Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40093792›Full record

ArticleEnvironmental research. Food systems2025

The iGains4Gains model guides irrigation water conservation and allocation to enhance nexus gains across water, food, carbon emissions, and nature.

Bruce Lankford, Nafn Amdar, Matthew McCartney, Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Environmental research. Food systems, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Bruce LankfordSchool of Global Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5580-272X
Nafn AmdarInternational Water Management Institute, Amman, Jordan.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7175-4940
Matthew McCartneyInternational Water Management Institute, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6342-2815
Tafadzwanashe MabhaudhiCentre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9323-8127

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This paper introduces and applies iGain4Gains, an Excel-based model, to reveal how changes to water conservation and allocation, and irrigation technology, can produce four nexus gains. These gains are; reduced aggregate water consumption, sustained crop production, lower carbon emissions, and enhanced water availability for nature. We developed the model with limited data and hypothetical future scenarios from the Amman-Zarqa basin in Jordan. Given its significant irrigation and urban water demands and difficult decisions regarding future water allocation and nexus choices, this basin is a highly appropriate case study. The paper's primary aim is to demonstrate the iGains4Gains nexus model rather than to build an accurate hydrological model of the basin's water resources. The model addresses two critical questions regarding increased irrigation efficiency. First, can irrigation efficiency and other factors, such as irrigated area, be applied to achieve real water savings while maintaining crop production, ensuring greenhouse gas emission reductions, and 'freeing' water for nature? Second, with the insight that water conservation is a distributive/allocative act, we ask who between four paracommoners (the proprietor irrigation system, neighbouring irrigation systems, society, and nature) benefits hydrologically from changes in irrigation efficiency? Recognising nexus gains are not always linear, positive and predictable, the model reveals that achieving all four gains simultaneously is difficult, likely leading to trade-offs such as water consumption rebounds or increased carbon emissions. Demonstrated by its use at a workshop in Jordan in February 2024, iGains4Gains can be used by students, scientists and decision-makers, to explore and understand nexus trade-offs connected to changes in irrigation management. The paper concludes with recommendations for governing water and irrigated agriculture in basins where large volumes of water are withdrawn and depleted by irrigation.

Indexed as

climate changeirrigated agricultureirrigation paradoxreal water savings

Identifiers

PMID40093792
PMCPMC7617495

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.