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This research was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Live-stock and Environment of the Regional Government of Aragon and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) of the European Union through the Rural Development Programme. The grant code is #GCP2021001800, and the grant title is " Grupo Operativo Partenariado del Agua de la cuenca del Ebro-Aragon ".Thanks are due to the managers and the governance of the WUAs and General WUAs participating in the consultations, the interviews and the workshop. Their participation has been very important to the research reported in this paper.

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Lorenzo-Gonzalez, M AAuthorQuilez, DAuthorBalcells, MAuthor

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August 13, 2024
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Irrigation modernization in the Ebro - Aragon region of Spain: Past and future trends

Publicated to:Agricultural Water Management. 302 108975- - 2024-09-01 302(), DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2024.108975

Authors: Playan, E; Gimeno, Y; Lorenzo-Gonzalez, M A; Jimenez, A; Lopez-Pardo, J R; Olivan, I; Castillo, R; Carbonell, X; Fabregas, M; Vicente, L M; Galvez, L; Lax, J A; Quilez, D; Balcells, M; Solano, D; Aguaviva, J; Zapata, N

Affiliations

ARC Mediac Ambiental, Mdrid, Spain - Author
CINGRAL, Consultora Ingn Rural & Agroalimentaria, Santa Cruz 8, Zaragoza 50003, Spain - Author
Colegio Oficial Ingenieros Tecn Agr & Peritos Agr, Calle Santander 8,2 D, Zaragoza 50010, Spain - Author
Colegio Oficial Ingn Agronomos Aragon Navarra & Pa, Valenzuela 5,4a Planta, Zaragoza 50004, Spain - Author
Comun Gen Regantes Canal Imperial Aragon, Parque Incredulos 2, Zaragoza 50009, Spain - Author
CSIC, EEAD, Expt Stn Aula Dei, Dept Soil & Water, Avda Montanana 1005, Zaragoza 50059, Spain - Author
Ctr Invest & Tecnol Agroalimentaria Aragon CITA Ar, Dept Environm Agr & Forest Syst, Associated Unit EEAD CSIC, Avda Montanana 930, Zaragoza 50059, Spain - Author
FEREBRO, Federac Comunidades Regantes Cuenca Ebro, Ave Amer 1, Zaragoza 50007, Spain - Author
Riegos Alto Aragon, Ramon & Cajal 96, Huesca 22006, Spain - Author
Union Agr & Ganaderos Aragon UAGA COAG, Calle Lucas Gallego 72, Zaragoza 50009, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Irrigation modernization has been analyzed in the part of the Aragon region within the Ebro River Basin, in northeastern Spain. A geodatabase was built with 1144 irrigation cartographical units (ICUs) adding up to 476 k ha with access to water and equipped with on-farm irrigation hardware. ICUs were classified in eight categories related to irrigation modernization. The classification revealed that in the past two decades an integral irrigation modernization was achieved in 103 k ha. In a second modernization, 13 k ha were transformed to reduce their dependence on grid energy. A third type of modernization, oriented to the digitalization of irrigation management processes, is only incipient at this time. Public investments in modernization during this period were estimated at 36.8 M/year. This intense, publicly co-funded, policy-driven process will be far from sufficient to complete the modernization of all irrigated land in the study area in another twenty-year period. In a concurrent process, obsolete, socially unfavored and structurally deficient irrigated areas are being abandoned for irrigation and even for farming. Specific indicators were proposed to approach the abandonment process, revealing that irrigation intensity in temperate climate, riparian ICUs was only 20 %. Irrigation in the study area needs to progress towards sustainable intensification, concentrating agricultural production in areas equipped with the technology and the water management capacities required to face the current agronomical and environmental challenges. The on-going processes of irrigation modernization, new irrigation developments and irrigation abandonment should be coordinated to serve this purpose.

Keywords

Base de datos espacialChallenge governance classificatioDesviación del uso de la tierraDistrictInversión públicaManagementModernizaciónModernization subsidy abandonmentModernization subsidy abandonment challenge governance classificationRegadioRegulated deficit irrigationSystemsWaterYiel

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Agricultural Water Management due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 3/129, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Agronomy. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-07-21:

  • WoS: 4
  • Scopus: 3

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-21:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 25.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 50 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.35.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 2 (Altmetric).