Abstract
Over 96.2% of the agricultural water in Jeju Island is obtained from groundwater and there are quite distinct characteristics of agricultural water demand/supply spatially because of regional and seasonal differences in cropping system and rainfall amount. Land use for cultivating crops is expected to decrease 7.4% (4,215 ha) in 2020 compared to 2010, while market garden including various vegetable crop types having high water demand is increasing over the Island, especially western area having lower rainfall amount compared to southern area. On the other hand, land use for fruit including citrus and mandarin having low water demand is widely distributed over southern and northern part having higher rainfall amount. The agricultural water demand of $1,214{\times}10^3\;m^3/day$ in 2020 is estimated about 1.39 times compared to groundwater supply capacity of $874{\times}10^3\;m^3/day$ in 2010 with 42.4% of eastern, 103.1% of western, 61.9% of southern, and 77.0% of northern region. Moreover, net secured amount of agricultural groundwater would be expected to be much smaller due to regional disparity of water demand/supply, the lack of linkage system between the agricultural water supply facilities, and high percentage of private wells. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the total net secured amount of agricultural groundwater to overcome the expected regional discrepancy of water demand and supply by establishing policy alternative of regional water supply plan over the Island, including linkage system between wells, water tank enlargement, private wells maintenance and public wells development, and continuous enlargement of rainwater utilization facilities.
