Irrigation sustainability - Water Desalination and CO2 Emissions - Term Paper Example

Running head: IRRIGATION SUSTAINABILITY Irrigation sustainability Name Course Institution Instructor DATE Abstract This paper discuses the actual Case of greening in the U.A.E which experience harsh climatic conditions. It is an example of hot humid climate which suffers from lack of water. The increased need for desalinated water and CO2 emissions caused by irrigation will be illustrated. Comparisons of the local and Global practices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai will be discussed. The overall objective is to describe the best sustainable practice and definition of greening in the local hot arid environment of Abu Dhabi and the UAE. Culture modification toward greening as a sustainable approach will also be discussed. The paper thus tries to explain that greening does not always amount to sustainability. Introduction The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is made up of seven emirates and the largest is called Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi City is the capital of both the emirate and the whole country. The United Arab Emirates lies in Southwest Asia. The total area of the UAE covers an area of approximately 83 600 km2, of which 77 700 km2 is the mainland surface area, where the population lives (King, 2008). The largest part of the country is covered by desert and a flat coastal plain. The land has a rough landscape slanting down from the hills in the country's north-eastern extremity to a raised dry flat terrain. The climate is dry-arid with extremely high summer temperatures (King, 2008). The coastal region, where a huge number of people lives, experience hot and humid climate in the summer with temperatures and relative humidity reaching 46° C and 100 percent respectively. The winters are less severe with temperatures between 14 °C and 23 °C. The interior part of the desert region experience hot summers with temperatures rising to about 50 °C. There is also a period of cool winters during which temperature can fall as low as 4 °C. UAE has large areas covered with desert and therefore the issue of desertification is given priority. This has been achieved through forestation and desert lands reclamation for agricultural purposes (King, 2008). 1.1 Greening Greening is an initiative that aims at combating famine, salinity, drought and global warming by cultivating the desert or places where nothing can grow. Greening is the process of reducing the effects of climate change, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. This is in response to the threat of global warming. In UAE, the dream of greening the desert was realized by use of Abu Dhabi’s oil revenues. The use of desalinated water from the Gulf made the project feasible. In UAE, most of the dry areas have been reclaimed and the desert has been changed into green landscapes. More resources are distributed to the development of agriculture and natural reserves (Aina, 1996). However, these efforts for greening may not lead to sustainable development. Sustainability is more than greening and is limited by factors like poor soil fertility, water scarcity and harsh climate. 1.2 Importance of greening and how it is sustainable Greening involves activities such as tree planting and other vegetation covers. These activities help in changing the environmental conditions through altering all the impacts of the climate. For example, temperature levels, winds direction and velocity, sun and energy are the major aspects of climate affecting environment. Planting trees help to reduce air pollution and loss of surface soil through wind erosion. It would also help to reduce global warming caused by high levels of CO2 emissions (Aina, 1996). 1.3 Local applications (practice) U.A.E experiences hot humid climate and this makes its population suffer from lack of water. There are several local practices and activities that are aimed at promoting greenery development. These activities involve water resources use and conservation to promote sustainable agriculture. Because of high population growth and economic progress, the need for water has increased drastically. However, dependable surface resources have depleted due to the harsh climatic conditions. The city now focuses on ground water and desalination of sea water so as to deal with the acute shortage of water (Alsharhan, 2008). In the emirates, the farmers depend entirely on artificial irrigation and therefore underground water is essential. This underground water used in irrigation is very saturated with the average of salinity reaching between 400-4500 P per million. In other regions, the level of salinity may be higher than this. Irrigation has thus become the major local activity in the region. However, use of water for agriculture in these arid areas has affected the environment greatly due o the high levels of CO2 emissions. (Brebbia and Lorenzini, 2006). The increased concentration of greenhouse gases for example CO2 in the atmosphere has become a major concern in the arid areas because of its negative impacts. The statistics conducted shows that agricultural practices such as irrigation and tillage contribute to about 25% of the aggregate amount of CO2 emissions. Compared with the non-irrigated lands, an irrigated land emits approximately 13% CO2 to the atmosphere. This is attributed to the increased soil water content which result to increased CO2 emission (Miller and Spoolman, 2009). 1.3 How to maintain and modify the existing case and the future plan In addition to irrigation and tillage, deforestation has also been a major impact on the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. To reduce the amount of CO2 emitted, tree planting programs has been adopted. This program has two-fold advantage. Firstly, trees and plants absorb CO2 during photosynthesis. Trees sore carbon in their tissue and wood fiber. Vegetation also helps to absorb CO2 as well. On the other hand tree planting and vegetation cover helps to retain moisture and prevent evaporation (Miller and Spoolman, 2009). This means that irrigation practices will be reduced since there already enough but not excess water content. Farmers are thus advised to reduce direct irrigation like sprinkler irrigation and adopt drip irrigation. The increased need for water in the Emirates has increased considerably and this need can only be met by an extensive desalination program. The UAE has thus become the second largest producer of desalinated water globally. Most of the domestic water supply is provided by desalination. Desalination capacity is high in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Barrow, 2006). This is due to some conditions such as high water shortage and excessive coverage by fossils fuels. However, the GCC countries have invested in modern technologies so as to develop the water resource. This also includes water disinfection and sand filtration. The major concern in UAE was the high level of global warming. This was caused by increase in the concentration of greenhouses gases such as CO2. Addition of lime to the seawaters helps to raise the levels of alkalinity. This helps to increase the ability of the seawaters to absorb CO2 from the air and make sure that it is not take back to the air (Miller and Spoolman, 2009). 1.4 Framing a local definition for sustainable greening in Abu Dhabi The Abu Dhabi Government has embarked on the program of sustainable greening. This program is called Es ti dama which is an Arabic term which means sustainability. Its main objective is to create well set guidelines and regulations necessary to facilitate sustainable (green) design. The Government of Abu Dhabi in its definition of sustainable greening integrates a sustainable approach to building design. They state that to meet the requirements of future generations, the sustainable (green) building design include local environment. The key principle is minimizing of resource use and maintaining of quality of performance (Alsharhan and Perry, 2008). UAE is among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that perform poorly in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita. Following the international concern through the international best practices, UAE has announced plans to reduce emissions. As a result of this, the GCC region can come out as a hub of clean technology and renewable energy in the future. The GCC region has introduced a greening initiative for renewing the energy. This initiative is as a result of the growing international concern over CO2 emissions and their global impact (Barrow, 2006). This forced the GCC countries to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. One of the links in the sustainable development chain is the fair trade and GCC counties relates with these links. 1.5 Greening and Landscape The transition from sustainability to green construction requires a careful thought. Architectural and landscape construction changes the faces of the earth. For sustainability to be fully effective, it must go beyond approving architectural products. This means that they must also include landscape-related goals. This means that sustainable landscape construction is a key guide towards greening (Baker, 2006). 1.6 Table of irrigation and related CO2 emission Local activity Soil CO2 flux (kg CO2-C ha -1 d-1) Soil water content (g kg-1) irrigated 194 97.3 Non-irrigated 169 91.9 From the above table, irrigated lands have higher soil water content more than the non-irrigated areas. These are lands in the arid areas and the have high CO2 emissions. 1.7 Carbon capture and storage (CCS) on greening As part of carbon dating, most GCC countries are experimenting Carbon capture and storage (CCS). Carbon trading is an emissions mitigation approach that offers economic incentives in order to achieve a quantifiable reduction in the level of emissions. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an approach that has been adopted by the Australian Government to reduce Global warming (Barrow, 2006). This is done by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. Carbon (dioxide) capture and storage (CCS) has been used as a possible solution to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most abundant greenhouse gas and it is caused by farming activities like irrigation. It also involves maintaining large vegetation coverage that does not require more watering. This has helped to reduce the amount of irrigation and thus reduce (CO2) levels (Barrow, 2006). 1.8 Local culture toward the desert landscaping To ensure for a sustainable irrigation and protection of the important and limited water resource of Abu Dhabi, the following should be taken into consideration. Firstly, the irrigation design applied should have the water scarcity in mind and thus meet the demand of more efficiently. There should also be segregation of water and wastewater streams in order to allow for water recycling. Water should be treated before irrigation and the technologies and equipments applied should be efficient, particularly for landscaping and irrigation uses in order to minimize consumption. This means that the type of irrigation adopted must be effective in terms of cost and availability and it should serve the need of the farmers without affecting the environment (Buckingham, 2003). 1.9 Modification of the feature (beauty) of using the desert plants Most of the plants thriving in the Australian desert have been of significant importance to the country. Most of these plants are very beautiful with very brilliant flowers with colors ranging from red, orange and green. They have been used in the Australia’s flower factories with most of them being exported to other continents like Europe. 1.10 Types of plants used Australia is one of the driest continents, with a large portion of its land covered by desert. Despite the harsh climate, many plants manage to survive in these conditions. The plants have adapted to the dry conditions. These plants have different adaptations with the most characteristic being the ability to sustain long periods of drought. Some of these plants include the Sturt's Desert Pea which is an official flower in Australia, Sandhill Wattle, Old Man Saltbush and Kangaroo Paw (Alsharhan and Perry 2008). 1.11 Best way of irrigation Before the introduction of the modern irrigation systems all the agricultural land in Australia was irrigated by traditional flood and furrow methods. After the extensive research, suitable irrigation designs were adopted. The type of irrigation adopted had to be effective in terms of cost and availability and it should serve the need of the farmers without affecting the environment. Out of all the irrigation techniques applied, drip irrigation was recommended as the best method of irrigation as opposed to others liker sprinkler and surface irrigation (Brebbia and Lorenzini, 2006). 1.12 Compromising the plants (landscape) use and hardscape Unlike landscaping which make use of plants, hardscaping uses harder elements composed of concrete, brick or stones. For example the construction of a stone wall is a hardscaping project. Although hardscaping is still a form of landscaping, it is not preferred more as compared to the use of plants. The main reason attributed to this is the fact that, plants provide a ground cover (Alsharhan and Perry 2008). It is more applicable to reduce CO2 emissions it help contain water and minimize use of water that promotes the emission. 1.13 Greening and sustainability Greening has never resulted to sustainability. This is because sustainable development is more and complex. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), greening of the desert never resulted to sustainable development of that area. Sustainable development does not entail environment protection alone but even economic and social development. Sometimes greening may fail to contain CO2 emissions and therefore sustainability is not achieved (Elliott, 2006). Conclusion To achieve a sustainable development and greening and to adopt ways of mitigating CO2 emissions in UAE, the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority held a workshop on Global Good Agricultural Practices (Gap) as part of the initiative. This workshop was part of the authority’s effort for farming reforms in the United Arab Emirates. It was a training workshop held for their employees under the regulation of experts from Global GAP. The main objective of the workshop was to help the employees in the implementation of good agricultural practices (Navarrete and Debaeke, 2009). These experts from Global Gap monitored the implementation of the practices in accordance with the best international practices. Moreover, GAP also tries to maintain sustainable agriculture achieved through proper irrigation designs and proper crop management. References: Afgan, N., 2004. Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems. London: Taylor & Francis. Aina, E. O., 1996. 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