Spatially explicit yield-improvement and blue-water evapotranspiration-reduction potentials for irrigated wheat and maize in China

This dataset supports a grid-scale assessment of yield-improvement and blue-water evapotranspiration-reduction potentials for irrigated wheat and maize in China. It contains spatially explicit GeoTIFF layers for wheat and maize under three irrigation methods (FU, MI and SP) and two representative precipitation scenarios (P50 normal and P75 dry). Yield improvement potential is expressed in kg ha⁻¹ and calculated as the positive difference between target and current crop yields. Blue-water evapotranspiration reduction potential is expressed in mm and calculated as the difference between current and target ETblue. Positive ETblue values indicate potential reductions in blue-water consumption, whereas negative values indicate increases. The raster layers have a spatial resolution of 5 arc minutes and use the WGS 84 coordinate reference system (EPSG:4326). The estimates were derived from AquaCrop-based crop water–yield simulations and a benchmark-attainability framework that constrains target yield and ETblue according to attainable yield, current blue-water consumption and minimum crop-water requirements. This dataset can help researchers, water-resource managers and policymakers identify where yield improvements and reductions in consumptive blue-water use are biophysically feasible, thereby supporting the spatial prioritisation of crop- and irrigation-specific interventions under contrasting precipitation conditions.