in: Innovative Agricultural Practices in Soil, Plant and Environment , Bahar Sözüpek,Korkmaz Bellitürk, Editor, İksad Yayınevi, Ankara, pp.216-260, 2022
With the increasing demand for water resources, the
change in precipitation and temperature regimes as a result of climate change,
the increase in population, urbanization and pollution, the fair and balanced
allocation of water resources among users gains more and more importance day by
day. This situation presents new challenges to water resource management.
River basin management plans are an important tool in
the sustainable use of water resources in terms of both quantity and quality.
In river basin management plans, the "agriculture" is usually
observed as the dominating sector regarding both the amount of water used and
the diffuse pollution it creates through agricultural return-flow and/or via
overland flow. Thus, it is a difficult challenge to determine and control the
agricultural pollutants. As such, innovative techniques that reduce the water
usage and prevent the transport of pollution from agricultural areas to water
bodies have a vital place in river basin management plans.
In this chapter, general
information on river basin management plans is introduced initially followed by
innovative agricultural techniques that are applied are mentioned. Some recent application
practices from different parts of the world targeting the use of innovative
agricultural practices within the framework of river basin management plans for
the efficient use of irrigation water and for the reduction of agricultural
pollution are referred and cited.