Some worthy visual resources in the media to observe the dynamics of usage for “Energy” for Groundwater Pumping and “Soil” for Agriculture (by Diego Fdez-Sevilla)

Here I want to share some resources from the media which address the usage of “Energy” for Groundwater pumping and “Soil” for Agriculture.

These sources of information are relevant when considering the synergies that the activities they address carry in relation with the atmospheric circulation. Some synergies have been treated previously in this blog considering the impact of Land Use and Cover over atmospheric circulation due to synergies with the Atmospheric Energy Balance, the Atmospheric Water Content, Availability of Inland Water Resources, Biological Productivity, Production and Release of Aerosols and Environmental Resilience.

Water Energy Nexus 2010. http://www.resourcematics.com

The GIS based Water Energy Nexus Model is of 5 X 5 arc minutes (approximately 9 X 9 kilometres at the equator) resolution.
Following 30 arc minutes grid map shows aggregated energy use for Groundwater Pumping around year 2010 in thousand Kilo Watt Hour. The data is based on Resourcematics Nexus Model, which analyze groundwater level based on hydro-geology, groundwater abstraction (based on Gleeson et al., 2012), pumping lift, velocity, pumping and drive efficiency, and pumping hours. This map is an advanced version of original research carried out in collaboration with the WBCSD and Meta Meta.

Resourcematics Nexus Model converts fossil fuel based pumps into kWh to compare groundwater pumping to total energy use in 2010.

6 Amazing Global Agriculture Maps – Farming Visualized

GISGeography in Maps & Cartography. http://www.gisgeography.com/

“We help people learn Geographic Information Systems and remote sensing by creating unique articles, infographics and amazing lists.”

1. Agricultural Exposure to Water Stress Map

Agriculture takes advantage of the nutrients in the soil and the amount of water that is available. Water is the key. When crops aren’t getting enough water, farmers have to find ways to bring water to the crops. This is called irrigation. Irrigation can change dry land into fertile farmland. To get water needed for crops, we build reservoirs and drill deep wells. Irrigation is a big part of farming.

The World Resources Institute has mapped out where these water stresses exist in the world. The Agriculture Exposure to Water Stress Map measures the ratio of local withdrawal (demand) over the available water (supply). Countries like India, Morocco, Spain and the Philippines face high cropland water stress.. Other major commodity crops are visualized like coffee, rice and cereals.

2. Feeding the World Map

Crop production will have to double by 2050 to fulfill the needs of a growing and increasingly affluent population. Meeting this challenge will be difficult but not impossible, according to the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment

Can Global Crop Production Meet Future Demands? The University of Minnesota is exploring current crop yields and solutions to the biggest problems in agriculture. This is the purpose of the Feeding the World Story Map. In order to tackle this growing problem, we will have to:

• Make croplands more productive
• Increase water use efficiency
• Change crop use & diet

3. World Bank Agricultural Land (% of land area)

World Bank has a unique set of Agriculture Maps showing historical and future farming trends. Agriculture maps include:

• Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land)
• Agricultural land (% of land area)
• Agricultural machinery (tractors per 100 sq km of arable land)
• Agriculture, value added (% of GDP)
• Agriculture, value added per worker (constant 2005 US$)

4. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Hunger Map

One in seven people on Earth live on less than one dollar each day.

Hunger means going without an adequate meal for days. It prevents adults from working and stunts the growth of babies. It affects one out of nine people every day. The majority of hunger issues are in developing countries.

The United Nations is combating hunger with its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) program. The UN has set a target to halve in the developing world. The interactive UN Hunger Map raises awareness about global hunger.

5. ISRIC Soil Grids 1KM

Plants live in dirt. Rich topsoil is filled of living things like bugs, worms, roots and dead leaves. In the soil business, this is called organic material. Let’s say topsoil comprised of 10% organic material and the rest sand and rocks. The nutrients that plants take up in their roots comes from that 10% organic material. Without organic material, hardly any plants could grow. And it takes centuries for topsoil to grow.

But other factors come into play for crop production. Soil texture (sand %, silt % and clay %) is important because it influences nutrient retention. Cation exchange capacity indicates how the soil can supply nutrients like calcium, magnesium and potassium.

ISRIC’s 1km Global Soil Map helps with agriculture decision-making. Some of the greatest soil maps can be found with properties like taxonomy, organic carbon, pH in H2O, sand %, silt %, clay %, cation exchange capacity, bulk density and coarse fragments

6. FAO Global Spatial Database of Agricultural Land-use Statistics

Agro-maps breaks down primary food crops by sub-national administrative districts. The information is aggregated by crop production, area harvested and crop yields.

About 40% of the global workforce is in agriculture. That’s 1.3 billion people. This means that agriculture is the world’s largest provider of jobs. In the FAO Global Spatial Database and Agricultural Land-use Interactive Map, you get a limited yet very important component of land use.

Agriculture Maps for Decision Making

Agriculture feeds the globe. We can see which crop types are suited for different environments in this list of agriculture maps.

Farming also faces a number of problems – population increase, climate change, hunger and water stress. Agriculture maps can convey this information to make knowledgeable decisions.

Instantly, you have become more knowledgeable about agricultural issues with these 6 agriculture maps.