Environmental Management In Agriculture Based On Water And Climate Change Assessments: Tools For Decision Making By Life Cycle Approach

The irrigated world area has been increased dramatically from the mid of 20th century. Freshwater use and its consumption have emerged as areas of high environmental concern. Although agricultural lands represent only 12% of the world’s land area, roughly 70% of water withdrawn from aquifers, stream...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Amores Barrero, María José
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/283235
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/283235
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Life cycle assessment
climate change
water footprint
agriculture
uncertainty
decision making
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Descripción
Sumario:The irrigated world area has been increased dramatically from the mid of 20th century. Freshwater use and its consumption have emerged as areas of high environmental concern. Although agricultural lands represent only 12% of the world’s land area, roughly 70% of water withdrawn from aquifers, streams and lakes are for irrigated agriculture. Climate change is a truly global problem around the world and the contribution from the agricultural sector is significantly high. Consequently, the environmental impacts from the use of water by agricultural activities and their relative contribution to Greenhouse Gas emissions should be properly addressed. The present thesis aims mainly to assess the environmental performance of different agricultural systems through the application of Life Cycle Assessment and other complementary methods. Two main environmental impacts were considered: Global Warming and Water Footprint. The objective is to provide farmers with methodological and practical decision- making tools to help them to practice in sustainable agriculture.