Search results for "Water use"
showing 10 items of 49 documents
Life Cycle Assessment of a compact Desiccant Evaporative Cooling system: The case study of the “Freescoo”
2016
Abstract The paper aims at exploring the performances of a compact Desiccant Evaporative Cooling system called “Freescoo” (Free Solar Cooling) in comparison to standard conventional technologies. The Freescoo – that aims at applications in the residential sector and in small office buildings and includes a photovoltaic–thermal system – is analyzed, its monitored performance discussed and reported: under cooling conditions an Energy Efficiency Ratio of 12.8 is calculated, that reaches 50.7 if also photovoltaic generation is considered. To assess the performance of the proposed system a Life Cycle Assessment study was performed to investigate the system covering all its life, from the product…
Environmental impact of Recover cotton in textile industry
2017
A comparative evaluation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) of Recover cotton, obtained from recycled garments, and virgin one, cultivated from traditional and organic crops, has been made based on the quantification of environmental impact categories, such as abiotic depletion, global warming, water use, acidification and eutrophication potential. LCA data reported in the literature for the steps of cultivation, ginning/cutting, and dyeing were compared in order to clearly show the environmental advantages of moving from traditional practices, to organic cultivation and the use of Recover cotton, a novel procedure that involves the production of cotton yarns from coloured and well characte…
Evaluation of statistical sampling for the assessment of residential consumption totals in water distribution networks
2014
The paper provides insights into stratified sampling, a standard statistical technique that may be employed to assess domestic water use in water distribution networks. The basic idea is to use only a few meters to provide inference on the total water consumption of a network or of a district metered area through the knowledge of some additional stratification variables, such as household typology, size and occupants number. Since any sampling procedure assumes that the variance of the variable at stake is known, either a suitable amount of past consumption data is necessary, or a specific preliminary survey must be carried out, in order to define the sampling plan. An application with real…
Inter-basin water transfer conflicts. The case of the Tagus-Segura Aqueduct (Spain)
2020
Since its inauguration in 1979, the Tagus-Segura Aqueduct has become one of the hydraulic infrastructures that have given rise to the highest number of inter-regional conflicts in Spain during recent decades. The aim of this paper is to analyse the political, social, environmental and economic conflicts presented in the donor (Tagus) and recipient (Segura) basins of this infrastructure. To this end, through the holding of interviews with the main stakeholders and an analysis of the regulations, an assessment has been made of the results (for and against) of those who defend maintaining this infrastructure, owing to its far-reaching social and economic impact, and those who advocate its imme…
Irrigated Agriculture in Spain: Diagnosis and Prescriptions for Improved Governance
2012
The objective of this paper is to diagnose the current state of irrigation in Spain in order to support government decision makers to improve the design and application of their plans for action. The analysis implemented shows that this sector faces two main challenges: the decrease in the support given by the Common Agricultural Policy (lower subsidies/incomes) and the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (stricter environmental requirements). While the survival of extensive irrigated agriculture in inland regions depends on farmers producing different crops and modernizing production techniques, littoral regions must respond with technological innovation, especially te…
Sampling of Residential Water Use for Leak Control via Water Budgets
2009
Determining water use of sorghum from two-source energy balance and radiometric temperatures
2011
Estimates of surface actual evapotranspiration (ET) can assist in predicting crop water requirements. An alternative to the traditional crop-coefficient methods are the energy balance models. The objective of this research was to show how surface temperature observations can be used, together with a two-source energy balance model, to determine crop water use throughout the different phenological stages of a crop grown. Radiometric temperatures were collected in a sorghum (<i>Sorghum bicolor</i>) field as part of an experimental campaign carried out in Barrax, Spain, during the 2010 summer growing season. Performance of the Simplified Two-Source Energy Balance (STSEB) model was …
Optimizing subsurface dripline installation depth with Hydrus 2D/3D to improve irrigation water use efficiency in the central Tunisia
2015
The main objective of the work is to optimize drip installation depth for Eggplant crop irrigated with surface or subsurface drip irrigation systems to improve irrigation Water Use Effeciency (WUE), by means of field measurements and simulations carried out with Hydrus-2D model. Initially, a comparison between simulated Soil Water Contents (SWC) and the corresponding measured in two plots, in which laterals with coextruded emitters are laid on the soil surface (T0) and at 20 cm depth (T20), respectively. In order to choose the best position of the lateral, the results of different simulation run, carried out by choosing a deeper installation (T45) depth. Simulated SWC’s resulted fairly clos…
Updated single and dual crop coefficients for tree and vine fruit crops
2021
Abstract The present study reviews the research on the FAO56 crop coefficients of fruit trees and vines performed over the past twenty years. The main objective was to update information and extend tabulated single (K c ) and basal (K cb ) standard crop coefficients. The selection and analysis of the literature for this review have been done to consider only studies that adhere to FAO56 method, computing the reference ET with the FAO Penman–Monteith ET o equation and field measuring crop ET with proved accuracy. The crops considered refer to vine fruit crops, berries and hops, temperate climate evergreen fruit trees, temperate climate deciduous fruit trees and, tropical and subtropical fru…
Continuous determination of fruit tree water-status by plant-based sensors
2017
Recently, climate change has caused shortages of water worldwide, especially in semi-arid and arid regions. Several irrigation strategies have been studied with the aim of saving water overuse in agriculture. In the past most of the attention was directed towards soil water content, but recently the focus has moved to plant responses to water deficit. In recent years, crop evapotranspiration (ETc) obtained from reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and crop coefficients (Kc), has become common for irrigation scheduling in several crops, but it does not provide precise insights on the tree water status. Today an increasing focus is being given to plant-based sensors for the continuous monitorin…