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Integrating sustainability assessments to facilitate decision making in sustainable water management in agriculture

Avellán, Tamara ; Dencker, Hanna ; Nordström, Jonas LU ; Hatvani, Nóra ; Gál, Balázs Sándor and Fialkiewicz, Wieslaw (2026) In Environmental and Sustainability Indicators 30.
Abstract
Agricultural production necessitates sustainable practices to ensure long-term and sustained food security. Water is a key ingredient for food production. Ensuring sustainable water management in agriculture is thus essential for global wellbeing. But how do we make sure that our practices are sustainable? A large variety of sustainability assessments abound. Their results may even show conflicting results. In this study, we demonstrate the application of three sustainability assessment methods – Water Footprint Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment – for the use of a water retainer product on different soil types, crops and growing seasons in a farm in Poland. In addition, we aggregate the results of these... (More)
Agricultural production necessitates sustainable practices to ensure long-term and sustained food security. Water is a key ingredient for food production. Ensuring sustainable water management in agriculture is thus essential for global wellbeing. But how do we make sure that our practices are sustainable? A large variety of sustainability assessments abound. Their results may even show conflicting results. In this study, we demonstrate the application of three sustainability assessment methods – Water Footprint Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment – for the use of a water retainer product on different soil types, crops and growing seasons in a farm in Poland. In addition, we aggregate the results of these assessments through a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (PROMETHEE) to facilitate decision making. Our findings suggest that yields of all crops, on all soils in both growing seasons increased. However, yield gain was insufficient in most cases to offset the increased costs of using the water retainer product. The Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis showed that soil type and crops used had a larger effect on rank than the application of the water retainer. Overall, the conclusion from the various methods is to not recommend the use of the water retainer as an efficient water saving technology for the specific case. Our analysis showed the effects on the economic and environmental dimension of sustainability but does not include the social dimension due to the lack of data, leaving an incomplete picture of sustainability. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
sustainability assessment integration integration, Water footprint assessment, Cost-benefit analysis, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA, Multi-criteria decision analysis
in
Environmental and Sustainability Indicators
volume
30
article number
101140
pages
22 pages
publisher
Elsevier
DOI
10.1016/j.indic.2026.101140
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bf363fc2-392e-4475-b6d7-14911812888d
date added to LUP
2026-02-03 10:12:15
date last changed
2026-02-03 17:59:49
@article{bf363fc2-392e-4475-b6d7-14911812888d,
  abstract     = {{Agricultural production necessitates sustainable practices to ensure long-term and sustained food security. Water is a key ingredient for food production. Ensuring sustainable water management in agriculture is thus essential for global wellbeing. But how do we make sure that our practices are sustainable? A large variety of sustainability assessments abound. Their results may even show conflicting results. In this study, we demonstrate the application of three sustainability assessment methods – Water Footprint Assessment, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment – for the use of a water retainer product on different soil types, crops and growing seasons in a farm in Poland. In addition, we aggregate the results of these assessments through a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (PROMETHEE) to facilitate decision making. Our findings suggest that yields of all crops, on all soils in both growing seasons increased. However, yield gain was insufficient in most cases to offset the increased costs of using the water retainer product. The Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis showed that soil type and crops used had a larger effect on rank than the application of the water retainer. Overall, the conclusion from the various methods is to not recommend the use of the water retainer as an efficient water saving technology for the specific case. Our analysis showed the effects on the economic and environmental dimension of sustainability but does not include the social dimension due to the lack of data, leaving an incomplete picture of sustainability.}},
  author       = {{Avellán, Tamara and Dencker, Hanna and Nordström, Jonas and Hatvani, Nóra and Gál, Balázs Sándor and Fialkiewicz, Wieslaw}},
  keywords     = {{sustainability assessment integration integration; Water footprint assessment; Cost-benefit analysis; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA; Multi-criteria decision analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Environmental and Sustainability Indicators}},
  title        = {{Integrating sustainability assessments to facilitate decision making in sustainable water management in agriculture}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2026.101140}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.indic.2026.101140}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}