Projected Energy and Water Consumption of Pacific Northwest Irrigation Systems.

摘要

A computer model has been developed to predict present and future regional water,energy,labor,and capital requirements of irrigated agricultural production in Idaho,Oregon,and Washington. The energy requirements calculated were on-farm pumping,and total energies. Total energies are the combined energies of on-farm pumping,manufacture,and installation. Irrigation system selections and modifications were based on an economic analysis utilizing the following input parameters:water,energy,labor,and capital costs and requirements;groundwater and surface water pumping lifts;improved application efficiencies;and pumping plant efficiencies. Major conclusions and implications of this analysis indicate that:as water application efficiencies increases additional quantities of water will not become available to other users;an overall increase in water application efficiencies resulted in decreases in gross water applications and increases in overall on-farm pumping and total energy consumptions;more energy will be consumed as pumping and total energies than will be conserved through decreased diversion pumping energy requirements;pump-back and similar technologies have the potential of both increasing application efficiencies and energy conservation;and the interrelationships understood between applying water in quantities greater than required for crop consumptive use and leaching,and late season in-steam flow augmentation and/or aquifer recharge are not well understood,and sound policy decisions concerning agricultural use of water and energy cannot be made until these interrelationships are better understood. (ERA citation 04:039657)