Irrigation Scheme Selection Based on Water Footprint Analysis of Winter Wheat Production in Piedmont Plains of Hebei Province under Future Climate Scenarios

The statistical downscaling tool of a statistical downscaling model (SDSM) to generate the future climate of the piedmont plain area in Hebei Province for a 30-year period. The Xinji city was selected as a typical example of this area. The crop growth model of the decision support system for agrotechnology transfer (DSSAT) was adopted to estimate the changing trends of the water footprint of winter wheat production in this area under future climate conditions, and to obtain the optimal irrigation scheme of winter wheat for an ‘acceptable yield’. According to the test results, all the temperature indices of the piedmont plain area increased in the two selected future climate scenarios. In addition, the effective precipitation exhibited a slight decrease in scenario A2 and a remarkable increase in scenario B2. Both the total water footprint and green water footprint increased. A yield of 500 kg per mu was taken as the acceptable yield. In scenario A2, to achieve this acceptable yield, it was required to irrigate once in the jointing period with an irrigation rate of 105 mm. In scenario B2, one-time irrigation with an amount of 85 mm was sufficient to reach the acceptable yield.