Agricultural water management in Germany

Background and Objective

Although current water use in agriculture lies below one percent of the total amount of water extracted, the issue of water management has gained in importance in the context of recent dry summers. Agricultural water management will remain of high topicality in the context of advanced climate change and its manifestations such as increasing temperatures and evaporation rates. For Thünen Institute as a federal research institution with economic, ecological and technological focus it is important to consider not only water protection but also water use in agriculture in order to provide political advice and contribute to the development of water use strategies.

The joint projekt LAWAMAD aims to analyse the options for improved water management in German agricultural landscape with the objective to increase water availability for irrigation.

Target Group

policy makers, agricultural producers, advisors, regional water associations, chambers of agriculture, interested professional and general public

Approach

The project will address the issue of water availability, demand and use from different perspectives, each elaborated within a separate subproject:

• Subproject A will focus on the development of technical options for improved water management and on estimation of resources necessary for their implementation.
• Subproject B will assess these technical options from socio-economic and legal perspective, and consider the upscaling of the technical options to the national level.
• Subproject C will carry out comprehensive Germany-wide quantification of the irrigation needs and irrigation benefits, also in the context of expected climate change and its expected impacts on water balance.

Preliminary Results

Focusing on preselected landscapes, the project will demonstrate which water storage and irrigation options are available, which implications these have, and how legal and support frameworks are to be adjusted in order to promote the implementation of appropriate water management options. For all German regions the irrigation needs and irrigation benefits in the context of climate change will be quantified.