Coupling Ecological Water Security, Smart Agriculture, and Brackish Water Use for Arid Regions: A Review

Under the dual pressures of freshwater scarcity and intensifying soil salinization in arid regions, the efficient use of brackish water has become a critical pathway for alleviating regional water stress. This narrative review seeks to synthesize a new paradigm characterized by deep integration of smart agriculture with brackish water irrigation. Further review shows that smart agriculture can open a new pathway for precision regulation of brackish water irrigation. Through reviewing existing studies on how brackish water irrigation affects soil properties and crop growth, we summarized the issues that emerged and proposed an integrated framework for sustainable brackish water application combined with smart agricultural management. Conventional brackish water irrigation increases the risks of deterioration in soil physicochemical properties, disruption of microbial community structure, and inhibition of crop growth and yield. On this basis, we propose a paradigm framework for smart brackish water irrigation, consisting of paradigm foundations, key technologies, application scenarios, and long-term goals. This framework clarifies the core connotations of intelligent water-salt coordination, dynamic threshold management, and multi-source data-driven decision-making, and promotes the transition of brackish water irrigation toward greater precision, intelligence, and system integration. This review can establish a technical system for smart brackish water utilization and provide both theoretical and practical support for the high-quality, efficient, and sustainable use of brackish water resources in arid regions.