Context. The increasing global demand for agricultural products is placing a growing pressure on surface and subsurface water resources (D’Odorico et al. 2019). The combination of such a pressing need to ensure food security with the water scarcity of many world’s regions represents a major challenge for the sustainable management of water resources. Various water use and water sustainability indicators (e.g., virtual water content, water debt repayment time) have been developed and used to quantify the linkage between food and water resources as a function of climate, soil, and agricultural practices and assess their local sustainability (e.g., Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2011, Tuninetti et al. 2019).
Objectives. This thesis aims at characterizing crop-specific water sustainability at the global scale. Specifically, you will map the spatial distribution of source- and crop-specific water uses and assess their local sustainability in terms of water debt repayment time (Tuninetti et al. 2019; Bonetti et al. 2020). The student is expected to actively work on a literature review of the topic (10%), perform data analyses (40%), and perform numerical simulations (50%).
If you are interested, please contact Sara Bonetti ([email protected]).
Context. The increasing global demand for agricultural products is placing a growing pressure on surface and subsurface water resources (D’Odorico et al. 2019). The combination of such a pressing need to ensure food security with the water scarcity of many world’s regions represents a major challenge for the sustainable management of water resources. Such conditions are expected to worsen in a climate change scenario, with changes in rainfall patterns and increased drought events likely to propagate into reduced water availability and crop yields, especially in already vulnerable areas (IPCC 2022; Mancosu et al. 2015).
Objectives. This thesis aims at characterizing crop-specific water footprints under future climate scenarios, with a specific focus on the analysis of changes in rainfall patterns. The analysis will allow you to identify hotspot regions for water risk and the most water intensive crops under future climatic conditions. The student is expected to actively work on a literature review of the topic (10%), perform data analyses (30%), and quantify changes in crop water footprints through numerical modelling (60%).
If you are interested, please contact Sara Bonetti ([email protected]).