The overriding lesson from history is that most irrigation-based civilizations fail. As we enter the third millennium the question arises: Will ours be any different?

For 6,000 years, irrigation has ranked among the most powerful tools of human advancement. The story of settled agriculture, the growth of cities, and the rise of early empires is, to no small degree, a story of controlling water to make the land more prosperous and habitable. Pillar of Sand examines the history, challenges, and pitfalls of irrigated agriculture — from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to twentieth-century India and the United States. By unmasking the risks faced by irrigation-based societies — including water scarcity, soil salinization, and conflicts over rivers — water specialist Sandra Postel connects the lessons of the past with the challenge of making irrigation thrive into the twenty-first century and beyond.

Protecting rivers and vital ecosystems as the world aims to feed 8 billion people will require a doubling of water productivity — getting twice as much benefit from each gallon removed from rivers, lakes, and aquifers. Pillar of Sand points the way toward managing the growing competition for scarce water. And it lays out a strategy for correcting a startling flaw of the modern irrigation age — its failure to better the lives of the majority of the world's poorest farmers.

The countries that make up the MENA region display wide diversity. One of the poorest countries in the world sits alongside two of the wealthiest, whilst the region's natural resources range from immeasurable oil and gas reserves to some of the scantiest natural endowments anywhere in the world. Yet through this diversity runs a common thread: water scarcity. Now, through the impact of human development and climate change, the water resource itself is changing,bringing new risks and increasing the vulnerability of all those dependent on water. Chris Ward and Sandra Ruckstuhl assess the increased challenges now facing the countries of the region, placing particular emphasis on water scarcity and the resultant risks to livelihoods, food security and the environment. They evaluate the risks and reality of climate change in the region, and offer an assessment of the vulnerability of agriculture and livelihoods. In a final section, they explore the options for responding to the new challenges, including policy, institutional, economic and technical measures.

Many countries around the world are struggling with the challenges of water scarcity, including water for crops. Micro irrigation methods are an effective means to make the most efficient use of available water. This volume, Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices, continues the efforts of the book series Innovations and Challenges in Micro Irrigation to provide informative and comprehensive knowledge on micro irrigation methods and practices. This new book presents some of the latest information and research on micro irrigation and covers the area of performance, practices, and design, focusing particularly on the performance of vegetable, fruit and row crops in conjunction with different scheduling and practices. Irrigation scheduling is an important water management strategy, and this book addresses scheduling methods and issues. Design aspects of micro irrigation systems have also been discussed in the book. The authors present their research and studies on scheduling practices and design micro irrigation systems with a variety of fruits and vegetables, including peppers, chili, watermelon, oranges, banana, litchi, rice, sugarcane, sorghum, and marigolds. Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices will serve as a valuable reference for researchers, water resources professionals, agricultural extension agencies, farmers, and faculty and students.

This book presents a variety of policy adoption methods, irrigation scheduling, and design procedures in micro irrigation engineering for horticultural crops. The chapters range from policy interventions to applications of systems for different crops and under different land conditions. Compiling valuable information and research, the book is divided into three main sections: Policy Options: Drip Irrigation Among Adopters Irrigation Scheduling of Horticultural Crops Design of Drip Irrigation Systems The editors present valuable research and information on micro irrigation methods in an effort to focus on innovation and evolving new paradigms for efficient utilization of water resources. The adoption of micro irrigation systems can be a panacea for irrigation related problems and can help to increase the yield and area under cultivation, especially for small farmers without abundant technological resources. Micro Irrigation Engineering for Horticultural Crops: Policy Options, Scheduling, and Design will be valuable for agricultural engineering students, irrigation engineers, and scientists/professors in engineering.

Although over two thirds of the Earth's surface is covered by water, more than 97% is ocean water which is too salty for human use or even for irrigation. Consequently, the freshwater is only 3% and almost 1% of the available freshwater is liquid surface water that can be used directly by humans. The rest is groundwater and iced water. Yet still, freshwater is considered to be one of the most abundant resources on earth. In the agriculture sector only, over two-thirds of the available freshwater is used for irrigation. This book focuses on the technology, management and efficiency of drip irrigation.

Water is the most limiting factor for irrigated agriculture in arid and semi-arid areas of European Mediterranean countries. In this book, the authors' explore the different mechanisms and robust tools to monitor plant-water status, with the aim of keeping crops within a certain threshold of moderate-to-mild water stress. Other chapters include research on agricultural techniques in semi-arid environments that would benefit the surrounding environment and impact soil management. The third chapter includes site-specific documentation of landforms developed in the Ejina Basin in Central Asia and its implications for late quaternary landscape evolution and palaeoenvironmental change. The fourth chapter focuses on the links between economic value addition, demographics, personal income and entrepreneurship in selected South African towns. The last chapter reviews thirty years of ecological monitoring in Algerian arid rangelands.

Today's irrigation management faces challenges and competition with other sectors (ie: household, industry, and environmental), quality degradation, and uncertain climatic conditions. To cope with these situations, the irrigation managers need precise estimation/determination of irrigation needs for crops, advance/water-saving techniques for water application, water conservation approaches, economic considerations in irrigation, and potentials for using marginal quality water in irrigation (such as saline water, and waste-water). This book focuses on all of the above issues: starting with irrigation management strategies for field crops -- to suitability of saline and waste-water as irrigation water. The book is useful to identify the need and adopt emerging technologies for irrigation management, as well as to identify appropriate methodologies for social, economic, and environmental benefits of improved irrigation management.

Agricultural water management includes many topics: farm-level and regional water management, irrigation, drainage, and salinity management of cultivated areas, collection and storage of rainfall in relation to soil properties and vegetation; the role of groundwater and surface water in nutrient cycling, exploitation and protection of water resources, control of flooding, erosion, and desertification. This book presents leading-edge research from around the world.

Irrigation came to the arid West in a wave of optimism about the power of water to make the desert bloom. Mark Fiege's fascinating and innovative study of irrigation in southern Idaho's Snake River valley describes a complex interplay of human and natural systems. Using vast quantities of labor, irrigators built dams, excavated canals, laid out farms, and brought millions of acres into cultivation. But at each step, nature rebounded and compromised the intended agricultural order. The result was a new and richly textured landscape made of layer upon layer of technology and intractable natural forces-one that engineers and farmers did not control with the precision they had anticipated. Irrigated Eden vividly portrays how human actions inadvertently helped to create a strange and sometimes baffling ecology. Winner of the Idaho Library Association Book Award, 1999 Winner of the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Award, Forest History Society, 1999-2000

Egyptian agriculture is uniquely dependent on water, with over 95 per cent of agricultural production originating from land irrigated by the Nile. The improvement of irrigation systems and better control over water by farmers is therefore crucial to the drive to raise productivity in the current ocntext of scarce water resources, rich but underutilized land and changes in the institutional environment of the economy after "liberalization." This text evaluates the ambitious state-of-the-art Irrigation Improvement Project (IIP) and should be of interest to all those concerned with issues of water and development in the Middle East.

With a roster of international contributors, this volume offers an abundance of solutions to address agricultural water management challenges in today's water-scarce areas of the world. The authors present studies on farmer-friendly irrigation scheduling methods, model-based analysis of crop water requirements, ways to optimize surface irrigation systems, and hydraulic design and management of surface water systems. The book goes on to highlight ways to improve soil properties by taking into account spatial, temporal, and spectral variability in soil properties. The volume also covers various innovative research studies on soil and water productivity of vegetable cultivation under water-stressed areas, application of coir geotextiles, and the role of biofertilizers in controlling soil degradation and maintaining fertile topsoil. Crop management strategies to enhance the efficient use of marginal and saline lands for nonconventional crops are also discussed. The book is divided into four sections, covering: engineering interventions in irrigation management technological interventions in management of soil properties technological inventions for soil and water conservation crop management for non-conventional use This volume will serve as an invaluable resource for academicians, researchers, engineers, agronomists, extension officers, students, and farmers in the broad discipline of agricultural and biological engineering.

Micro Irrigation Management: Technological Advances and Their Applications, the fifth book in the Innovations and Challenges in Micro Irrigation book series, is a valuable reference volume on micro irrigation and water management for professional training institutes, technical agricultural centers, irrigation centers, agricultural extension service, and other agencies who work with micro irrigation programs. With an international focus, this new book focuses on applications of solar energy in micro irrigation and other important technological advances. It includes case studies and illustrative examples on drip irrigation design.

In most developing countries wastewater treatment systems are hardly functioning or have a very low coverage, resulting in large scale water pollution and the use of very poor quality water for crop irrigation especially in the vicinity of urban centres. This can create significant risks to public health, particularly where crops are eaten raw. Wastewater Irrigation and Health approaches this serious problem from a practical and realistic perspective, addressing the issues of health risk assessment and reduction in developing country settings. The book therefore complements other books on the topic of wastewater which focus on high-end treatment options and the use of treated wastewater. This book moves the debate forward by covering also the common reality of untreated wastewater, greywater and excreta use. It presents the state-of-the-art on quantitative risk assessment and low-cost options for health risk reduction, from treatment to on-farm and off-farm measures, in support of the multiple barrier approach of the 2006 guidelines for safe wastewater irrigation published by the World Health Organization. The 38 authors and co-authors are international key experts in the field of wastewater irrigation representing a mix of agronomists, engineers, social scientists and public health experts from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. The chapters highlight experiences across the developing world with reference to various case studies from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Mexico and the Middle East. The book also addresses options for resource recovery and wastewater governance, thus clearly establishes a connection between agriculture, health and sanitation, which is often the missing link in the current discussion on 'making wastewater an asset'.