Plant growth and yields are decreased by salinity, drought and other environmental stress conditions. Soil salinization is one of man’s oldest environmental disasters. The historic records show that many human civilizations declined because of the destruction of crop production by salinization of arable lands. Recent estimates suggest that about 20-25% of the world’s irrigated land is destroyed...

Drought stress caused by unpredictable precipitation poses a major threat to food production worldwide, and its impact is only expected to increase with the further onset of climate change. Understanding the effect of drought stress on crops and plants' response is critical for developing improved varieties with stable high yield to fill a growing food gap from an increasing population dependin...

lack of sewage collection systems, percolation of surface waters, and seepage of wells have raised the groundwater table in shiraz area in the south of iran. the growing population generates environmental pollution resulting in the degradation of the quality of surface and groundwaters used for agriculture. inorganic and organic pollutants have been traced in shiraz water resources. heavy metal...

Urmia Lake in northwestern Iran has been facing critical water level shrinkage in recent years with ‎serious environmental consequences. It is expected that with the current trend, the lake will be ‎completely dried out in a few years from now. This study attempts to assess the impacts of human ‎activities on water level fluctuations of Urmia Lake by developing a comprehensive hydrologic ‎simul...

Global freshwater resources are under increasing pressure from economic development, population growth, and climate change. The international trade of water-intensive products (e.g., agricultural commodities) or virtual water trade has been suggested as a way to save water globally. We focus on the virtual water trade network associated with international food trade built with annual trade data...

Water and food safety are two major challenges which the world faces today. Traditional water management focuses on the reduction of water use through improvements in water saving technologies. However, quantitative research is needed to evaluate the effects of changing food consumption patterns on water resources. Here we report the water saving effects of changing diet pattern of the major cr...

The phosphate industry is a major contributor to the economy of some Mediterranean countries (i.e. Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, etc). Large volumes of water are required by the mining industry from areas where water resources are scarce or limited. Water scarcity may be worsened by a degradation of the water quality after phosphate processing. The pressure on water is liable to hamper the developm...

Planning for the optimal use of productive resources in agricultural systems leads to the conservation in addition to the promotion of farmers’ socio-economical conditions. Being certain or precise in any decision making in agricultural planning is impossible. Fuzzy mathematical programming techniques, developed in recent decades, are the most appropriate and applicable approaches to include th...

introduction management and decision-making issues related to water resources, especially groundwater, which is an important source of fresh water, is the main decisions of a country. according to population growth and increasing demand as well as lack of water, proper management for these resources will be needed. so integrated environmental assessment is one of the best and most effective too...