Discover the Editor's Choice: From each issue of Water Supply a member of the Editorial Board selects one outstanding paper to share across IWA Publishing platforms.
IWA Publishing is pleased to announce that the Editor Choice Paper for the Special Issue “Water Supply in Agriculture” (21.6), chosen by Dr. Nektarios Kourgialas, is:
Economidou, Y., Doula, M. K. & Zorpas A. A.
doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/ws.2021.118
Why was this paper chosen?
Hot-summer Mediterranean climate areas are experiencing an increasing shortage of water for irrigation, a fact that makes the optimization of irrigation strategies even more important than other regions. In various eastern Mediterranean countries water scarcity is considered to be a critical problem, with adverse effects on the agricultural sector. Cyprus is a characteristic example of this, as the agricultural sector faces increasing challenges since water resources are very limited and particularly susceptible to climate change.
In this sense, Economidou et al. 2021 propose that an effective modelling approach, based on an easy and appropriate programming model, could be a proper decision tool to define the optimum cultivation pattern of the main agricultural crops, for maximizing the net economic profit, under limited water use constraints. For this reason, this article, which tries, at national scale, to join economic benefit and water management under climate change scenarios, is of great importance. In this paper, the proposed method could easily be transferred and applied to other countries, providing at the same time, a valuable tool for policy makers to redesign agricultural water supply strategies in light of water scarcity. Based on the above, the impact of this paper on the scientific community is important and it could serve as a good example for inspiring national scale water supply strategies.
Dr. Nektarios Kourgialas, Editor