Support of irrigation water use and eco-friendly decision process in agricultural production planning

Abstract In this paper a Multiple Criteria Mathematical Programming model has been developed integrating vulnerability maps; its purpose is to optimize and facilitate the decision making process relating to the problems of water management, land use and environmental protection. The model is used to support irrigation water use and eco-friendly decision processes in agricultural production planning. It has been developed in the context of the research project entitled EU Water (transnational integrated management of water resources in agriculture for European water emergency control). For accessing the vulnerability of agricultural land to water and nitrogen losses, a set of indices were utilised. It was implemented in the Sarigkiol basin in the north-eastern part of the Kozani prefecture in Northern Greece, combining different criteria to a utility function under a set of constraints concerning different categories of labour, land, available capital, etc. On the same time the model is taking into account the vulnerability maps which have been developed for the area. The aim of the study was to achieve optimum crop plans in the aforementioned area and it was further used to simulate different scenarios and policies, due to changes on different social, economic and environmental parameters (e.g. different levels of chemicals or water consumption per crop). The decision maker can get alternative production plans and agricultural land uses as well as the social, economic and environmental impact of different policies. Results show that the model can be considered as an important planning tool enabling the regional authorities to design optimal spatial development policies and protect groundwater from the excessive fertilizer and other pollution agents use.