The delusive accuracy of global irrigation water withdrawal estimates

Arnald Puy; Razi Sheikholeslami; Hoshin V Gupta; Jim W Hall; Bruce Lankford; Samuele Lo Piano; Jonas Meier; Florian Pappenberger; Amilcare Porporato; Giulia Vico; Andrea Saltelli

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-30731-8

The delusive accuracy of global irrigation water withdrawal estimates

Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 8;13(1):3183. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30731-8.

Authors

Arnald Puy^{1

2}, Razi Sheikholeslami^{3

4}, Hoshin V Gupta⁵, Jim W Hall³, Bruce Lankford⁶, Samuele Lo Piano⁷, Jonas Meier⁸, Florian Pappenberger⁹, Amilcare Porporato¹⁰, Giulia Vico¹¹, Andrea Saltelli^{12

13}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, M31 Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA. apuy@princeton.edu.
² Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen, Parkveien 9, PB 7805, 5020, Bergen, Norway. apuy@princeton.edu.
³ Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁴ Department of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, 1133 E. James E. Rogers Way, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁶ School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
⁷ School of the Built Environment, University of Reading, JJ Thompson Building, Whiteknights Campus, Reading, RG6 6AF, UK.
⁸ German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), Muenechner Strasse 20, 82234, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
⁹ European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Princeton High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA.
¹¹ Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, SE-75007, Sweden.
¹² Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen, Parkveien 9, PB 7805, 5020, Bergen, Norway.
¹³ UPF Barcelona School of Management, Carrer de Balmes 132, 08008, Barcelona, Spain.

Abstract

Miscalculating the volumes of water withdrawn for irrigation, the largest consumer of freshwater in the world, jeopardizes sustainable water management. Hydrological models quantify water withdrawals, but their estimates are unduly precise. Model imperfections need to be appreciated to avoid policy misjudgements.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Agricultural Irrigation*
Water*

Substances

Water