• Login
    View Item 
    •   Home
    • Massey Documents by Type
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   Home
    • Massey Documents by Type
    • Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Coupled effects of irrigation management and water salinity on date palm cultivars in the hyper-arid environment of the United Arab Emirates : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Soil and Environment Sciences, School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Icon
    View/Open Full Text
    Al MuainiPhDThesis.pdf (4.414Mb)
    Export to EndNote
    Abstract
    Dates, and the farming of date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.), are culturally, aesthetically and economically important in the United Arab Emirates. In this hyper-arid region, dates require irrigation, as rainfall is virtually non-existent. Groundwater is relied upon as the source of this irrigation water. Yet, the groundwater reserves in the Emirates are expected to run-out in about 55 years. Furthermore they are becoming more saline. In the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Law 5 has been passed and that will limit the amount of water that can be withdrawn for agriculture, or any other purposes. Thus there are imperatives to minimise the amount of water being used for the irrigation of date palms, and to limit the amount of salt leaching from the rootzone of the date palms. These critical issues provide the underpinning reasons for the research described in this thesis. Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has invested in two research projects to determine the minimum amount of irrigation water, as a function of salinity that needs to be applied to date palms to ensure economic returns from date production. These two projects underpin my doctoral research. Using the Compensation Heat Pulse Method (CHPM) of monitoring sapflow has enabled quantification of palm-tree water use, ETc. This was carried out on three cultivars of differing salt tolerances: the salt-tolerant ‘Lulu, the moderately tolerant ‘Khalas’, and the salt-intolerant ‘Shahlah’. Two salinities of groundwater were considered: 5 dS m⁻¹ and 15 dS m⁻¹. The sustainable daily rate of irrigation was considered to be 1.5 ETc, which accounts for a 25% factor-of-safety, and a 25% salt-leaching fraction. This represents considerable savings over current practices. As well, both proximal and remote sensing were used to extrapolate these findings onto commercial date farms. Finally, an assessment of the green, blue and grey water footprints of date production was made. The grey-water footprint from salt leaching was found to be the largest. A benefit-cost assessment was made of the option of using desalinated water to augment and dilute the brackish groundwater used for irrigation. To dilute 15 dS m⁻¹ groundwater to 5 dS m⁻¹ irrigation water was shown to have a benefit-cost ratio of 1.4. However, the environmental impact of the reject brine will need to be considered.
    Date
    2019
    Author
    Al Muaini, Ahmed Hassan
    Rights
    The Author
    Publisher
    Massey University
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10179/15475
    Collections
    • Theses and Dissertations
    Metadata
    Show full item record

    Copyright © Massey University
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Copyright Take Down Request | Massey University Privacy Statement
    DSpace software copyright © Duraspace
    v5.7-2020.1
     

     

    Tweets by @Massey_Research
    Information PagesContent PolicyDepositing content to MROCopyright and Access InformationDeposit LicenseDeposit License SummaryTheses FAQFile FormatsDoctoral Thesis Deposit

    Browse

    All of MROCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Copyright © Massey University
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Copyright Take Down Request | Massey University Privacy Statement
    DSpace software copyright © Duraspace
    v5.7-2020.1