Assessing landscape scale heterogeneity in irrigation water use with remote sensing and in situ monitoring
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15549351 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Timothy Foster (0000-0001-9594-1556, University of Manchester, corresponding author), Ivo Zution Gonçalves (0000-0002-8070-9292), Isidro Campos (0000-0001-7542-7779), Christopher M U Neale (0000-0002-7199-6410), Nicholas Brozović (0000-0002-2218-4934) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 024004-024004 |
| Publication date | 2018-11-21 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/aaf2be |
| OpenAlex | W2900829435 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 3 |
Understanding how irrigation is used across agricultural landscapes is essential to support efforts to grow more food while reducing pressures on limited freshwater resources. However, to date, few studies have analyzed the underlying spatial and temporal variability in farmers' individual water use decisions at a landscape scale. We compare estimates of irrigation water requirements derived using state-of-the-art remote sensing models with metered abstraction records for 1,400 fields over a 13-year period in the U.S. state of Nebraska, one of the world's most intensively irrigated agricultural regions. We show that farmers' observed water use decisions often diverge significantly from biophysical estimates of crop irrigation requirements. In particular, our findings are consistent with widespread use of water conservation practices by farmers in drought years as an adaptive response to rising irrigation costs and regulatory water supply constraints in these years. We also demonstrate that, in any individual year, farmers' observed water use exhibits large field-to-field variability, which cannot be explained fully by differences in weather, soil type, crop choice, or technology. Our results highlight the value of using both in-situ monitoring and remote sensing to evaluate farmers' individual water use behavior and understand likely responses to future changes in climate or water policy. Moreover, our findings also demonstrate potential challenges for current efforts in developed and developing countries to apply model-based approaches for field-level water use accounting and enforcement of irrigation water rights
Agricultural engineering · Agriculture · Environmental resource management · Farm water · Geography · Irrigation · Scale (ratio · Water conservation · Water resource management · Water resources · Water supply · Water use · Environmental Science · Flood Risk Assessment and Management · Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies · Water resources management and optimization · Ecology · Environmental Engineering
| Citations per year | 0.29 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2021 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |