engleski

Criteria for Evaluation of Agricultural Land Suitability for Irrigation in Osijek County Croatia

This book chapter deals with the procedure of evaluation of agricultural fields in order to define the areas suitable or not suitable for irrigation or to define priorities in the implementation of irrigation on example of Osijek-County (Croatia). All activities must be done according to the principles of integral, interdisciplinary and sustainable approach, taking under consideration potentials and restrictions of some river basin. Several levels of data evaluation are needed. • Physical plans give a basic information of agricultural areas, present state and future development, possible increasing or decreasing in area. • Soil properties are one of the most important analysis because its categorization from very suitable to not suitable soil for irrigation has a great impact on the final decision. • Agricultural potential, mechanisation and other resources of agricultural production including tradition of growing crops and interest of local people for irrigation. One item of agricultural preparedness for irrigation is development of drainage and flood protection system. • Analysis of hydrological and meteorological data, particularly analysis of drought, defines the real necessity for irrigation implementation. Frequency, intensity and duration of water deficit in the vegetation period indicate the crop water requirement which has to be assured. • Availability of water resources is one of the most restrictive criteria. Where two aspects has to be considered – water quantity and quality. In the area with evident water shortage, for example Mediterranean islands, some alternative sources of water have to be applied. • In the case that in the vicinity of agricultural land is some protected area, implementation of irrigation should not make any negative influence on it. Also, all environmental impacts of irrigation implementation should be recognized in the area if it was not protected by law but it was vulnerable and sensitive on changes by its structure or genesis ( e.g. karst regions ). Above mentioned criteria strongly influence the economic parameters of irrigation methods. Finally, the proposed procedure of data management contributes to the decision making. To avoid subjectivity and unilaterally approach to the very complex problem of irrigation implementation, methods of multi-criteria or multi-objective analysis has to be applied.

irrigation criteria, potentials and restrictions, interdisciplinary approach

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