Agricultural Groundwater Resources Management

Dear Colleagues,

With the objective of providing a comprehensive review of the recent developments in the various aspects of groundwater resource management for agricultural use, we would like to call for submissions to a Special Issue addressed to scientific communities, industrial sectors, consultants and practitioners. Submissions of original research papers, short communications, research/industrial notes, and state-of-the-art literature review articles are welcome.

Despite the fact that farmers of irrigated agricultural are the main water users, their activity is widespread and difficult to monitor and control. Therefore, one of the most relevant issues in groundwater management is the lack of reliable accounting systems, without which a concrete, science-based management approach cannot be pursued and effective governance mechanisms cannot be established. The aim of this call is to collect contributions which may focus on the following challenges:

—direct and indirect assessment of water abstraction for agricultural uses;

—direct and indirect assessment of the release of pollutants from agricultural activities;

—dynamic modelling of groundwater recharge;

—science-based decision making processes, with stakeholders involvement and/or participation;

—monitoring and control frameworks at the basin level, based on the integration of already existing data (i.e. big data);

—integration of implicit knowledge with scientific information, to activate farmers’ participation in the governance of local basins;

—modelling of farmers’ behaviour.

We invite contributions from a wide range of disciplines tackling any of these issues. However, manuscripts that take a comparative perspective and/or multidisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome. Submissions may focus on any aspect of groundwater management, including:

—achievement of good status in terms of quality and quantity at the basin level;

—economic, social, and environmental sustainability of agricultural systems;

—community-based management systems;

—low-cost solutions based on the integration of already-existing official/certified data;

—alternative solutions for groundwater pricing in agriculture.

References

FAO (2003); Groundwater Management—The Search for Practical Approaches, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ISBN 92-5-104908-4, Rome.

FAO (2017): Water for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ISBN 978-92-5-109977-3.

Giannoccaro G., Prosperi M., Scardigno A. (2017): Economic analysis of the long-term effects of groundwater salinity: bringing the farmer`s perspectives into policy, Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences, vol.14(1), pp.59-72.

Lawell C.Y.L. (2016): The Management of Groundwater: Irrigation Efficiency, Policy, Institutions, and Externalities. Annual Review of Resources Economics, vol.8, pp. 247-259.

Wijnen M., Augeard B., Hiller B., Ward C., Huntjens P. (2012): Managing the Invisible, Understanding and Improving Groundwater Governance - Draft Report, World Bank Water Paper, World Bank.

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Prosperi
Prof. Dr. Giacomo Giannoccaro
Dr. Ivan Portoghese
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• integration of big datasets
• governance at the community level
• dynamic modelling
• irrigation groundwater metering
• monitoring and control in agriculture
• economics of groundwater
• groundwater management policies