Impacts of climate change on water footprint of spring wheat production: the case of an irrigation district in China

The potential impacts of climate change are expected to reshape the patterns of demand and supply of water for agriculture, therefore the assessment of the impacts of climate change on agricultural water consumption will be essential. The water footprint provides a new approach to the assessment of agricultural water consumption under climate change. This paper provides an analysis of the impacts of climate changes on the water footprint of spring wheat in Hetao Irrigation District, China during 1980-2009. Results indicate that: 1) crop evapotranspiration and irrigation water requirements of spring wheat presented a downtrend owing to the climate factors variation in the study period; 2) under the combined influence of increasing crop yield and decreasing crop evapotranspiration, the water footprint decreased during the study period, exhibiting a trend of 0.025 m3 kg–1 yr–1; 3) the total contribution rate of the climatic factors for the decline of water footprint of spring wheat during the study period was only –10.45%. These results suggest that the water footprint of a crop, to a large extent, is determined by agricultural management rather than by the regional agro-climate and its variation. Nevertheless, we should pay attention to the adaptation of effective strategies for minimizing the agricultural production risk caused by climate change. Additional key words: agriculture water consumption; effective precipitation; ground water; Hetao Irrigation District; surface water; Triticum aestivum.