Case study: water reuse in citrus farming - carbon emissions reduction and ecosystems protection

• Author(s): Resende, Flávia C. ; Silva, Manuela Fernanda Gomes Moreira da ; Anibal, Jaime ; Martins, António ; Duarte, Amilcar
• Date: 2025
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/27890
• Origin: Sapientia - Universidade do Algarve
• Document Type: Book part
• Language: English
• Contributor(s): Sapientia

Description

Anthropogenic factors and climate change are putting increasing pressure on natural water resources, threatening habitats and biodiversity (Libutti et al.2018, Rebelo et al., 2020). Worldwide, agriculture uses around 70% of the total water used in human activities. In addition, the demand for food and animal feed production tends to increase with the growth of the world population (Parris, 2010; Becerra-Castro et al., 2015; Chartzoulakis & Bertaki, 2015; Karandish & Šimunek, 2016). Meanwhile, freshwater use has exceeded recharge levels, leading to the desiccation of water streams, and the groundwater over-extraction has promoted saline intrusion phenomena in several coastal areas, posing additional constraints to agricultural irrigation, decreasing production and lowering crop yields (Jenkins & Sugden, 2006). To face this scenario, agriculture sustainability in more vulnerable regions, such as the south of Portugal, where water scarcity is a common reality, involves the choice of an alternative water supply and more efficient irrigation systems (Fatta-Kassinos et al., 2011; Jiang et al., 2016), as well as crop selection.