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Evapotranspiration management based on the application of SWAT for balancing water consumption: A case study in Guantao, China

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Abstract

Rapid social and economic development results in increased demand for water resources. This can lead to the unsustainable development and exploitation of water resources which in turn causes significant environmental problems. Conventional water resource management approaches, such as supply and demand management strategies, frequently fail to restore regional water balance. This paper introduces the concept of water consumption balance, the balance between actual evapotranspiration (ET) and target ET, and establishes a framework to realize regional water balance. The framework consists of three stages: (1) determination of target ET and actual ET; (2) quantification of the water-saving requirements for the region; and (3) reduction of actual ET by implementing various water saving management strategies. Using this framework, a case study was conducted for Guantao County, China. The SWAT model was utilized to aid in the selection of the best water saving management strategy by comparing the ET of different irrigation methods and crop pattern adjustments. Simulation results revealed that determination of SWAT model parameters using remote sensing ET is feasible and that the model is a valuable tool for ET management. Irrigation was found to have a greater influence on the ET of winter wheat as compared to that of maize, indicating that reduction in winter wheat cultivation is the most effective way to reduce regional ET. However, the effect of water-saving irrigation methods on the reduction of ET was not obvious. This indicates that it would be difficult to achieve regional ET reduction using water-saving irrigation methods only. Furthermore, selecting the best water saving management strategy by relying solely on the amount of reduced ET was insufficient, because it ignored the impact of water conservation measures on the livelihood of the agricultural community. Incorporating these considerations with our findings, we recommend changing the current irrigation method to sprinkler irrigation and replacing 20% of the winter wheat-maize cultivated area with cotton, as the best strategy to achieve water balance in the study area.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Project of Hebei Province, China (Grant No. 15227005D) and Scientific Research Project of Hebei Provincial Education Department (QN2016233, ZD2016131). We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Water Resources, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, 1-A Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100 038, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Liu & Hong Gan

  2. Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, 056 021, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Liu

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  1. Bin Liu
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  2. Hong Gan
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Correspondence to Bin Liu.

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Corresponding editor: Subimal Ghosh

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Liu, B., Gan, H. Evapotranspiration management based on the application of SWAT for balancing water consumption: A case study in Guantao, China. J Earth Syst Sci 127, 51 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-018-0958-8

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