Farm-Scale Biofuel Crop Adoption and Its Effects on In-Basin Water Balance Academic Article

abstract

• In the face of future climate change, Europe has encouraged the adoption of biofuel crops by its farmers. Such land-use changes can have significant impacts on the water balance and hydrological behavior of a system. While the heavy pesticide use associated with biofuel crops has been extensively studied, the water balance impacts of these crops have been far less studied. We conducted scenario analyses using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to determine the effects of farm-scale biofuel crop adoption (rapeseed) on a basins water balance. We found that rapeseed adoption does not support the goal of developing a sustainable agricultural landscape in the Czech Republic. The adoption of rapeseed also had disproportionate effects on a basins water balance depending on its location in the basin. Additionally, discharge (especially surface runoff ratios), evapotranspiration, and available soil water content display significant shifts in the rapeseed adoption scenarios.

authors

• Srinivasan, Raghavan

published proceedings

• SUSTAINABILITY

altmetric score

• 2.85

author list (cited authors)

• Noreika, N., Li, T., Zumr, D., Krasa, J., Dostal, T., & Srinivasan, R.

citation count

• 5

complete list of authors

• Noreika, Nina||Li, Tailin||Zumr, David||Krasa, Josef||Dostal, Tomas||Srinivasan, Raghavan

publication date

• December 2020

publisher

• MDPI  Publisher

published in

• Sustainability  Journal

keywords

• Biofuel Crop
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Swat Model
• Water Balance

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.3390/su122410596

start page

• 10596

end page

• 10596

volume

• 12

issue

• 24

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su122410596

user-defined tag

• 15 Life on Land