Enhancing environmental sustainability in eastern Canada's corn agroecosystem with controlled drainage and subsurface irrigation

Water table management through controlled tile drainage and subsurface irrigation (CDSI), retrofitting to conventional tile drainage, has been developed to abate the environmental impacts of irrigation and drainage meanwhile supporting agroecosystems and crop productivity. Since the environmental profile of new technologies is a prerequisite to understanding their socio-economic benefits, a life cycle assessment was conducted to assess the environmental impacts of CDSI on corn production for the 2014 and 2015 growing seasons at St-Emmanuel, south-western Quebec in eastern Canada, compared to the free drainage (FD). Inventory flows of corn production with CDSI and FD were developed using biophysical data from field experiments and public databases. Then, environmental impacts were compared for corn production with CDSI and FD, including climate change, eutrophication potential, acidification potential, and toxicity. The assessment results show the environmental benefits of implementing CDSI, particularly in improving water quality. However, potential synergy and trade-offs of climate change, eutrophication, and acidification impacts from the implementation of CDSI, especially under different climatic conditions, should be further monitored to improve the performance of the technology. Nevertheless, CDSI and associated practices can be adopted as adaptation measures in agricultural water management to support agroecosystems and address the challenges posed by environmental impacts. HIGHLIGHTS This study compares environmental impacts of controlled drainage with sub-irrigation (CDSI) and free drainage (FD) for corn agroecosystems in eastern Canada.; GHG fluxes data from the field were integrated into the life cycle inventory.; CDSI has positive impacts in reducing environmental impacts of corn production on climate change and eutrophication compared to FD.; Trade-offs between climate change, eutrophication and acidification may affect CDSI's environmental performance.;