Methods and Tools for Sustainable Agricultural Water Management, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Irrigated agriculture accounts for approximately 90% of consumptive water use in water-scarce regions, making it the primary consumer of freshwater resources. As a result, there is growing interest in strategies to conserve water on irrigated lands, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Integrating tools such as soil moisture sensors, weather forecasting, GIS, remote sensing, and wastewater treatment systems offers the potential to build highly efficient and precise agricultural water management frameworks.

Water-saving approaches—including drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, drought-resistant crop selection, and soil amendment practices like conservation tillage and cover crops—not only reduce water usage at the field scalebut also enhance soil health and moisture retention. Additionally, water saving at the irrigation perimeter and regional scale are affected. When combined, these tools and practices can significantly advance the sustainability of agricultural water management, ensuring responsible and efficient use of water resources.

This Special Issue invites contributions that explore recent innovations in sustainable agricultural water management. Manuscripts may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

(1) Monitoring and modeling crop water use in cultivated fields;

(2) Crop water relations, yields and quality, and water productivity;

(3) Deficit irrigation and salinity management strategies for improving water use efficiency;

(4) Conservation tillage and cover cropping practices;

(5) Farm-level and regional water management approaches;

(6) Water saving at the irrigation perimeter;

(7) Use of brackish water or RO concentrate in agriculture;

(8) AI applications for sustainable agricultural water management.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Hui Yang
Prof. Dr. Manoj K. Shukla
Dr. Yusen Yuan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.