Sustainability of The Water Footprint of Various Soil Types On Oil Palm Plantations
Sustainability of The Water Footprint of Various Soil Types On Oil Palm Plantations
Sustainability of The Water Footprint of Various Soil Types On Oil Palm Plantations
Email: alam.hidayat@binus.edu
Abstract. There are significant studies that have quantified oil palm water footprint as an
indicator of environmental sustainability but an estimation of water footprint under varying soil
types furthermore is still limited. The objectives of the study were to estimate whether annual
variations of soil type and yields significantly effects for the oil palm water footprint. The data
from three types of soil (spodosol, inceptisol, ultisol) were collected from an oil palm plantation
in Pundu village, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. To perform the water footprint analysis we
utilize water balance accounting equations via application Cropwat 8.0. From that, we determine
the crop irrigation scheduling to compute the blue, green, and grey water footprint of oil palm
fresh fruit bunch in the area. Our analysis found that the actual evapotranspiration of spodosol
and inceptisol have the same value: 1242 mm/year whilst ultisol is 1239 mm/year. The total
water footprint of oil palm varied considerably with the largest value being 1310.04 m3/ton for
ultisol. The actual evapotranspiration of spodosol and inceptisol have the same value of 1242
mm/year whilst ultisol is 1239 mm/year. The higher production resulted in a lower water
footprint and vice versa. Moreover, the total water footprint from ultisol soil type has the highest
value due to the lowest yields. The difference in evapotranspiration value resulted in the
insignificant value of total water footprint. The lower water availability, the lower water use,
and the higher actual irrigation requirement in oil palm plantation yet showed the unnotable
impact on water footprint in different soil types for the oil palm plantation.
1. Introduction
The oil palm industry is considered to be one of the primary economic developments in Indonesia’s
agricultural sector. Indonesian palm oil exports, which are recognized globally, are predicted to
contribute about 3.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [1]. With that being said, solid, timely, and
well-planned efforts are required by oil palm plantations to expand and increase productivity and
profitability [2]. Our previous research has been focused on the application of agricultural precision for
oil palm plantations by developing various information systems [1,3–6] as well as data-driven analysis
via artificial intelligence for optimization purposes [2]. Recently, one of the major issues in oil palm
plantations is how to manage water usage for environmental sustainability by computing water footprint.
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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
5th International Conference on Eco Engineering Development IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
A water footprint is a quantity to evaluate water utilization by plants to produce crops [7]. Some studies
have shown quantification of the oil palm water footprint as one of the primary indicators for
environmental sustainability [8,9]. Basically, the water footprint is estimated generally without
considering the variation of soil type. A current study presented the prediction of water footprint for
varying soil types yet in farm-scale under limited spatial and temporal [10]. The estimation of the water
footprint in the life cycle assessment concept under varying soil types furthermore is still limited. A
better understanding of water footprint variation under different soil types is beneficial to predict the
distribution of effective water use of oil palm as an indicator of environmental sustainability.
Furthermore, a broad insight of which main factors impacted on water footprint value such as water
availability, water use, irrigation, production, etc. Referred to the problem statement, it is of interest to
understand on 1) how does the annual evapotranspiration of oil palm vary under different soil type in
the same area, 2) how do the annual water usage and production of oil palm vary on different soil type
in the same climatic area, 2) how does the water footprint vary annually among the different soil type in
the same climatic area and 3) furthermore to determine whether the variation of soil type and yields
significantly effects to the oil palm water footprint.
A review by Lovarelli et al reported that parameters such as climatic conditions of plantation area,
type of plantation land, and tree plant productivity significantly impact the values of the water footprint
in agricultural areas for crops [8]. For example, data-driven analyses of weather patterns can be used to
forecast local rainfall, which can be useful to predict green water availability in a given region [11–15].
Meanwhile, Suttayakul et al. used crop water scenarios to analyze green, blue, and grey water footprint
in several provinces in Thailand by varying the characteristics of soil [16]. Employing the fresh fruit
bunches (FFB) water footprint analysis, our previous studies in Pundu, Central Kalimantan found that
oil palm trees require a lower water footprint than other plants that can also produce oil such as coconut,
rapeseed, olives, sunflower seeds, etc [7,10]. This suggests the efficiency of water usage for oil palm
plantations due to relatively lower water utilization. Moreover, the research also demonstrated that the
water absorption by the oil palm trees is proven to not affect groundwater reservoirs because the green
water footprint is larger than that of the blue water. Our analysis indicates that the main source of water
for palm oil plantations is largely from precipitation and the groundwater usage only contributes less
than 5% of total water usage [7]. Therefore, water footprint analysis is crucial to quantify the parameters
for the environmental sustainability within the oil palm plantation as suggested by Wackernagel et al.
that the water footprint could contribute to determine the ecological footprint of oil palm trees [17].
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5th International Conference on Eco Engineering Development IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
2.2 Computation
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5th International Conference on Eco Engineering Development IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
ETa is the actual crop evapotranspiration rate at day i, Dri quantifies root zone depletion at the end of a
day i while Dri-1 is the amount of water content in the root zone at the end of the previous day, i-1. Further,
Pi denotes precipitation on day i, ROi refers to the runoff from the soil surface on day i, Ii is total irrigation
depth on day i that infiltrates the soil, Cri is a capillary rise from the groundwater table on a day i, ETci
denotes the crop evapotranspiration on a day i, Dpi is water loss out of the root zone by deep percolation
on the day i, and Eta: actual water use by the plant. All quantities are measured in millimeter (mm).
Furthermore, the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and crop evapotranspiration (ETc) can be calculated
using the Penman–Monteith equation [19]. The water balance accounting from the previous step can be
used to estimate irrigation scheduling for crops. The crop water use is based on that scheduling for both
the green and blue water use. Next, we compute the water footprint of oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB)
according to Hoekstra et al [20] & ISO 14046 [21] using the following equations:
10×𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐸𝑇𝑎 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛,𝑏𝑙𝑢𝑒
𝑊𝐹𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛,𝑏𝑙𝑢𝑒 = (𝑚3 𝑡𝑜𝑛−1 ) ()
𝑌𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑠
𝛼 ×𝐴𝑅(𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝐶𝑛𝑎𝑡 )
𝑊𝐹𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑦 = (𝑚3 𝑡𝑜𝑛−1 ) ()
𝑌𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑠
where ETa green denotes the annual actual evapotranspiration during immature and mature stage for 2-
20 years (mm/year), ETa blue is the annual actual evapotranspiration from irrigation during nursery stage
age in the first year (mm/year). The annual average production of oil palm from Pundu Plantation (ton/
year) is denoted by Yield. α is a leaching fraction. Using the assumption of 10% nitrogen (concentration),
we denote AR as a chemical application rate per hectare (ton/ha), Cmax is the maximum allowable
concentration (10 mg/L) and Cnat is a natural concentration (0 mg/L). The input AR, Cmax, and Yields are
provided in the data. Moreover, the irrigation scheduling is needed to check irrigation requirements along
with the quantity of rainwater contained in the root zone (effective rainfall) to measure the availability of
different types of water (green, blue, gray, and total) for crops (see Figure 1). The grey water here refers
to the amount of water polluted during the agricultural process.
3.1. Evapotranspiration analyses of oil palm plants from different types of soil
The analysis of annual crop water requirements using CropWat 8.0 presented the simulation result of oil
palm ETa (mm/year) complete with the water contribution from precipitation rate (ETa green) as well as
groundwater through irrigation (ETa blue). ETa, ETa green, and ET blue data are listed in Table 3. The
result presented that the actual evapotranspiration of spodosol and inceptisol have the same value of 1242
mm/year whilst ultisol is 1239 mm/year. The corresponding annual ET of oil palm was 918 ± 46 and
1216 ± 34 mm/year, respectively [22]. The crop evapotranspiration of mature oil palm has a range from
1, 583 to 2, 003 mm/year case study in Peninsular Malaysia [23].
Table 3. The average precipitation rate (mm/year) of oil palm on various types of soil
ETa ETa green ETa blue
Soil type
(mm/year) (mm/year) (mm/year)
Spodosol 1242 1171 71
Inceptisol 1242 1171 71
Ultisol 1239 1168 71
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5th International Conference on Eco Engineering Development IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
nitrogen contained on fertilizer and the maximum concentration of nitrogen allow to the soil as well. The
quantity of nitrogen that reaches free-flowing water bodies has been assumed to be 10% of the applied
fertilization rate (in kg/ha/yr) [24]. The result of different grey water footprints based on Eq. (4) showed
in Table 4. The effect of the use of other nutrients, pesticides, and herbicides on the environment
furthermore has not been analyzed in this work.
Furthermore, using the grey water footprint from Table 4 and the green and blue water footprint from
Table 3 and 5, the total water footprint of oil palm for three variations of soil type were estimated and
presented in Table 5. The results showed that the total water footprint of oil palm varied considerably
from 583 m3 ton-1 for spodosol, 599 m3 ton-1 for inceptisol, and 1310.04 m3 ton-1 for ultisol. The obsolete
factor of this significant variation was driven by the oil palm production (m3 ha-1) (see Figure 2). The
higher production resulted in a lower water footprint and vice versa. A recent study in the same area
found that the water footprint is 1002.1 m3 ton-1 in which the productivity was estimated at 13.41 ton ha-
1
and the plantation used 0.12 ton ha-1 fertilizer. In addition, irrigation was only given to pre-nursery and
nursery activities for simplicity [7]. The oil palm trees in the observation area were grown using water
from precipitation, not from groundwater. The grey WF obtained was 8.9 % which is relatively lower
than the average grey WF of oil crops worldwide. Another study of oil palm water footprint in Ogan
Baturaja, South Sumatera presented an estimated 980,88 m3 ton-1 for total water footprint and 821, 23,
137 m3 ton-1 for green, blue, and gray water footprint respectively [25]. One other case study from oil
palm plantation in Thailand 1063 m3 ton-1 for total water footprint which comprised of 68, 18, and 14%
green, the blue and grey water footprint of total WF, respectively.
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5th International Conference on Eco Engineering Development IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
Figure 3. Comparison of total water footprint, yields, and ET for different types of soil
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5th International Conference on Eco Engineering Development IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
requirement in the tropical area is low due to the high rainfall that impacts on higher water availability
[27]. However, the water availability, water use, and actual irrigation requirement in this work showed
the unnotable impact on water footprint in different soil types.
Figure 4. The comparison chart of water availability for different types of soil
4. Conclusion
Utilizing water footprint analysis in the oil palm plantation in Pundu village, Central Kalimantan, we
found the actual evapotranspiration of spodosol and inceptisol have the same value of 1242 mm per year
whilst ultisol 1239 mm per year. The insignificant value of evapotranspiration was due to the climate
data from the same area. The total water footprint of oil palm varied considerably from 583 m3 ton-1 for
spodosol, 599 m3 ton-1 for inceptisol, and 1310.04 m3 ton-1 for ultisol. The obsolete factor of this
significant variation was driven by oil palm production. The higher production resulted in a lower water
footprint and vice versa. The total water footprint from ultisol soil type has the highest value due to the
lowest yields. Further, we also demonstrated that the water footprint of spodosol and inceptisol showed
slightly different values due to the close production value. The difference in evapotranspiration value
resulted in the insignificant value of total water footprint. The lower water availability, the lower water
usage, and the higher actual irrigation requirement in oil palm plantation yet showed the unnotable
impact on water footprint in different soil types. Our analysis can be further improved by integrating
data-driven analyses from our previous studies such as weather forecasting, AI-based computer vision
to detect ripeness of oil palm, and more.
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
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5th International Conference on Eco Engineering Development IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 998 (2022) 012004 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/998/1/012004
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