Water Saving Techniques for Plant Growth

Large areas of crops are now grown under water-stressed conditions on non-irrigated and and under limited irrigation in semi-arid and arid regions. In the future, this area of water-stressed crops will increase as a result of increasing competition from other water users, declining ground water levels, and the bringing into production of fragile lands that have low water-holding capacity, such as sandy desert soils. Consequently, strategies and practices to increase total yields and efficient water use must be improved. After the introductory material and keynotes, the book is divided into four parts.
Part I covers soil water management, Part II deals with model approaches to evaluate the soil-water-atmosphere interactions, Part III treats water saving techniques through soil conditioning, and Part IV discusses case studies of water management systems. Water Saving Techniques for Plant Growth thus represents a general account of interest and activities of the various scientific disciplines which are concerned in desert encroachment as part of global change.

Inhalt

Preface. Desert Encroachment as Part of the Global Change; R.Paepe. Natural Aridification and Man-Made Desertification; N. Petit-Maire. Part I: Soil Water Management. 1. Principles of Soil Water Management; W.R. Gardner. 2. Water Conservation in Arid Zones; H. Bouwer. 3. Irrigation under Limited Water Availability: Water Saving Techniques; L.S. Pereira, J.L. Teixeira. Part II: Model Approaches to Evaluate the Soil-Water-Atmosphere Interactions. 4. Forecasting Soil-Water-Atmosphere Interactions in Arid Regions; R.A. Feddes, W.G.M. Bastiaanssen. 5. Microclimate, eau et production; A. Perrier. Part III: Water Saving Techniques Through Soil Conditioning. 6. Managing Water in Stressed Environments; H.J.W. Verplancke. 7. Water Saving for Rainfed Crop Production in the Tropics Through Surface Soil Conditioning; I. Pla Sentis. 8. Synthetic Polymers as Soil Conditioners: Thirty-Five Years of Experimentations; M.F. De Boodt. Part IV: Case Studies of Water Management Systems. 9. Soil Management for Efficient Water Use under Main Cropping Systems in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas of Turkey; N. Munsuz, N. Durutan, M. Güler, M. Karaca. 10. Water Saving Techniques for Crop Production in Rainfed Areas of Turkey; M.S. Yesilsoy. 11. The `Buried Stones Pocket': A New Irrigatin Technique for Tree Plantations in Arid Regions; B. Chahbani. 12. Techniques to Promote Plant Growth Applied to Urban Sites; J.W. Bakker. 13. Integrated Use of Marginal Water Resources in Arid and Semi-Arid Zones; A. Issar, E. Adar. Author Index. Subject Index.