Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Agricultural development in Ecuador: A compromise between water and food security?

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dc.creator Salmoral, Gloria
dc.creator Khatun, Kaysara
dc.creator Llive, Freddy
dc.creator Madrid Lopez, Cristina
dc.date 2018-08-13T13:28:25Z
dc.date 2018-08-13T13:28:25Z
dc.date 2018-08-01
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-25T16:37:38Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-25T16:37:38Z
dc.identifier Gloria Salmoral, Kaysara Khatun, Freddy Llive and Cristina Madrid Lopez. Agricultural development in Ecuador: A compromise between water and food security? Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 202, Issue November, 2018, pp.779-791
dc.identifier 0959-6526
dc.identifier https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.308
dc.identifier http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/13394
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/182252
dc.description Ecuador is facing several threats to its food and water security, with over a tenth of its population currently undernourished and living in poverty. As a response, its government is incorporating new patterns of land use and developing regional water infrastructure to cope with the related challenges. In this study, we assess to what point these efforts contribute to integrated water and food security in the country. We investigated the period 2004–2013 in the most productive agricultural region - the Guayas river basin district (GRBD) - and analysed the impacts of different scenarios of agricultural change on local water security. Our approach integrates MuSIASEM (Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism) with the hydrological SWAT model. Freshwater allocation is evaluated within all the water cycle from its source (natural systems) to the final users (societal systems). Water security is assessed spatiotemporally in terms of water stress for the population living in poverty. Water productivity is obtained in relation to agricultural production and nutrition. The multi-scale analysis shows that whereas at national level the median annual streamflow has a similar magnitude than rainfall stored in soil, these two parameters differ spatiotemporally at subbasin level. The study finds the greatest challenges in achieving water security is the south-east and central part of the GRBD, due to water scarcity and a larger population living in poverty. However, these areas are also simultaneously, where the greatest crop water productivity is found. We conclude that food production for both domestic consumption and market-oriented exports can be increased while meeting ecosystem water demands in all the GRBD regions except for the east. Our integration of methods provide a better approach to inform integrated land and water management and is relevant for academics, practitioners and policymakers alike.
dc.language en
dc.publisher Elsevier
dc.rights Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subject Irrigation
dc.subject National development policy
dc.subject SWAT
dc.subject Water metabolism
dc.subject Socio-ecosystems
dc.title Agricultural development in Ecuador: A compromise between water and food security?
dc.type Article


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