Global Map of Irrigation Areas

Italy

According to EUROSTAT the irrigable area of Italy was 3 854 910 ha in 2000 and 3 977 210 ha in 2003, while the area actually irrigated was 2 453 120 ha in 2000 and 2 732 730 ha in 2003 [IT01]. The results of the 5th agricultural census, undertaken in growing season 2000-2001 and reported for the 8101 communities are similar. The irrigable area is summing up to 3 892 202 ha, while the area actually used for irrigation is summing up to 2 471 379 ha [IT02]. It was assumed, that the irrigable area by community as reported by the agricultural census also represents the area equipped for irrigation. The irrigated areas by province are shown in the Table below. The irrigated areas by province, by district and by municipality can be downloaded as a Italy irrigation areas in PDF or Italy irrigation areas in Excel (three sheets).

Area equipped for irrigation was distributed within the communities to cultivated areas as extracted from the Corine 2000 land cover database for Europe [IT03] by using the priority levels shown in Table 1. The resulting irrigation map for Italy was found to agree well with irrigation maps published in the literature ([IT04]–[IT06]).

Area equipped for irrigation with groundwater was computed based on the data collected by the EU farm structure survey 2003 as described before. Area actually irrigated was derived from the database of the agricultural census 2000 [IT02].

References

[IT01]: Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). 2011. Irrigable and irrigated areas. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/ page/portal/agri_environmental_indicators/data/ database, 28/11/2011.
[IT02]: ISTAT. 2002. 5° Censimento Generale dell' Agricoltura. Online database, http://censagr.istat.it/, 11/01/2006.
[IT03]: EEA. 2005. Corine land cover 2000 - vector by country (CLC2000), version 1. http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/dataservice/metadetails.asp?id=667, 29/08/2005.
[IT04]: Wagner, H. 1993. Die Bewässerungslandwirtschaft in den italienischen Regionen Latium, Abruzzen, Molise und Kampanien 1991. In H. Popp & K. Rother, eds. Die Bewässerungsgebiete im Mittelmeerraum, Passau, Germany, Passavia Universitätsverlag, 87-92.
[IT05]: Rother, K. 1993. Die Bewässerungsgebiete im fernsten Italien. In H. Popp & K. Rother, eds. Die Bewässerungsgebiete im Mittelmeerraum, Passau, Germany, Passavia Universitätsverlag, 93-104.
[IT06]: Framji, K.K., Garg, B.C. & Luthra, S.D.L. 1981. Irrigation and drainage in the world. Third edition. Vol. II, p. 702. New Delhi, ICID.