Is current irrigation sustainable in the United States? An integrated assessment of climate change impact on water resources and irrigated crop yields.

ABSTRACT: While climate change impacts on crop yields has been extensively studied, estimating the impact of water shortages on irrigated crop yields is challenging because the water resources management system is complex. To investigate this issue, we integrate a crop yield reduction module and a water resources model into the MIT Integrated Global System Modeling framework, an integrated assessment model linking a global economic model to an Earth system model. We assess the effects of climate and socioeconomic changes on water availability for irrigation in the U.S. as well as subsequent impacts on crop yields by 2050, while accounting for climate change projection uncertainty. We find that climate and socioeconomic changes will increase water shortages and strongly reduce irrigated yields for sp

SUBMITTER: Blanc E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5606503 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature