• Energy Research

Growing social awareness of the need to adequately treat mining waste in order to protect the environment has led to an increase in the research in this field. The aim of this study was to analyze the dynamics of the research focused on mining waste and its sustainable management on a worldwide scale from 1988 to 2017. A systematic review and a bibliometric analysis of 3577 articles were completed. The results show that research into mining waste has increased, with studies focusing on waste management accounting for almost 40% of the total. The most productive journals in this field were Applied Geochemistry and Science of the Total Environment. The five most productive countries were the United States, Canada, Spain, Australia, and China. Works on the sustainable management of mining waste were in the minority, but it is an area of research that has considerable potential given the growing social awareness of the environmental repercussions of mining activities and the demands for increasingly sustainable practices. The findings of this study could prove useful for studies into mine waste, as they depict a global view of this line of research.

Within a context of scarce water resources for agriculture, rainwater harvesting constitutes a promising alternative that has been studied by different disciplines in recent years. This article analyses the dynamics of global research on rainwater harvesting for agricultural irrigation over the last two decades. To do this, qualitative systematic analysis and quantitative bibliometric analysis have been carried out. The results reveal that this line of research is becoming increasingly important within research on irrigation. Environmental sciences and agricultural and biological sciences are the most relevant subject areas. Agricultural Water Management, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, and Irrigation and Drainage are the journals that have published the most articles on the subject. India, China, the United States (USA), South Africa, and the Netherlands are the countries that lead this line of research. Although significant progress has been made in this subject area, it is necessary to increase the number of studies on the capacity of rainwater harvesting systems to cover irrigation needs in different farming contexts, the factors that determine their adoption by farmers, the economic and financial feasibility of their implementation, and their contribution to mitigating global climate change.

Pest control is one of the ecosystem services most affected by the intensification of agriculture. Pests can lead to significant losses in crop yields and jeopardise food security. In this context, installing hedgerows around greenhouses is presented as an opportunity to improve the presence of natural enemies and favour the control of pests. However, the adoption of this practice has not spread among farmers. The objective of this article is to determine the factors that affect the decision to adopt hedgerows around greenhouses by studying the case of southeast Spain. A binary logistic regression model is developed from a farmer survey of 189 farmers in the study area. The variables that are significant when explaining the installation of hedgerows are the size of the farm, the expenses, the number of methods used to combat pests, technical advice, and environmental awareness. Based on these results, action measures are proposed to promote the adoption of this practice.

The socio-cultural valuation of forest ecosystem services is a useful tool to generate knowledge and help balance the different interests of stakeholders with respect to the management of these services. The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of global research on the economic valuation of forest ecosystem services through a review of the existing literature on this topic. The results show that socio-cultural valuation has gained importance in recent years. There is a wide disparity between the countries conducting the research and those being studied. Inconsistency has been observed in the definition and classification of services provided by forests, as well as a lack of unanimity on the reference framework to be applied. The main methodological approaches in the socio-cultural valuation of forest services are participatory mapping, social media analysis, the Q method and free listing. For the collection of primary information, the dominant methodologies are focus groups, semi-structured interviews and online surveys. Finally, this study demonstrates that socio-cultural valuation has great potential to improve the legitimacy of forest ecosystem management decisions and to promote consensus building.

Sustainability of water use in agriculture is a line of research that has gained in importance worldwide. The present study reviewed 25 years of international research on sustainable water use in agriculture. A bibliometric analysis was developed to sample 2084 articles. Results indicate exponential growth in the number of articles published per year, with research in this field having acquired a global scale. Environmental Science and Agricultural and Biological Sciences are the main categories. Three journals—Agricultural Water Management, Water Resources Management and Nongye Gongcheng Xuebao Agricultural Engineering—published the most of the articles. China, the U.S., Australia, India and Germany produced the most research. The three institutions that published the most articles were all Chinese (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Agricultural University and Northwest A&F University). The most cited authors were Ridoutt, Hoekstra and Zhang. The keywords most frequently used include: water-use, irrigation, water-management, water-supply, and sustainability. A network map shows three clusters that focus on the environmental, agronomic and management aspects. The findings of this study can assist researchers in this field by providing an overview of research on the sustainability of hydric resources.

Abstract The availability and quality of water resources for agricultural irrigation are being increasingly compromised by different factors. In this context, the installation of rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems for use in agricultural holdings can contribute to mitigating this problem. However, the use of these systems by farmers continues to be very low. This paper analyses the factors that influence a farmer's decision to adopt these systems to take advantage of rainwater. Greenhouse agriculture in southeast Spain is the case studied. For this, a binary logistic regression model based on a survey administered to farmers was used. Among the variables found to be significant, the most important variables are the quantity of water in the pond, the pond capacity and environmental awareness. The variables that least affect the adoption decision are age, education level and income. These results have allowed the development of the main lines of action for policy-makers to intervene in order to promote the adoption of these systems. These measures focus on enhancing the training of farmers, providing them with financial support and boosting their environmental awareness. The results of this study lead to improved research on farmers’ behaviour and sustainable management of water resources in agriculture.

Irrigated agriculture plays a fundamental role as a supplier of food and raw materials. However, it is also the world’s largest water user. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of studies analyzing agricultural irrigation from the perspective of sustainability with a focus on its environmental, economic, and social impacts. This study seeks to analyze the dynamics of global research in sustainable irrigation in agriculture between 1999 and 2018, including the main agents promoting it and the topics that have received the most attention. To do this, a review and a bibliometric analysis were carried out on a sample of 713 articles. The results show that sustainability is a line of study that is becoming increasingly more prominent within research in irrigation. The study also reveals the existence of substantial differences and preferred topics in the research undertaken by different countries. The priority issues addressed in the research were climatic change, environmental impact, and natural resources conservation; unconventional water resources; irrigation technology and innovation; and water use efficiency. Finally, the findings indicate a series of areas related to sustainable irrigation in agriculture in which research should be promoted.