Chinese scientists unveil dataset for global cropland water-use efficiency

BEIJING -- Chinese scientists have released a long-term, high-resolution dataset that tracks global cropland water-use efficiency from 2001 to 2020.

Published in the journal Scientific Data, the dataset provides annual water-use efficiency estimates for croplands worldwide at a spatial resolution of one kilometer. It is expected to serve as a valuable tool for advancing sustainable agricultural water management.

Water-use efficiency measures the amount of biomass or economic value produced per unit of water used. It reflects both biological and economic benefits, balancing input and output. As a key indicator of the trade-off between food production and water consumption, water-use efficiency plays an essential role in guiding the sustainable use of regional agricultural water resources, said the study.

The dataset was developed by a research team from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They created an integrated modeling framework combining an improved light-use efficiency model for estimating gross and net primary production with the ETMonitor evapotranspiration model for estimating water consumption. To improve the accuracy of water-use efficiency estimates, model parameters were optimized for each climate zone.

"Agriculture accounts for more than 90 percent of the world's consumptive freshwater use," said Jiang Min, the study's first author.

"With growing concerns over global water scarcity and food security, accurately assessing cropland water-use efficiency is more important than ever," Jiang added.