IRRMIP-Irrigation impacts model-intercomparison-project

As the most dominant freshwater-use practice, irrigation alters the surface and the sub-surface water cycle, then affects the energy cycle and even near-surface climate, and therefore plays an important role in global and regional environmental change. Since 1950, irrigation experienced rapid expansion, with the irrigated area almost tripling until the beginning of this centrury. There is no doubt that the expanded irrigation extent will intensify the irrigation-induced impacts, while there are few studies exploring how these impacts have evolved. Earth system models were widely used to address this question, in which the implementation of irrigation varies, which may introduce uncertainties. To have a better understanding of the irrigation-expansion-induced impacts, we launched a model intercomparison project, in which all models are required to run two experiments, one with transient irrigation extent and another one with the fixed irrigation extent at the year 1901. The outputs will be analyzed with various interests, including near-surface climate, global carbon exchange, labor productivity, etc.

The protocol could be found here: Protocol

To participate in this project, there are two ways, conducting model simulations and analyzing the outputs. If you are interested, feel free to contact yi.yao@vub.be or wim.thiery@vub.be.