Modeling-based performance assessment of an indigenous macro-catchment water harvesting technique (Marab) in the Jordanian Badia

Published Date
November 01, 2023
Type
Journal Article
Modeling-based performance assessment of an indigenous macro-catchment water harvesting technique (Marab) in the Jordanian Badia
Authors:
Niccolò Renzi
Lorenzo Villani, Lorenzo Villani, Mira Haddad, Mira Haddad, Stefan Strohmeier, Muhi El-Dine Hilali, Jafar Al Widyan, Elena Bresci, Giulio Castelli, Giulio Castelli

Water resources management is fundamental for rural communities in drylands, where water harvesting technologies (WHT) can be used for intercepting surface runoff and storing water in soils. The so-called “Marab” WHT was initially developed by Middle Eastern agro-pastoralists that reside or commute in semi-arid and arid rangelands. The Marab WHT is a macro-catchment measure consisting of earth dams and stone spillways along the contours of a lowland depression or floodplain. Dependent on the local context (i.e., climate, soil, management, etc.), the established Marabs show highly variable effectiveness and little scientific evidence is supporting the scaling out of the technology. This study aims at filling the knowledge gap on the Marab performance in different environments by simulating its hydro-agrological effects for different soils and climatic conditions using the AquaCrop model. A case study performed for a Jordanian Marab over three seasons (2019–2022) confirms its huge improvement potential for barley production. Through Marab-based farming, barley production reached 8.37 t ha1 on average, versus highly variable 0.34 t ha1 without the WHT. The simulation-based assessment of soil textures identified that silty soils have the largest potential for producing up to 9.25 t ha1 barley, compared to 6.60 t ha1 produced in clay soils. Assessing different climate scenarios, a slight increase in daily average temperatures (+0.5C) led to a considerable production decline of 4%–8%, while a significant reduction of precipitation (20%) decreased biomass production by a similar rate (4%–10%). This underlines the robustness of the “Marab” WHT to rainfall amount variation. However, simulations also highlight the sensitivity of timing and frequency of flood events: removing the last and the first flood event reduced biomass production by approximately 50% and 80%, respectively, while the barley fails to develop if both events were suppressed.

Citation:
Niccolò Renzi, Lorenzo Villani, Mira Haddad, Stefan Strohmeier, Muhi El-Dine Hilali, Jafar Al Widyan, Elena Bresci, Giulio Castelli. (1/11/2023). Modeling-based performance assessment of an indigenous macro-catchment water harvesting technique (Marab) in the Jordanian Badia. Land Degradation and Development, 34 (17), pp. 5191-5206.
Keywords:
aquacrop
climate change
drylands
rangelands
modelling
rainwater harvesting