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Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Wastewater Irrigation Impacts on Soil Hydraulic Conductivity: Coupled Field Sampling and Laboratory Determination of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity
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Widely cited global irrigation statistics lack empirical support.

Arnald Puy1, Seth N Linga1, Nanxin Wei1

  • 1School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom.

PNAS Nexus
|November 13, 2025
PubMed
Summary

Irrigated agriculture

Keywords:
agriculturehydrologymodelingsustainabilityuncertainty

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Area of Science:

  • Sustainability Science
  • Agricultural Science
  • Environmental Science

Background:

  • A common belief is that irrigated agriculture is crucial for global food and water security.
  • This notion is often supported by claims that irrigation accounts for 40% of crop production and 70% of freshwater withdrawals.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the empirical support for the widely cited figures on irrigated agriculture's contribution to global food and water security.
  • To analyze the propagation of these claims within sustainability science literature.

Main Methods:

  • Network citation analysis of 3,500 sustainability science documents.
  • Tracing citation paths to evaluate the data supporting key claims about irrigation's impact.

Main Results:

  • The belief in irrigation's significant role is widespread but lacks robust empirical backing.
  • 60-80% of citation paths lead to sources without supporting data or the cited figures.
  • The actual contribution of irrigation to global crop production and water withdrawals is highly uncertain, with ranges of 18-50% and 45-90%, respectively.

Conclusions:

  • Foundational claims in sustainability science require rigorous empirical evaluation.
  • Acknowledging and embracing uncertainty is essential for robust research and effective policy-making in sustainability.
  • The commonly cited statistics for irrigated agriculture's impact are not well-supported and mask significant uncertainty.