational responsibility. In recent decades, urban growth, inability to adapt ecological potential to the horizontal development of the city, weak integrated land management, inconsistencies in legal principles, lack of water resources and land trade, have led to the destruction of gardens and Irregular construction in them. The continuation of this process will face a crisis in urban life. Accordingly, the mechanism of protection of urban gardens has become a serious issue. This paper aims to explain the importance of urban gardens as urban green infrastructure, based on Water Footprint Protection and planning experiences and legal principles and by examining the special plan of Nazhvan lands as one of the successful experiences in this field, to introduce a desirable model to prevent the decline of urban ecosystem. This paper in terms of orientation is an applied research and in terms of the nature and subject of the research is descriptive and explanatory-predictive. The strategy of the research is based on qualitative research and case study, and data gathering has been done through documentary study and focus group. In this paper, ‘Nazhvan Special Plan’ has been analyzed using strategic analysis (SWOT) method based on the criteria of Plan-Process-Results (PPR) evaluation model and its orientations and intervention methods have been analyzed based on green infrastructure principles. The results of the analysis indicate that in Nazhvan Special Plan, the garden is seen as a part of the integrated structure of Isfahan green infrastructure and the main proposals of the plan are expressed in four types of protection, support, development and organization in order to maintain and expand the gardens. Evaluation of Nazhvan Special Plan shows that this plan has acted in acceptable quality in 50% of the criterias including Internal coherence, Interpretation of planning system, Relevance, external coherence and Direction, 30% of the criterias need to be completed and 20% of the criterias need to be modified and revised to be used in similar future experiences.

This study was conducted with the aim of estimating and modeling the green and blue water footprint of wheat crop using machine learning models in irrigated lands during (2004-2016). Therefore, using climatic and crop data and the fuzzy cluster method, the irrigated wheat cultivation areas in Fars province were divided into four homogeneous regions. Blue, green and gray water footprints were estimated in each region based on the Hoekstra framework. Then, the water footprint in the homogeneous climate was divided into two categories: training (70%) and testing (30%) and using the neural network model and two kernel such as log logistic and hyperbolic tangent (50 input combinations), random forest model and support vector regression (Sigmoid kernel function) was predicted with climatic and plant variables and the results of the models were compared with error evaluation indices and Taylor diagram. The results showed that the best model for estimating the water footprint of wheat in Fars province is the artificial neural network model with logistic log function with a correlation coefficient of more than 0.72 and an average absolute error of less than 0.48. This model can help improve the decision-making process for water managers and planners in the agricultural sector.

Economic Ecological Efficiency is defined as the efficiency of using environmental resources to meet human needs. This concept can be considered as a suitable criterion for evaluating the sustainability of production and its economic efficiency. Due to the fact that the production of agricultural products is associated with environmental effects and the highest amount of water consumption is used to produce agricultural products on a global scale, so in this study, in order to investigate the environmental effects of wheat production, water index was used. For this purpose, first the traces of wheat water in the provinces of the country during the period 2000-2011 were calculated and then the economic-ecological efficiency of wheat production was estimated. The results of water footprint calculation showed that the provinces of Gilan, South Khorasan, Semnan and Sistan and Baluchestan have the average total of more water footprint in wheat production. Also, the average water, green and gray water footprint in the country during the study period was equal to 2625.7, 428.1 and 594.1 cubic meters per ton. The results of estimating the economic-environmental efficiency also showed that among the studied variables, compositional input and green water footprint have the most positive effect on improving the production value of wheat. The results also show that the provinces of East Azerbaijan, North Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi have the lowest average efficiency and the provinces of Gilan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Mazandaran and Ilam have the highest economic-ecological efficiency of wheat production, respectively. The average total economic-ecological efficiency of wheat production was estimated to be 0.84. Also, the results of estimating the inefficiency model showed that the economic-ecological efficiency of crop production is higher for areas with per capita GDP and higher rainfall

Achieving food and water security is one of the most important goals of policymakers in different countries. Water scarcity in Iran could be one of the major food security challenges in the future. For this purpose, climatic zoning was performed using the Domarten method. After calculating the water requirement using CROPWAT software; the amount of virtual water, water footprint, water productivity, volume of water consumed by each crop in each zone and the optimal food gap in different climates were calculated. According to the results; The per capita water footprint of the agricultural sector in hyper-arid, desert arid, semi-arid, Mediterranean and humid climates and Iran is 1611.97, 1228.09, 665.83, 884.01, 600.21 and 998.20cubic meters, respectively. In addition, the intensity of water consumption within the 5 climatic zones and Iran is 64.89, 88.03, 63.19, 41.01, 56.38 and 65.48 %, respectively. Net virtual water imports for each zone show that desert arid and humid zones are exporters of virtual water and hyper-arid, semi-arid and Mediterranean zones are importers of virtual water. The results show a contradiction between the realization of water security and food security in terms of quantity. The results showed that if the goal is to establish water security; by increasing the net import of virtual water (in the case of high-consumption products with low water efficiency), the intensity of pressure on domestic water resources in each area could be reduced. But if the goal is self-sufficiency; If the current situation does not change (crop composition in cropping pattern, yield and irrigation efficiency in each zone), more pressure will be put on water resources. Therefore, in order to achieve the goals of self-sufficiency and water security coefficients at the same time; It is recommended to increase the yield, improve the irrigation efficiency, formulate a suitable cultivation pattern and allocate water resources according to water productivity and its yield in each zone.

Red meat plays an important role in providing animal protein of Iranian households. However, its supply has experienced some challenges stemming from exchange rate fluctuations, smuggling livestock to the neighboring countries, and importing frozen meat financed by subsidized currency. In addition, there has been significant emphasis on self-sufficiency and providing the red meat domestically. On the other hand, based on Falcon Mark index, Iran has encountered water tension, the situation that may be getting worse as self-sufficiency is more focused. Regarding the problem, this study aimed at investigating different scenarios of domestically-produced and import of red meat with due consideration of simultaneously minimizing the costs of red meat and water use. For this purpose, multiobjective programing was applied using data for 2000-2018 in which minimization of spending for domestic consumption and water footprint embodied in domestic production was included. The selected scenarios were different combinations of the weights for minimization objectives. The results showed that depending on the weights assigned to the objectives, providing 30-40 percent of domestic need from domestically produced red meat was recommended while the remaining need might be provided via imports. The findings revealed that recommended combination for domestically-produced and imported red meat could reduce the spending on domestic need and water footprint significantly, resulting in 63 percent and 42 percent reduction in water use and cost spending, respectively; in addition, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced. These results are the result of importing sheep meat from Australia or cattle meat with bones from Brazil. In spite of a significant reduction in the objectives’ values, the selected countries for import revealed a low diversity.

The concept of virtual water has considerable potential to help improving water management, especially in the agricultural sector. Therefore, virtual water analysis of basic products of the agricultural sector can help us in policy-making and planning in the optimal use of water resources. In this study, the amount of virtual water and its related indicators were determined using the basic approach and then, based on the amount of production and demand of the province for agricultural products, the amount of agricultural exchanges and the trade balance of virtual water in Hamadan province in 2018 were estimated. The results showed that the trade flow of the studied products has a volume equal to 924.7 million m3 of virtual water exports outside the province and 33.4 million m3 of virtual water imports into the province. Based on this, the trade balance of virtual water was estimated at 891.3 million m3. These results show that Hamedan province produces and exports water-intensive products within the province. The positive and significant trade balance warns of the need to change the cultivation pattern in the province due to the lack of water resources. According to the results of the study, it is suggested that the area under cultivation of crops such as corn, beans and alfalfa with high virtual water content be reduced and crops such as fodder corn and sugar beet, which require less virtual water, be replaced.

In this study, spatial and temporal distribution of water footprint components have been estimated in irrigated cotton production. The economic value of water footprint has been calculated during 2005 to 2017 and the results have been compared with the wheat crop in the producing provinces. The results showed that the average ecological footprint of water in the mentioned product is 4019 m3/ton, which is the share of green, blue and gray water footprint is 2.3%, 87.6% and 10.1, respectively. Khorasan Jonoubi province (5716 m3/ton) and Alborz province (2235.5 m3/ton) have the highest and lowest water footprints in Iran, respectively. The average economic value of water footprint in Iran is 0.37 USD/m3, which is the highest (0.62 USD/m3) and the lowest (0.24 USD/m3) in Alborz and Khorasan Jonoubi, respectively. Meanwhile, in terms of the economic value of the footprint, Iran is the third largest producer of cotton (after China and Greece). Comparison of footprint and its economic value with wheat shows that the value of water in cotton is higher in all provinces, but in Alborz, Golestan, Mazandaran and Ardabil provinces, the difference is much more noticeable. Finally, the results of this study showed that the volume of virtual water used in cotton production in Iran is 278 MCM and considering the per capita consumption of cotton in Iran (600MCM), the average annual 322 MCM (50.5 thousand ton Cotton) is imported from other countries in the form of virtual water with a value of $ 70 million per year.