Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2025

Abstract

Agriculture in the Lower Colorado River (LCR) region faces mounting challenges from climate change, arid conditions, and water scarcity. This study evaluates water use efficiency (WUEc) and crop-switching strategies under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios for 2025–2049, 2050–2074, and 2075–2099. Using historical data, climatic drivers such as temperature and precipitation were analyzed for their influence on key crops, including durum wheat, winter wheat, and corn. Results show SSP2-4.5 supports water use reductions up to 16%, stable profits (80–90%), and modest calorie increases (up to 15%), while SSP5-8.5 poses severe challenges, with water use reductions of 2–5%, profits dropping to around 20%, and minimal calorie gains (2%). The study highlights the vulnerability of durum wheat and resilience of winter wheat and corn, advocating for crop-switching and resource-efficient practices to sustain agriculture in arid regions like the LCR.

Comments

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in IGARSS 2025 - 2025 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. This article may not exactly replicate the final published version. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS55030.2025.11242608.

Copyright

IEEE © 2025 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

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