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Modeling-based performance assessment of an indigenous macro-catchment water harvesting technique (Marab) in the Jordanian Badia
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  • Giulio Castelli,
  • Niccolò Renzi,
  • Lorenzo Villani,
  • Mira Haddad,
  • Stefan Strohmeier,
  • Muhi el Din,
  • Jaafar Al Widyan,
  • Elena Bresci
Giulio Castelli
Università degli Studi di Firenze

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Niccolò Renzi
Università degli Studi di Firenze
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Lorenzo Villani
Università degli Studi di Firenze
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Mira Haddad
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas Jordan
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Stefan Strohmeier
Universitat fur Bodenkultur Wien Department Wasser-Atmosphare-Umwelt
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Muhi el Din
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas Jordan
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Jaafar Al Widyan
National Agricultural Research Center (NARC
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Elena Bresci
Università degli Studi di Firenze
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Abstract

Water resources management is fundamental for rural communities in drylands. Water Harvesting Technologies (WHT) intercept and store the excess rainfall (surface runoff) in soils for increased plant available water and agricultural productivity. The so-called ‘Marab’ WHT was initially developed by Middle Eastern agro-pastoralists that reside or commute in semi-arid and arid rangelands. The Marab WHT is a macro-catchment measure consisting of earth dams and stone spillways along the contours of a lowland depression or floodplain. Dependent on the local context (i.e. climate, soil, management, etc.) the established Marabs show highly-variable effectiveness. This study aims at filling the knowledge gap on the WHT’s performance in changing environments by simulating its hydro-agrological effects for different soils and climatic conditions using the AquaCrop model. A case study performed for a Jordanian Marab over three seasons (2019-2022) confirms its huge improvement potential for barley production. Through Marab-farming, barley production reached 8.37 t ha -1 on average, versus highly variable 0.34 t ha -1 without the WHT. The simulation-based assessment of soil textures identified that silty soils have the largest potential for producing up to 9.25 t ha -1 barley, compared to 6.60 t ha -1 produced in clay soils. Assessing different climate scenarios, a slight increase in daily average temperatures (+ 0.5°C) led to a considerable production decline of 4-8%, while a significant reduction of precipitation (-20%) decreased biomass production by a similar rate (4-10%). This underlines the robustness of the ‘Marab’ WHT to rainfall amount variation. However, simulations also highlight the sensitivity of timing and frequency of flood events: removing the last and the first flood event reduced biomass production by approximately 50% and 80% respectively, while the barley fails to develop if both events were suppressed.
21 Mar 2023Submitted to Land Degradation & Development
21 Mar 2023Submission Checks Completed
21 Mar 2023Assigned to Editor
26 Mar 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
26 Mar 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
03 May 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Major
02 Jun 20231st Revision Received
02 Jun 2023Submission Checks Completed
02 Jun 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
02 Jun 2023Assigned to Editor
03 Jun 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
25 Jun 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
29 Jun 20232nd Revision Received
29 Jun 2023Submission Checks Completed
29 Jun 2023Assigned to Editor
29 Jun 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
01 Jul 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
06 Jul 20233rd Revision Received
06 Jul 2023Submission Checks Completed
06 Jul 2023Assigned to Editor
06 Jul 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
08 Jul 2023Editorial Decision: Accept