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Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 14, 2010

Year of publication 2010

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 18 p.

Author Siebert, S., Burke, J., Faures, J. M., Frenken, K., Hoogeveen, J., Döll, P., and Portmann, F. T.

Publisher Copernicus Publications ;

Product type Article

Synopsis (short abstract) Irrigation is the most important water use sector accounting for about 70% of the global freshwater withdrawals and 90% of consumptive water uses. While the extent of irrigation and related water uses are reported in statistical databases or estimated by model simulations, information on the source of irrigation water is scarce and very scattered. Here we present a new global inventory on the extent of areas irrigated with groundwater, surface water or non-conventional sources, and we determine the related consumptive water uses. The inventory provides data for 15 038 national and sub-national administrative units. Irrigated area was provided by census-based statistics from international and national organizations.

Open access article. This article is academically peer reviewed and published externally. This article is published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (An interactive open-access journal of the European Geosciences Union), Volume 14, 2010

Cite this content as:

Siebert, S., Burke, J., Faures, J. M., Frenken, K., Hoogeveen, J., Döll, P., and Portmann, F. T.: Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 14, 1863–1880, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-14-1863-2010, 2010.

Language English

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