This book is a unique text that explores recent research on the management of sustainable groundwater use in the North China Plain (NCP), where aquifers are suffering the most severe over‑pumping in the world and have caused serious ecological degradation. It contains research conducted by the editor and his teams on several projects over the past 18 years.
Key topics covered include:
comprehensive scheme and pathways to achieve sustainable groundwater management description of theoretical basis for water saving and technologies developed in practice at field scale adjusting cropping patterns and planting structure to reduce the cultivation intensity to a suitable extent soft measures such as water metering, pricing, and water marketing being applied in groundwater management practice in the NCP
It will be an invaluable resource to graduate students, education and research staff, and agriculture or water resources authorities.
1. Population growth, food demand, and water crisis in the North China Plain. 2. Integrated paths to sustainable groundwater management. 3. Water saving agriculture: Principles, regulation, and framework of practices. 4. Water budgets, ET partitioning, and implications to water saving. 5. Improving water productivity by integrating bio-, agro- and engineering measures. 6. Agricultural land use change and impacts on groundwater. 7. Adjustment of field cropping patterns: A better intensity. 8. Optimization of regional cropping structure: A better planning. 9. Managing groundwater quality and quantity of irrigated farmland. 10. Utilization of brackish and other abnormal water in irrigation. 11. Innovation of policy system and smart irrigation technologies.
Dr. Yanjun Shen is currently a professor at the Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is mainly studying agricultural hydrology, and the impacts of agricultural activities on hydrology, water resources, and ecosystems at basin and regional scales.