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Observational evidence of the cooling effect of agricultural irrigation in Jilin, China

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Abstract

China features the second largest irrigation area in the world. Several modeling studies on a global scale have shown the irrigation impact in China, but no direct observational evidence has been reported. In this paper, we evaluated the impact of irrigation on temperature in Jilin province, China, using meteorological and satellite observations. The results show that the temperature difference between highly and lightly irrigated sites is statistically significant and highly correlated to the effective irrigation area and crop sown area over the past 53 years. The magnitude of the difference in maximum air temperature was almost twice that of the difference in minimum air temperature. The linear regression coefficient of the time series difference in maximum air temperature was more than three times that of the minimum air temperature. Moreover, both meteorological and satellite observations show that the temperature difference is amplified during drier years. The difference in the magnitude of daytime land surface temperature (LST), between areas with irrigation percentages of more than 50 and less than 50, is as high as 2.7 K during the driest year. Overall, this study may provide evidence that an irrigation cooling effect exists in China.

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Abbreviations

CSA:

Crop sown area

DTmax:

The growing season mean maximum temperatures difference between HIP and LIP (HIP minus LIP)

DTmean:

The growing season mean minimum temperatures difference between HIP and LIP (HIP minus LIP)

DTmin:

The growing season average mean temperatures difference between HIP and LIP (HIP minus LIP)

DW:

Durbin-Watson method

EC:

Energy consumption

EIA:

Effective irrigation area

FAO map:

The global irrigation map derived by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO MAP)

GIAM:

The global irrigated area map generated by IWMI

GMRCA:

The global map of rainfed cropland areas generated by IWMI

HIP:

Observation sites with a relatively high irrigation percentage

IWMI:

The International Water Management Institute

LIP:

Observation sites with a relatively low irrigation percentage

LST:

Land surface temperature

MODIS:

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer

MYD11C3:

MODIS/Aqua Land Surface Temperature/Emissivity Monthly L3 Global 0.05 Deg CMG products

NLCD:

National Land Cover Dataset of China

SCE:

Standard coal equivalents

SPI:

The standard precipitation index

SPI12:

The standard precipitation index for a 12 month rainfall total

UR:

urbanization ratio

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Acknowledgements

This study is partially funded by NASA and NOAA grants. The leading author is also funded by the Chinese Scholarship Program. We also would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Xiufang Zhu & Shunlin Liang

  2. The college of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    YaoZhong Pan

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  1. Xiufang Zhu
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  2. Shunlin Liang
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  3. YaoZhong Pan
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Correspondence to Xiufang Zhu.

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Zhu, X., Liang, S. & Pan, Y. Observational evidence of the cooling effect of agricultural irrigation in Jilin, China. Climatic Change 114, 799–811 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0435-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0435-3

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