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The correct supply of water and nutrients is very important in hydroponic growing systems in order to use water and fertilizers efficiently and avoid stress situations. Usually, in low-cost hydroponic greenhouses using open hydroponic systems, the supply of water and nutrients is performed with a constant irrigation frequency, changing the dose to ensure that each irrigation cycle (each day) delivers the amount of nutrient solution needed for the plants, plus an additional 20 to 30% leaching fraction. This type of irrigation control may result in suboptimal conditions in many periods of time, although the total amount of irrigation solution supplied to the crop may be much larger than required. For an efficient irrigation the present theoretical study proposes that in open hydroponic systems there is a significant possibility to preserve water and nutrients, by shifting the irrigation control from a changeable irrigation dose according to evapotranspiration to an irrigation dose calculated according to the amount of used substrate in the bag, the characteristics of the substrate and the salt concentration of used water. The frequency of irrigation is recommended to be performed according to evapotranspiration. The proposed irrigation control is more rational than the currently used control method as it takes into account the characteristics on water holding capacity of the used substrates, resulting to a conservation of fertilizers and water.

The present piece of research work was carried out at the field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, from December 2010 to May 2011 to determine optimum irrigation levels for the hybrid maize varieties. There were four hybrid maize varieties: V1 (BARI Hybrid Maize-5), V2 (Pacific 60), V3 (NK 40) and V4 (Ajanta) and three levels of irrigation: I1 = Two irrigations at 25 and 50 DAS, I2 = Three irrigations at 25, 50 and 75 DAS and I3 = Four irrigations at 25, 50, 75 and 100 DAS, respectively. Almost all the plant and yield contributing characters showed significant variation except days to 6 leaf stage and days to bud initiation stage. The maximum yields were recorded in V1I3 (7.92 t ha-1) which was statistically identical to V4I3 (7.83 t ha-1), V2I3 (7.45 t ha-1), V1I2 (7.40 t ha-1), V2I2 (6.87 t ha-1) and V4I2 (6.80 t ha-1), respectively. The highest benefit cost ratio (BCR) was observed (2.37) in both V1I3 and V1I2 treatment combination. Moreover, total average water saving in one hectare land for maize cultivation by adopting I2 irrigation treatment over I3 is 4,49,837 gallons. Among the treatment combinations, V1I3 (BARI Hybrid Maize-5 with three irrigations at 25, 50 and 75 DAS) was the suitable combination in terms of grain yield and economic return for maize cultivation.

CropSyst (Cropping Systems Simulation) is used as an analytic tool for studying irrigation water management to increase wheat productivity. Therefore, two field experiments were conducted to 1) calibrate CropSyst model for wheat grown under sprinkler and drip irrigation systems, 2) to use the simulation results to analyse the relationship between applied irrigation amount and the resulted yield and 3) to simulate the effect of saving irrigation water on wheat yield. Drip irrigation system in three treatments (100%, 75% and 50% of crop evapotranspiration – ETc) and under sprinkler irrigation system in five treatments (100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20% of ETc) were imposed on these experiments. Results using CropSyst calibration revealed-that results of using CropSyst calibration revealed that the model was able to predict wheat grain and biological yield, with high degree of accuracy. Using 100% ETc under drip system resulted in very low water stress index (WSI = 0.008), whereas using 100% ETc sprinkler system resulted in WSI = 0.1, which proved that application of 100% ETc enough to ensure high yield. The rest of deficit irrigation treatments resulted in high yield losses. Simulation of application of 90% ETc not only reduced yield losses to either irrigation system, but also increased land and water productivity. Thus, it can be recommended to apply irrigation water to wheat equal to 90% ETc to save on the applied water and increase water productivity.

Abstract Sanitary-ware industry, as a sub-sector in the ceramic industry, is a great consumer of energy and water, although there are some opportunities to reduce the global consumption, especially for factories based on resin molds technology. This research aims to show the way to reduce drastically water consumption by recovering waste heat into a multi-effect distillation system to re-use most of the flushing water. This solution improves both, the environmental and economic performance of this industry. The proposed configuration is a multi-effect distillation (MED) adapted to run with recovered heat from the kiln exhausting. The efficiency of the system is improved by recovering the heat of the gas mixture leaving the first effect in the pre-heater of the feeding water. The research lays on the computerized simulation of the coupled systems run under different parameters. Mathematical and thermodynamic models have been developed to simulate the behavior of the system. The obtained results show the optimal configuration depending on the thermal variables which could achieve up to almost 92% of the needed water against conventional technology. The system can be applicable to new or existing factories based on resin molds technology and this research may contribute to reduce consumption of resources and thus, the environmental impact. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Water consumption reduction in a sanitary-ware factory is presented and validated. • Heat recovery from kiln provides energy for the water treatment by MED distillation. • Water management accounting as an extension to environmental management accounting. • Proposed method produces reductions of resources and economic improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A new cost-effective indicator of assessing irrigation performance can be performed by using surface energy balance models. • Comparing hydrants delivered water volumes to surface energy balance actual evapotranspiration can be used for assessing irrigation systems. • A methodology to extract actual evapotranspiration was set to overcome the bias induced by cubic convolution resampling of satellite images. • It was observed that monthly irrigation volumes applied at plot scale were higher than actual evapotranspiration under full water supply. • It was demonstrated that a considerable amount of water could have been saved in the whole irrigation district over an entire irrigation season. Abstract Remote sensing techniques allow monitoring the Earth surface and acquiring worthwhile information that can be used efficiently in agro-hydrological systems. Satellite images associated to computational models represent reliable resources to estimate actual evapotranspiration fluxes, ET a , based on surface energy balance. The knowledge of ET a and its spatial distribution is crucial for a broad range of applications at different scales, from fields to large irrigation districts. In single plots and/or in irrigation districts, linking water volumes delivered to the plots with the estimations of remote sensed ET a can have a great potential to develop new cost-effective indicators of irrigation performance, as well as to increase water use efficiency. With the aim to assess the irrigation system performance and the opportunities to save irrigation water resources at the "SAT Llano Verde" district in Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) was applied on cloud-free Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images, processed by cubic convolution resampling method, for three irrigation seasons (May to September 2006, 2007 and 2008). The model allowed quantifying instantaneous, daily, monthly and seasonal ET a over the irrigation district. The comparison between monthly irrigation volumes distributed by each hydrant and the corresponding spatially averaged ET a , obtained by assuming an overall efficiency of irrigation network equal to 85%, allowed the assessment of the irrigation system performance for the area served by each hydrant, as well as for the whole irrigation district. It was observed that in all the investigated years, irrigation volumes applied monthly by farmers resulted generally higher than the corresponding evapotranspiration fluxes retrieved by SEBAL, with the exception of May, in which abundant rainfall occurred. When considering the entire irrigation seasons, it was demonstrated that a considerable amount of water could have been saved in the district, respectively equal to 26.2, 28.0 and 16.4% of the total water consumption evaluated in the three years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A new method for irrigation scheduling is proposed and tested. • The proposed method can save irrigation water without significant yield loss. • Forecasting performance of total rainfall in consecutive 3 days is higher than daily forecasts. • The rule-based method incorporated with weather forecasts is suggested for irrigation practice. Abstract Better use of rainfall is an essential strategy to save irrigation water for paddy rice. Since unnecessary irrigation is usually applied to field without considering the possible rainfall after irrigation, weather forecast (e.g., rainfall) can be used to potentially save irrigation water. In this study, the rainfall event mainly focused on the total rainfall in consecutive 3 days within rice growth period rather than the daily rainfall. Based on that, three rain levels were redefined for irrigation decision-making. By incorporating the possible rain level of the first 3 days in weather forecast horizon, a new method based on simple decision rule was proposed and evaluated for irrigation scheduling of paddy rice over a wide range of climate conditions in China. The results indicated that, the occurrence probability of each rain level in next 3 days can be clearly recognized, and their forecasting performance was much better than that of daily rain events. Comparing to the conventional irrigation, the newly proposed irrigation scheduling method can further save irrigation water (about 0 − 100 mm) and reduce drainage (about 0 − 60 mm) without significant yield loss (< 1%). The results also showed that, the efficiency of water saving and drainage reduction had a certain correlation with the total rainfall and the daily rainfall distribution during rice growth period. Moreover, about 1 − 3 extra irrigations were needed in this new irrigation scheduling method due to great temp-spatial variation of rainfall distributions and imperfect weather forecasts. Nevertheless, the newly proposed irrigation scheduling method incorporated with weather forecast is suggested to apply in irrigation practice for its simplicity and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The effect of trimming around 40–60% of shoot length was evaluated. • Vine water status was determined through stem water potential and carbon isotope ratio analyses. • Positive effects of trimming on vine water status were only observed with warmer and drier climate conditions. • Yield, cluster number and cluster weight were not affected by severe trimming. Abstract Viticulture in Southern Europe heads towards a scenario of drier and warmer the growing seasons due to climate change. This decrease in the amount of water available for the vines and increase in evapotranspiration make necessary finding strategies to reduce vineyard water needs. In this context, the effect of severe trimming (40–60% of shoot length), performed at pea-size stage, on plant water status was evaluated in four different vineyards located in North of Spain. Severe trimming improved plant water status clearly only when climate conditions were more demanding, whereas only a slight improvement or no change was observed elsewhere. Lower leaf areas resulted in less water deficit following a logarithmical trend revealing that the effect was more pronounced at low leaf area levels. Severe trimming had non-significant effects on cluster number, yield and cluster weight, but presents a tendency to reduce total soluble solids content and to increase total acidity, consequently delaying ripening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a water saving approach through the reuse of washing wastewater without draining. The final bath (neutralisation bath) of the washing processes for cleaning purposes is not drained but reused in the first step of the next washing process. All the practises are carried out in plant scale and by using actual operational data. It is found that 10-30% water saving can be obtained in washing processes without any investment cost. It is also observed that the method does not have considerable negative effect on the quality of the fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Proposed a new method to achieve waste heat recovery and water saving. • Verified that waste heat recovery can offset property reduction of air-cooled mode. • Both energy and exergy analysis are conducted to identify advantages of new system. Abstract A new air-cooled gas-steam combined cycle cogeneration system with absorption heat pump for recovering waste heat from exhausted steam of the steam turbine to achieve double effects of waste heat recovery and water saving is proposed based on a conventional water-cooled gas-steam combined cycle cogeneration system in the paper. The property criteria variation is analyzed before and after modification. In addition, the exergy analyses of primary equipments are carried out based upon the exergy analysis theory. The results demonstrate that the net generating power is approximately increased by 11,082 kW, equivalent coal consumption is reduced by 2.71 g/kWh, the net overall thermal efficiency is improved by 0.91% with 334,245 kW heating load at 100% load of the gas turbine in the modified system. Besides, the overall exergy loss is decreased by 6448 kW and exergy efficiency is improved by 0.98%. The overall property of the whole system is improved. The results show that the property reduction caused by air-cooling modification can be made up by the property improvement due to waste heat recovery. Moreover, the cooling circulating water can be saved by 1196.34 kg/s. The presented measure can not only improve performance of the system but also simultaneously achieve energy and water saving on the premise of satisfying user needs, which has a wide application potential in the water-shortage regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Sanitary-ware manufacturing has a specific particular configuration of energy consumption from the thermal point of view. Heat requirements and temperature levels through the different sub-processes in the manufacturing sequence are distributed in such a way that a proper network of recovered heat can save up to 1/3 of the primary energy consumption of the factory. A half of the total thermal requirement is devoted to fire the ware along a tunnel kiln that exhausts ¾ of this heat through the exhausting and cooling stacks at a temperature a proper temperature level to be recovered in the rest of common thermal processes as drying or heating. On the other hand, the great water consumption to flush resin molds can be saved by a multi-effect distillation treatment fed with recovered heat. Instead of rejecting it with solved salts, a combined power plant optimally sized can be coupled to match both, electrical and thermal consumptions allowing for extra heat to distillate the flushing water. This research shows how sanitary-ware manufacturing can be re-engineered to save most of the water and 31 percentof primary energy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Lebanon is facing an increasing water supply deficit due to the increasing demand for freshwater, decreasing surface and groundwater resources and malfunctioning water governance structures. Technological and policy changes are needed to alleviate the impact of water scarcity and secure water in the future. This paper investigates farmers' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) in a choice experiment for a series of water saving measures at plot and irrigation district level, including more timely information of water delivery. These measures are expected to strengthen water security and use water more efficiently. Farmers are willing to pay higher water prices of $0.32/m3 and $0.22/m3 to support the implementation of water saving measures at plot level and the installation of water metering devices across the irrigation district, respectively. They are not willing to pay extra for obtaining information related to their water delivery earlier in time if this means that they will also have to pay earlier in the year for the water. Farmers with higher income and education levels who decide on their cropping pattern based on expected rainfall data are more interested in taking action than farmers whose cropping decisions are primarily based on last year's sales prices. The study shows that when aiming to design more effective sustainable water management strategies, accounting for farmers' needs and preferences, their age also has to be considered: younger farmers (<40 years) are on average more interested in and willing to pay more for new water saving measures than older farmers (>40 years). Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Farmers are asked for their water security needs and preferences in a survey. • New water saving technologies are proposed at plot and irrigation district level. • Farmers are willing to pay higher water fees to secure water supply in the future. • New irrigation technologies and policies at plot level are preferred. • Investment costs can be recovered from water pricing policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress is one of the most important a biotic stresses in agriculture worldwide, especially under rainfed conditions. Its impacts include reduction in growth, yield quantity and quality. The present experiment was carried out at the Agricultural Research Station of Mersa- Matruh, Mersa- Matruh Governorate, Egypt during 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 cropping seasons, to evaluate the effect of compost and spraying of indole-3- butyric acid growth and yield of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under rainfed conditions. Application of 4 ton compost fed-1 gave the highest significant values of plant height, branches and seed number plant-1 as well as capsules number and weight plant-1. Also, seed weight plant-1and 100 seed weight as well as seed, straw and biological yield fed- 1. In addition, NPK percentage in chickpea seed and straw as well as percentage of crude protein, total sugars and carbohydrates in both seasons. Spraying indole-3-butyric acid by the rate of 80 ppm gave the highest significant values of all parameters under study. Foliar application of indole-3-butyric acid by the rate of 80 ppm under 4 ton compost gave the highest significant values of all parameters in both seasons. Compost provides nutrients to the soil and improves water holding capacity. Spraying indole-3-butyric acid significantly reduces transpiration rate. Therefore, use of growth regulating substances and compost practices led to accomplish both acceptable chickpea yield quantity and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A maize crop was fully irrigated following two irrigation scheduling strategies (S). • S1 applied the one recommended by MOPECO and S2 the one proposed by the farmer. • The S2 profitability was higher due to the lack of irrigation uniformity of the plots. • The farmer compensated the lack of uniformity by supplying higher irrigation depths. • Under high uniformity conditions S1 is more profitable and efficient in the water use. Abstract Optimized irrigation scheduling to better match applied water to crop requirements can reduce the consumptive use of water and energy, improve water use efficiency, and increase gross profit margin. However, the distribution uniformity of applied irrigation can modify the way reduced water applications influence field-averaged performance, especially for crops sensitive to water stress as maize, in which the most sensitive stages are those related with reproduction and grain formation. We evaluated the effect of irrigation uniformity on the yield and profitability of maize (Zea Mays L.) in Albacete, Spain in two adjacent sectors equipped with a solid set sprinkler irrigation system of a field managed according to FAO-56 methodology throughout the growing season to maximize grain yield without water stress (Sector S1) or irrigation scheduling determined by an experienced producer (Sector S2). Irrigation uniformity was evaluated using catch cans in both fields and grain yield was harvested within zones exhibiting 75% (Z1), 100% (Z2), and 125% (Z3) of area-averaged volume applications throughout the year. The average coefficient of uniformity (CU) in both sectors (S1 and S2) was 83.5%, and the net amount of applied irrigation water totaled 709 mm in S1 and 832 mm in S2. Average grain yield in sector S2 approached the maximum expected yield of 18.4 Mg ha−1 and exhibited no significant differences in yield among zones. In contrast, sector S1 exhibited significant yield differences (p < 0.05) among zones with a measured yield in Z3 of 18.5 Mg ha−1 and a yield reduction of 1.6 Mg ha−1 and 4.0 Mg ha−1 in Z2 and Z1, respectively. Consequently, the area-averaged yield in S1 was 8% less than in S2. This last treatment was positively influenced by a higher amount of irrigation water supplied to the crop (17%), which decreased the effect of low CU (83.5%). The grain yields simulated by MOPECO for each monitoring zone within the sectors exhibited similar magnitude and trends. Because of these yield differences and the relatively low cost of irrigation water, area averaged gross margin in S1 was 18% less compared with S2. Simulations with MOPECO over a range of CU's demonstrated that improved irrigation uniformity increased area-averaged yields and gross margin when following S1 instead of S2 strategy. The main innovations of this work were to quantify the effect of irrigation uniformity on the gross margin of a maize crop, and to highlight that in arid and semiarid areas with water scarce conditions, it is a better strategy to improve the irrigation uniformity than supply a higher amount of irrigation water to mask the lack of uniformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Varied water use in every aspect of life makes its availability extremely important; this beneficiary is strongly influenced by its quantity and quality. Community participation is needed to identify the characteristics and patterns of clean water consumption, especially at the household level, in order to better understand and explore the quantity of clean water consumption and the related behavior of the community of this project. Thereafter, efforts should be made to encourage the conservation of clean water consumption from the aspect of needs control. It can be seen from the results of the project that there is water saving potential from six main activities of household water usage, namely bathing, brushing of teeth, washing of hands and face, dish washing, clothes washing, and floor cleaning. To obtain the best data quality, the data collection method of each activity is divided into secondary and primary data, collected either through other sources or references, or by conducting a direct survey in the field of the target respondents selected. The study measures how much clean water saving potential there was with regard to nine respondents selected through a joint selection process. The greatest water saving potential derived from behavioral changes in washing activities, at 90 liters per activity. The potential water savings that could be achieved in the dish washing activity amounted to 86.4 liters. By undertaking the water saving activities in line with the calculations of the research, the respondents could save between Rp 136.797 (US$ 9,4) to Rp 192.103,- (US$ 13,2) per month. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The 3-D model has additional consideration on point-source discharge from individual drippers. • A semi-elliptic cylindrical wet bulb along drip lines matched well with cotton layout. • The wet front interferences among drippers require to optimize dripper spacing. • Too long irrigation intervals would result in elevating soil salinity in root zone. Abstract Two-dimensional (2-D) numerical models have been widely used to predict soil water-salt transport under mulched drip irrigation. However, conventional 2-D models often neglect the spatial variation of soil water-salt transport along drip lines and over-simplifies it by averaging values. This calls for a more robust model to better reflect the actual spatial and temporal variation of soil water-salt distribution in the field, especially in arid regions using brackish water with additional salt. In this study, mulched drip irrigation with brackish water was applied to a cotton field with loam soil in an arid region of southern Xinjiang, northwest China. The changes of soil water potential and total dissolved solid (TDS) of soil water over two irrigation events were intensively measured on hourly base to establish and calibrate a 3-D model, and another five irrigation cycles were monitored on daily base to validate the 3-D model. The mean absolute relative errors between measured and calculated soil water potential and TDS of soil water were 13.7% and 10.7% during hourly-based model calibration, even though there might be bias inevitably introduced by pre-determined sampling intervals and volumes. The calculated values during model validation were reasonably in line with the temporal patterns of soil moisture and TDS before and after irrigation at different irrigation cycles. This 3-D model was then applied to predict the spatial and temporal variations of soil water-salt transport during and after irrigation. Our results show that (1) the 3-D model with additional consideration on point-source discharge from individual drippers effectively reflected the wet front interferences along the drip lines. (2) A semi-elliptic cylindrical wet bulb together with relatively low salinity was formed along the drip lines, which matched well with the cotton layout (one mulch, two drip lines and four rows). However, the uneven overlapping of wet front interferences among individual drippers required to optimize the design of dripper intervals and irrigation regime to provide desirable soil water-salt conditions for cotton growth in this loam soil. (3) During the 96 h after irrigation, the TDS of soil water was always greatest in the dense root zone, increasing from approximately 3.8 g L−1 to 7.0 g L−1 as a result of root water uptake. Such localized re-salinization patterns demand repeated leaching in continued irrigation cycles to ensure cotton growth. Our study suggests that a smaller interspace between drippers with short but more frequent irrigation cycles would be much more helpful to timely and spatial-precisely meet plant water demanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment was performed to study gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence responses of rice (Oryza sativa L.) to various regimes, such as flooding-midseason drying-flooding (FDF), flooding-midseason drying-saturation (FDS), and flooding-rain-fed (FR) regimes. Compared to FDF, FR resulted in an obvious decrease in net photosynthetic rate (PN), due to the decrease in stomatal conductance and the increase in stomatal limitation. In contrast, FDS plants did not suffer stomatal limitation and had comparable PN with FDF plants. For diurnal light-saturated electron transport rate and saturation irradiance, FDF performed the best, which was followed by FDS and FR successively. FR and FDS plants tended to suffer from midday depression. FDS reduced irrigated water by 17.2% compared to FDF for comparable yields. The results suggested that FDS can be an effective irrigation regime to save water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The first study was carried out to show how setting WF benchmarks may help alleviate groundwater scarcity and pollution. • Iran's groundwater will be saved by 32% when reducing WFs of crops to 25th percentile benchmark levels. • Nitrogen-related grey ground WF will be lowered by 23% through setting WF benchmarks. • A significant increase in economic groundwater productivity is acheived when setting benchmark levels at 25th percentile. • The introduced methodology here is a promising way to alleviate overexploitation of aquifers and increase national food security. Abstract The formulation of water footprint (WF) benchmarks in crop production – i.e. identifying reference levels of reasonable amounts of water consumption and pollution per tonne of crop produced – has been suggested as a promising strategy to counter inefficient water use and pollution. The current study is the first to show how setting WF benchmarks may help alleviate groundwater scarcity and pollution, in a case study for Iran. We advance the field of WF assessment by developing WF benchmark levels for crop production, which we successively use to assess potential groundwater saving, quality improvement and economic water productivity gains. First, we calculate climate-specific WF benchmark levels for both total blue water footprints and nitrogen-related grey groundwater footprints for 26 crops, for all years in the period 1980–2010, at 5 × 5′ spatial resolution. Second, we estimate the water saving potential for total blue water resources and for groundwater resources specifically, as well as the grey groundwater footprint reduction potential. Finally, we compare mean economic water productivities of crop production in the past with productivities if WFs are reduced to benchmark levels. We find that groundwater comprises up to 83% of total blue water consumption of irrigated crops, with the highest share in arid areas and in cereals. Aquifers are under significant to severe stress, except in the dry sub-humid zone, where irrigation mainly relies on surface water. Reducing WFs of crops to 25th percentile benchmark levels can save 32% of groundwater compared to the reference year 2010, and lower the nitrogen-related grey groundwater footprint by 23%. Moreover, it would increase average economic groundwater productivity in Iran by 20% for cereals, and 59% for nuts. We conclude that reducing WFs to climate-specific benchmark levels in a water-stressed country is a promising way to alleviate overexploitation of aquifers and increase national food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's steel industry is one of the major water consuming and wastewater discharge-producing industries. Based on a water flow model, this study provides reasonable and clear definitions of water usage indexes for steel production. Using a survey of key producers, the status and problems of water consumption and wastewater discharge in Chinese steel industry are analyzed. The developments of water conservation and emission reduction are divided into three different stages, and present a slide decreasing curve. At the process level, coking is the heaviest pollution unit, while ironmaking and steelmaking are key parts of water consumption. Although the water resource efficiency has been significantly improved, the water usage level of key producers in China has exceeded the average world steel level; however, it is still lower than other advanced countries. Therefore, some measures and recommendations need to be implemented for Chinese steel industry to save water and reduce emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the development of big sized finishing pigs rearing under commercial conditions in China, farmers were looking for the suitable allocations of wet-dry feeders and drinkers to save water and feed. An experiment was conducted to study the effect of new allocations of wet-dry feeders and drinkers on performance and water saving of finishing pigs compared with conventional allocations. The experiment was arranged with 4 replications for each treatment and 60 pigs per group (each group was made up of two pig pens). The experimental group new allocations: CS - stainless steel dry-wet feeder with 4 spaces, and there was a fence between two feeder spaces; 2 nipple drinkers were setup above the feeder, pigs could eat wet-dry feed of their free will. 2 cup drinkers in the two pens (1 for each pen) were named supplementary drinkers. The control group conventional allocations: Plastic dry-wet feeder with 8~12 spaces, there was no fence between feeder spaces, and there was 1 nipple drinker on each wet area, so pigs could eat wet-dry feed of their free will. 6 cup drinkers in two pens (3 for each pen) were named supplementary drinkers in the control group. The cup drinkers in the experimental group were turned off from 93 to 100 d (pigs age) and turned on from 101 to 140 d. The cup drinkers in the control group were turned on from 93 to 140 d. There was no significant difference in average initial body mass between experimental group and control group (the initial body mass was 41.3 kg for experimental group and 41.8 kg for control group (P>0.05)). They were used to evaluate the effect on production performance and water consumption. Environmental indices were monitored at the same time. When cup drinkers of the experimental group were turned off, there was no significant difference between experimental group and control group: (1.93±0.30) vs (1.92±0.35) kg for average daily feed consumption(P>0.05), (0.88±0.06) vs (0.85±0.16) kg for average daily body mass gain (P>0.05), (2.17±0.03) vs (2.25±0.24) for the ratio of feed consumption to body mass gain (P>0.05). However, the average daily water consumption for per pig had remarkable significant difference (P<0.01) between experimental group and control group, (8.62±2.21) vs (22.89±3.55) L. Water consumption from feeder was 100% and 3.36% of total water consumption for experimental group and control group, respectively. When cup drinkers of experimental group were turned on, production performance and water consumption of finishing pigs between the experimental group and control group were not significant different (P>0.05). Average daily feed consumption of experimental group and control group was (2.67±0.42) and (2.71±0.44) kg, respectively; and average daily body mass gain was (1.01±0.05) and (1.04±0.04) kg, respectively; ratio of feed consumption to body mass gain was (2.59±0.08) and (2.55±0.12), respectively. The average daily water consumption for per pig was (24.03±3.11) and (28.66±4.92) L, respectively; and water consumption from feeder was 3.70% and 2.69% of total water consumption, respectively, the wet-dry feeder could meet the drinking water demand of finishing pigs with body mass during 50.7 and 71.8 kg. The ratio of water to feed (1:2.5-1:3.5) was preferred when the pigs could eat wet-dry feed of their free will. Animal welfare needed to be considered to find the accuracy of feeding spaces and drinking spaces allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of sustainable and efficient irrigation strategies is a priority for producers faced with water shortages. A promising management strategy for improving irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) is deficit irrigation, which attempts to optimize yield and IWUE. Soil water use, crop yield and IWUE of tomato were evaluated for two consecutive years under two types of irrigation methods (subsurface and surface drip irrigation) and three irrigation strategies: 1.0 of full irrigation supply (T1), 0.8 of full irrigation supply (T2) and 0.6 of full irrigation supply (T3). The results showed that the highest yields were found in the plots irrigated by subsurface drip irrigation at T1 (94.1 ton/ha) and T2 (81.4 ton/ha). Conversely, the fully stressed treatment (T3) reduced the amount of irrigation water by 40%, but significantly decreased mean tomato yield by 25.6% and 26.1% under subsurface and surface drip irrigation, respectively, as compared to T1. The maximum IWUE tended to be higher for subsurface drip than for surface drip irrigation system. The greatest IWUEs were obtained from subsurface drip and surface drip at T3 (19.7 kg/m 3 and 18.3 kg/m 3 ), whereas the lowest IWUEs were those estimated in T1 (15.9 kg/m 3 and 14.8 kg/m 3 , respectively). The primary conclusion is that deficit irrigation strategies present certain advantages to crop water management with minimal effects on production and quality, thus contributing to crop sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raised bed cultivation system for wheat production is a new technique nowadays; changing agricultural practices of wheat from flat to bed planting system required changing application methods of nitrogen fertilizer. A field experiment was conducted during 2015/16 and 2016/17 winter seasons at Giza Agricultural Research Station, ARC, Egypt. These trials aiming at evaluating three cultivation methods: wheat (Masr2) on raised bed (RB) techniques (120, 100 cm and normal surface irrigation practice, NSIP) and three nitrogen application methods, (between RB, on RB and broadcasted). Generally, in most cases, wheat sown on raised bed (RB) 120 or 100 cm with N fertilizer application between RB gave the highest significant values of 1000 grain weight, number and weight of grain spike-1 as well as grain, straw and biological yields, also grains N, P and K uptake and protein percentage compared with another nitrogen application methods and normal surface irrigation practice (NSIP) with broadcast in both seasons. Less seasonal values applied irrigation water for raised bed (RB) techniques were (1835 and 1902) and (1849 and 1925) for the 120 cm and 100 cm treatments comparing with (NSIP) in both seasons in 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons, respectively. The highest water consumptive use values resulted from (NSIP) were 1645 and 1651 more than those recorded under 120 cm and 100 cm treatments in 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons, respectively. The highest water use efficiency and water productivity values were higher under raised bed method (120 cm) with N fertilizer application between RB treatments in 2015/16 and 2016/17, seasons, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years the ceramic industry has been widely studied. However, little attention has been devoted to the particular area of sanitary-ware manufacturing, although it is a great consumer of energy and water. The aim of this research is to analyze and quantify how and where energy and water are consumed by mapping the whole process. Once the key points and amounts of consumption are located, a global map of single flows is established by thermodynamically modeling every relevant sub-process as a balance of mass and energy. The research focuses on demonstrating that this modeled map can be optimized by diverting energy flows from one sub-process to another searching for the minimum incoming energy within the global process, which derives in a minimization of residual energy, waste water and emissions. Results show that almost one third of the energy and emissions can be saved and more than a half of the water can be saved as well in the resin mold technology of manufacturing. This research provides a tool to know how the resources are consumed in the sanitary-ware industry and show the possibilities to reduce them as well as the global impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of water shortages, frequently affecting many regions worldwide, domestic rainwater harvesting, and greywater reuse systems represent an alternative source of water. This study fits this framework providing a hydraulic/hydrological model developed by means of the EPA's Storm Water Management Model. The model has been applied to a case study, which consists of an apartment building located in the city of Bologna and equipped with a hybrid rainwater-greywater recycling system. Cold, hot and recycled water consumptions were monitored for four flats located in the same building. Data analysis shows that the recycled water consumption accounts for a third of the total one, when considering only the supply for toilet flushing, while in garden flats, where recycled water is used also for watering, non-potable water consumption accounts for about 56% of the total. Continuous simulations were performed with 13 years daily rainfall data, and the long-term performance of different system combinations were evaluated. The case study shows a non-potable water saving efficiency of 75.86%, which accounts by 26.71% of the mains water withdrawal. Simulations performed by changing system type demonstrated that, due to the high number of inhabitants and of the great extension of the areas to be irrigated, the contribution of rainwater harvesting is moderate. In fact, non-potable water saving efficiency curves tend to flatten as the values of the tank volume increase. Furthermore, the system demonstrates a good ability in lowering both stomwater runoff and greywater volumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of attitudes towards water conservation, potential reactions to incorporating supplementary costs into water prices, and the willingness to pay for water services is vitally important to decision makers wishing to implement policies that effectively promote more conscious water consumption and mitigate increasingly important water scarcity issues. This study aims to examine the relationships among these dimensions and their potential explanatory factors—such as family values, knowledge about problems related to water scarcity, attitude and propensity to pro-environmental behavior, and social pressure that individuals receive to behave in a certain manner—through a sample survey on 429 students enrolled at the University of Pisa (Italy). A set of hypotheses were formulated among eight latent variables that reflect the previous constructs and were tested through a structural equation model. As for key findings, we highlight the importance of family values as the main determinant of pro-environmental behaviors, which result in more responsible water use, greater support for price increases to encourage water saving practices, and a greater willingness to pay more for improved water and water service quality. Policymakers should consider these findings when developing policies and strategies to incentivize effective water saving practices among younger generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing demand for staple crops like rice will need to be achieved predominately through agricultural intensification and more efficient use of inputs. To meet this demand it is essential that the genetic diversity within rice is fully utilized. The aus subpopulation is considered an underappreciated resource within that diversity. A new rice panel, the Bengal and Assam Aus Panel (BAAP) of 266 aus accessions was generated with ∼2 million informative SNPs obtained using skim sequencing at ∼4× depth. The BAAP was grown in the field in Bangladesh in the ‘boro’ season under both continuously flooded and Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) irrigation during 2013 and 2014 in Mymensingh and during 2014 in Madhupur. Heading date, grain mass, straw biomass and harvest index were measured. The majority (94%) of BAAP accessions flowered within a relatively small window of 10 days. The AWD irrigation treatment generally caused an increase in grain mass, but no significant genotype by treatment interactions were detected for this trait. Shoot biomass was the only trait that showed evidence of genotype by treatment interaction. The average LD (Linkage Disequilibrium) decay across the genome was 243 Kbp. Genome wide association mapping revealed 115 quantitative trait loci (QTLs). There was little evidence of QTLs specific to the irrigation treatment, and only a few QTLs co-localized with known genes. However, some QTLs were detected across multiple sites and years. These QTLs should be targets for breeding, and include a region around 2.2 Mbp on chromosome 1, a large region in the middle of chromosome 7 and two regions on chromosome 11 (∼10 Mbp and ∼29 Mbp). The BAAP appears to be a valuable addition to the growing collection of GWA mapping populations of rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor domestic water demands are increasing rapidly in many cities of China, among the causes, water wastage due to overpressure outflow (OPO) at water distribution points in buildings, especially in high-rise buildings, is a factor that has not gained much attention. Field tests in 23 high-rise public buildings and laboratory tests were conducted to quantitatively evaluate the influence of water pressure on water consumption in buildings. The water-saving potential by adopting pressure reducing measures was theoretically analyzed and verified based on a case study. Results indicated that water consumption is closely related to water pressure and overpressure outflow is a very common culprit of water wastage in high-rise buildings. Pressure management measures, such as branch pipe pressure-reducing valves, can reduce water consumption in buildings and improve the comfortability of use as well. Based on the laboratory pressure–outflow characteristics study of different water appliances, water-saving potential of pressure reducing measures can be theoretically evaluated. Case study demonstrated a theoretical reduction of 19.4% in water consumption by adopting branch pipe pressure-reducing valves, an actual 14,773 m3 water (11.9% reduction) and 15,955 kWh embodied energy was saved in 2015 after the implementation of branch pipe pressure-reducing valves retrofitting measure. Therefore, despite the current measures of adopting high-efficiency water appliances and/or utilization of unconventional water resources in buildings, implementation of pressure management measures is highly recommended in designing water supply system for new high-rise buildings and reconstruction of water supply system in existing high-rise buildings, thereby, promoting water, energy saving, and development of green building.Practical application: Water and energy saving in building is gaining more and more attention, however, water wastage due to overpressure outflow in buildings has not gained much attention. Based on field and laboratory tests, the water and energy saving potential in building water supply system were evaluated theoretically and further verified by a case study. Results indicate that pressure management measures such as branch pipe pressure reducing valves (PRVs) can reduce water and energy consumption in buildings. We strongly suggest that pressure management measures should be implemented in buildings, thereby, promoting water, energy saving, and development of green building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective analysis of water resources development in the territory of Vologda oblast in period from 2005 to 2014 is given. It was found that water withdrawal from water sources decreased by 22.4%, wastewater discharge into water bodies decreased by 22.6%, and the total volume of recycling and successive water use increased by 2.0%. The dynamics of the distribution of water resources between economic sectors is given. Unreasonable water losses were identified in water use systems and their extent was assessed. The main directions in water economy in the production and domestic sectors are determined. Steps for improving the efficiency of water resources development in the region are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing water scarcity in dryland areas requires identification of promising water-saving practices. This paper reviews the effect of land management and water use practices on Water Productivity (WP) in Uzbekistan and makes an inventory of strengths and constraints. Peer-reviewed articles were screened for various local practices including furrow, deficit and drip irrigation. The performance of practices was analysed using the WP concept, defined as ratio of crop yield per unit of water consumed (irrigation water supply and evapotranspiration). Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of selected practices were studied by conducting semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders in Tashkent province. This scoping process showed that overall drip irrigationhas the highest potential to improve WP in comparison with deficit and furrow irrigation, with a WP supply and WP evapotranspiration for cotton of 1.44 and 1.70 kg m −3 , respectively. An excess use of irrigation water is not necessarily leading to increased cotton yield. There is an opportunity to decrease the gap between low and high values of WP, which vary from 0.12–1.44 kg m −3 for cotton. Low water use efficiency rates of furrow irrigation are one of the key-issues to resolve for improved water management. The return on investment of drip irrigation is viable for private farms growing fruit and vegetables, which is mainly due to government support through export trade agreements and favorable policy incentives. WP values of deficit irrigation within 0–25% water stress shows that its water saving potential is high, but with certain yield reduction. The high risk of crop yield reduction is a trade-off between yield and adopting deficit irrigation. To conclude, the large gap between low and high WP values can be minimized with economically affordable technology. Beyond the technical improvements of each water-saving practice, it is also crucial to better design the system of policy incentives supporting users of the practices. Although the paper focused on Uzbekistan, the results can be beneficial to other semi-arid regions and the scoping process can be replicated elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hotel guests’ eco-friendly behaviors related to water conservation have not been sufficiently explored. This study aims to clearly explain guest decision formation for such pro-environmental behaviors. A quantitative approach is utilized to achieve study objectives. Our theoretical framework comprising biospheric value, environmental concern, willingness to sacrifice for the environment, personal norm and descriptive social norm is found to be effective in predicting their decisions to conserve water and in recommending water-saving activity to others. Our results demonstrate the mediating role of willingness to sacrifice for the environment and personal norm. Moreover, findings from the invariance test reveal that customer characteristics play an essential role in generating pro-environmental intentions. Overall, our proposed theoretical framework is satisfactorily supported. This study soundly contributes to helping hotel researchers and practitioners better understand the clear role of each research variable in generating guest intentions to conserve water and recommend doing so to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Phytochrome‐interacting factors (PIFs) play major roles in regulating plant growth and development, but their roles in drought stress remain elusive. Here, we cloned and characterized a maize (Zea mays) PIF transcription factor, ZmPIF1. The expression level of ZmPIF1 was significantly induced by independent drought and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. The ZmPIF1 transgenic rice and Arabidopsis displayed water saving and drought resistance, which were associated with reduced a stomatal aperture and transpiration rate. Moreover, the ZmPIF1 transgenic rice were hypersensitive to exogenous ABA, while the endogenous ABA level was not significantly changed, suggesting that ZmPIF1 was a positive regulator of the ABA signalling pathway. Digital gene expression (DGE) results further indicated that ZmPIF1 participated in ABA signalling pathway and regulated the stomatal aperture in rice. In addition, grain yield and agronomic traits analysis over 4 years showed that ZmPIF1 was able to increase the grain yield through an increase in tiller and panicle numbers in transgenic rice. Overall, ZmPIF1 plays an important role in the ABA‐mediated regulation of stomatal closure to control water loss. ZmPIF1 can enhance water saving and drought resistance and improve the crop yield in rice, illustrating the capacity of ZmPIF1 for crop improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents a new integrated GIS modeling method to assess drought vulnerability using multi-criteria analysis. The proposed methodology is an improvement over previous methods since it incorporates both dynamic and static factors that may affect water dynamics and contribute to water scarcity. These factors are: a) precipitation, b) evapotranspiration, c) soil water content, d) soil depth, e) artificial drainage, f) depth to water table, g) runoff accumulation, and h) saltwater intrusion zones. The above factors and their corresponding maps were fuzzified and spatially overlayed in order to obtain the final drought vulnerability map. The map depicts the spatial distribution of drought vulnerability represented by five classes ranging from very low to very high vulnerability. The proposed methodology was applied to the Greek island of Crete located in the Southeast Mediterranean region. The island of Crete is one of the most drought-prone areas in the region, while at the same time the island's economy relies strongly on agriculture and tourism. The derived results show that drought vulnerability is more severe in the eastern part of the island and that the coastal zones of the entire island are drought-prone areas. Also, according to the results, 19% of the island's area is characterized as “very highly vulnerable to drought”. This percentage varies significantly across the prefectures, with Rethymnon having the lowest vulnerability (2.8%), followed by the prefectures of Chania (6.3%), and Heraklion (17.3%), while the prefecture of Lassithi is the most vulnerable to drought (51.4%). The developed methodology was validated using historical data for drought affected areas in Crete, which is not always addressed in publications. Moreover, in this study, sustainable agricultural practices that ensure water efficiency especially in drought prone areas are proposed. These practices can be adopted by farmers to promote climate resilient agriculture in the Mediterranean region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing farm labor scarcity and depletion of natural resources such as water are posing a major threat to the sustainability of traditional puddled transplanted rice (PTR) farming in Eastern India. Dry-seeded rice (DSR) or non-puddled transplanted rice (NPTR) could be used as an alternative to PTR. To understand the trade-off with different water management and rice genotypes under non-puddled conditions, a field experiment was conducted during 2014–2015 on a sandy clay loam soil of Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The treatments for water regimes were based on soil water tension (no stress, 10 kPa, and 40 kPa) at 15-cm soil depth and the cultivars used in the study were inbreds (Lalat and Sahbhagi Dhan) and hybrids (Arize ® 6129, 6444, and US 323). In both years, rice yields were higher in the dry season than in the wet season. However, both establishment methods performed similarly in all the seasons. With an increase in water stress, there was a significant decline in yield and yield attributes in the dry season. Irrigation input in the dry season was roughly more than double that in the wet season. Irrigation input was relatively higher in DSR than in NPTR in all the seasons, which might be because of an extra irrigation required for DSR crop establishment than for transplanting in non-puddled conditions where watering is done only for ease of transplanting. There was irrigation saving of 25% and 58% in 10 kPa and 40 kPa, respectively, compared to no stress in the dry season. A consistent trend of an increase in irrigation water productivity (WP I ) and input water productivity (WP I+R ) was observed with an increase in stress. Arize ® 6444 produced the highest grain yield, irrigation and input water productivity, and its performance was also better in terms of tiller density, LAI, and biomass. Our findings highlight the potential of hybrids compared with inbreds and their performance under DSR was found to be superior. Even though the yield in no stress was slightly higher than in 10and kPa, the irrigation water savings in 10 kPa were distinctly significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour scarcity, increasing labour costs and declining ground water table have forced farmers in Indian Punjab to find an alternative to resource intensive puddled transplanted rice (PTR). Dry-seeded rice (DSR) was introduced in 2009-10 to address these problems. The impact analysis of this new technology was undertaken by using a comprehensive questionnaire during 2013 through a field survey of farmers who had adopted DSR during 2009 to 2012 in 21 villages in three districts (Bathinda, Faridkot, Sri Muktsar Sahib). The number of farmers who had adopted DSR increased from 10 in 2009 to 211 in 2012; over this time, 11% of these farmers had shifted completely to DSR. The adoption rate of DSR was higher for coarse rice than basmati rice, and adoption was the highest among farmers with medium and large landholding. DSR saved 14 person-days/ha and 18 to 20% irrigation water compared to PTR. To begin with DSR had 2 to 5% yield penalty as compared to PTR. However, as farmers became knowledgeable about DSR especially in sowing and weed control techniques, yield penalty was overcome within one to two years. The productivity of succeeding wheat crop was 5% higher when it was sequenced with DSR than after PTR, thereby increasing higher net returns. The total net returns from DSR-wheat system exceeded PTR-wheat system by INR 5050 to 8100/ha. The results of this survey are consistent with experimental data. Further improvements in planting machinery, weed management practices, and enhancement of grower skills through training programs were identified as the key areas for accelerating the adoption of this new production technology at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the methods to increase the water saving awareness is the water footprint which is based on the calculation of water usage incurred during the whole life cycle of a product. The case study in this research is the water footprint computation of a ceramic product, a jug. The life cycle of a ceramic jug was studied by focusing on the stage of cradle to gate, resource extraction and manufacturing. The calculation of water footprint is based on the ISO 14046: 2014 guidelines. Another objective of this research is to verify that the water footprint can be utilized effectively as a tool to enhance the awareness and the perception of the ceramic business related personnel towards the water saving issue. According to the research results, the paired t-test statistics were utilized to test the difference in the awareness level before and after introducing the water footprint concept to the business owners. The results indicate that the awareness is significantly built up after the application of water footprint education. This will lead to the sustainable use of water in the ceramic business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pitcher irrigation is an ancient irrigation system, used for cultivation of small areas where water is saline and not fit for surface irrigation. This research aims to investigate the effect on water use efficiency and water saving of ridge gourd by utilization of different shapes of pitchers. Ridge-gourd was planted under four different pitcher shapes including TI (conical), T2 (spherical), T3 (round) and T4 (cylindrical) shapes at the experimental field of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Pakistan. Overall sixteen clay pitchers having 1.7, 1.3, 1.3 and 1.08 m3 volume of water under T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively were installed in the soil. The irrigation water having electrical conductivity (EC) 1.3 dS/m with pH of 7.8 was used to fill the pitchers. The highest soil EC of 3.32 dS/m at 0-20 cm depth of soil was found under T4 followed by T3, T2 and T1, respectively. Whereas T4 showed minimum soil EC as 1.30 dS/m at the depth of 40-60 cm. However the pH effect of T1 was slightly higher as 8.4 at the depth of 40-60 cm in comparison to T2, T3 and T4, whereas the minimum pH of 8.0 was found at 20-40 cm under T4. The maximum vine length of ridge gourd was 211cm under T4 and the minimum length of vine was 139 cm under T2. The highest water use efficiency 8.6 kg/m3 was obtained under T4 whereas the highest water saving as 82% was recorded under T4 followed by T2, T1 and T3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a primary dataset from 350 farmers from the rice-wheat area of Pakistan Punjab, we estimate the impact of laser-land leveling on water saving, crop yields and household income. The analysis employs propensity score matching (PSM) to correct for the potential sample selection bias that may arise due to systematic differences between adopting and non-adopting farmers. In the study, 57% of farmers had access to laser land leveling, with an important role for service providers. Adoption of laser-land leveling has a positive impact on irrigation water savings, wheat and rice yields and household income. The study suggests policy implications for making laser land leveling access and performance more socially inclusive through enhanced awareness, institutional support to service providers and public-private partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]