This study highlights the spatial and temporal impacts of climate change on rice–wheat cropping systems, focusing on irrigation water requirement (IWR) in the Bagmati River Basin of Nepal. The outputs from a general circulation model (HadCM3) for two selected scenarios (A2 and B2) of IPCC and for three time periods (2020s, 2050s, and 2080s) have been downscaled and compared to a baseline climatology. CROPWAT 8.0 model is used to estimate the water requirements. IWRs show different trends in different physiographic regions and different growth stages of rice and wheat. A decreasing trend of IWRs in the Mid Hills and the High Hills indicates that farmer-based small irrigation schemes are sufficient to meet the requirements. However, in the Terai region, where there is an increasing trend in IWRs, the deficit volume of water needs to be supplied from potential large-scale irrigation schemes.
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Research Article|
May 22 2013
Impacts of climate change on irrigation water requirements for rice–wheat cultivation in Bagmati River Basin, Nepal
S. Shrestha;
1Water Engineering and Management, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, P. O. Box 4 Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
E-mail: [email protected]
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B. Gyawali;
B. Gyawali
1Water Engineering and Management, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, P. O. Box 4 Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
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U. Bhattarai
U. Bhattarai
1Water Engineering and Management, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, P. O. Box 4 Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
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Journal of Water and Climate Change (2013) 4 (4): 422–439.
Article history
Received:
September 09 2012
Accepted:
April 27 2013
Citation
S. Shrestha, B. Gyawali, U. Bhattarai; Impacts of climate change on irrigation water requirements for rice–wheat cultivation in Bagmati River Basin, Nepal. Journal of Water and Climate Change 1 December 2013; 4 (4): 422–439. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wcc.2013.050
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