Department of Irrigation & Reclamation Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Tehran, Iran.
Caroline & William N. Lehrer Distinguished Chair in Water Engineering, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering & Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, 321 Scoates Hall, 2117 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843-2117, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Nov 24;11(1):22831. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02147-9.
Water use by the agricultural sector along with inefficient irrigation methods and climate change has led to the depletion and insecurity of water resources and consequent instability of the agricultural system. Defining benchmarks and comparing them is essential for sustainable system management performance. The sustainability performance of an agricultural system depends on various factors related to water, energy, and food. This study selects and ranks sustainability performance indicators (SPIs) of agricultural systems with the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Expert opinions on agricultural sustainability were obtained from Iran's Regional Water Organization. The factors and variables affecting the management of water resources in agricultural systems in a basin area are evaluated with 17 SPIs (10 indicators of water resources sustainability, 3 energy sustainability indicators, and 4 food sustainability indicators) that measure the sustainability of agricultural systems. The AHP reduced the number of indicators to a small number of effective indicators. Results of pairwise comparison and the subsequent determination of the weight of each indicator show that the indicators of water consumption, groundwater level stability, vulnerability of water resources, and water stress have the largest weights (i.e., importance) for agricultural system sustainability at the basin scale. These selected indicators can be applied to agricultural water systems (AWSs).
农业部门的用水量、低效的灌溉方法以及气候变化导致了水资源的枯竭和不安全，从而使农业系统不稳定。定义基准并进行比较对于可持续系统管理绩效至关重要。农业系统的可持续绩效取决于与水、能源和粮食相关的各种因素。本研究采用层次分析法（AHP）选择和排名农业系统的可持续性绩效指标（SPI）。关于农业可持续性的专家意见来自伊朗区域水资源组织。通过 17 个 SPI（10 个水资源可持续性指标、3 个能源可持续性指标和 4 个粮食可持续性指标）评估流域范围内农业系统水资源管理的因素和变量，这些 SPI 衡量了农业系统的可持续性。AHP 将指标数量减少到少数有效指标。成对比较的结果以及随后确定每个指标的权重表明，在流域尺度上，水资源消耗、地下水位稳定性、水资源脆弱性和水资源压力等指标对农业系统可持续性具有最大的权重（即重要性）。这些选定的指标可应用于农业水系统（AWS）。
