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    Agricultural water balance in the polder Scheidgraben (Brandenburg)
    (Berlin ; Heidelberg : Springer, 2022) Drastig, Katrin; Schmidtke, Lea; Jacobs, Helen; Recker, Martin
    A predicted increase in water demand for irrigated agriculture in the wake of climate change, and the threat of more extensive periods of drought, poses a challenge to the availability of groundwater resources in Germany. In this study, water availability and water withdrawal for agricultural irrigation are calculated for the polder Scheidgraben (Brandenburg). The agricultural water demand in the Scheidgraben polder is modeled using the AgroHyd Farmmodel. Climate data, soil data, plant-specific data and operating data of all farms in the polder are used as a data basis. In the dry years 2018 and 2019, more than 20% of the potentially available water in the Scheidgraben polder was used for irrigation. The use of water resources by agricultural water withdrawals in the area may increasingly be a problem in the future. In some regions of Brandenburg, region-specific calculations for water management are necessary due to a wide range of conflicts and thus steadily increasing challenges for water authorities.
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    Governing Transactions and Interdependences between Linked Value Chains in a Circular Economy: The Case of Wastewater Reuse in Braunschweig (Germany)
    (Basel : MDPI, 2018-4-9) Maaß, Oliver; Grundmann, Philipp
    Reusing wastewater in agriculture has attracted increasing attention as a strategy to support the transition towards the circular economy in the water and agriculture sector. As a consequence, there is great interest in solutions for governing the transactions and interdependences between the associated value chains. This paper explores the institutions and governance structures for coordinating transactions and interdependences between actors in linked value chains of wastewater treatment and crop production. It aims to analyze how transactions and interdependences shape the governance structures for reusing wastewater at the local level. A transaction costs analysis based on data from semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire is applied to the agricultural wastewater reuse scheme of the Wastewater Association Braunschweig (Germany). The results show that different governance structures are needed to match with the different properties and requirements of the transactions and activities between linked value chains of wastewater treatment and crop production. Interdependences resulting from transactions between wastewater providers and farmers increase the need for hybrid and hierarchical elements in the governance structures for wastewater reuse. The authors conclude that aligning governance structures with transactions and interdependences is key to efficiently governing transactions and interdependences between linked value chains in a circular economy. © 2018 by the authors.