engleski

Impacts of Irrigation on the Environment

Environmental protection in last decade became an important issue in all hydro-technical project. Also, implementation of irrigation in agriculture has a high priority in the most countries. Besides the number of positive effects of irrigation, there are some negative effects which potentially can appear in the irrigation areas. The most important are: influences on hydrological regime caused by overexploitation of water resources or disruption of natural hydrological regime by manmade structures, water erosion caused by impropriate irrigation method on sloping fields and impacts of irrigation on surface and groundwater quality. Which type of negative impact and in what extent will appear depends on natural characteristics of the area, water quality used for irrigation and irrigation project itself. These possible negative effects can influence agricultural soil productivity, natural habitats, human health or landscape. In the Croatian conditions, irrigation is still in the more or less initial phase and it is possible to diminish the most of the unwilling effects of irrigation. In the continental part of the Croatia, which is mostly lowland with significant water resources available for irrigation, and intensive agriculture can be expected that deterioration of water quality is the most likely impact of irrigation. Because of that analysis of surface and groundwater quality was undertaken. According to Nitrates Directive 91/676/EEC, good agricultural practises includes water protection from surface leaching and surface runoff outside of the root zone in the irrigation conditions. Another reason why high nitrogen concentration must not be allowed in the surface and groundwater is the vicinity of Nature Park Kopački rit, an area of valuable wildlife. This paper is going to present results of the research on the few locations in Baranja region in the eastern part of Croatia, including irrigation water quality, surface and groundwater quality and recommended measures for further actions in environmental protection.

Irrigation; environment; surface and groundwater quality; nitrogen

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