Water balance in artificial on-farm agricultural water reservoirs for the irrigation of intensive greenhouse crops

The present work provides a monthly balance of the water deficit that could be overcome in an AWR over an irrigation season considering the rainwater directly received by the AWR, the losses due to direct evaporation from the AWR, and the water demand that must be met to provide sufficient irrigation. These water balances were compared with those that would occur if the AWR had been covered with shading material to reduce direct evaporation and if the rainwater from the greenhouse roofs had been collected in the AWR. When applying both of these management approaches, the annual water deficit decreased by 53.02%