Water Stress Regime of Irrigated Crops Based on Remote Sensing and Ground-Based Data

Abstract

In the past few decades, combinations of remote sensing technologies with ground-based methods have become available for use at the level of irrigated fields. These approaches allow an evaluation of crop water stress dynamics and irrigation water use efficiency. In this study, remotely sensed and ground-based data were used to develop a method of crop water stress assessment and analysis. Input datasets of this method were based on the results of ground-based and satellite monitoring in 2012. Required datasets were collected for 19 irrigated alfalfa crops in the second year of growth at three study sites located in Saratovskoe Zavolzhie (Saratov Oblast, Russia). Collected datasets were applied to calculate the dynamics of daily crop water stress coefficients for all studied crops, thereby characterizing the efficiency of crop irrigation. Accordingly, data on the crop yield of three harvests were used. An analysis of the results revealed a linear relationship between the crop yield of three cuts and the average value of the water stress coefficient. Further application of this method may be directed toward analyzing the effectiveness of irrigation practices and the operational management of agricultural crop irrigation.

A Review on Evapotranspiration Estimation in Agricultural Water Management: Past, Present, and Future

“…In addition, some researchers successfully used state-of-the-art technologies in the estimation of the spatial and temporal distribution of ET [49]. Remote sensing technology is heavily used in the field of agricultural research as they widely use various soil parameters, climatic factors, and other physio-chemical variations which vary spatially and temporally [40,62,64,76,77]. The well-established use of remote sensing technologies and the ever-growing availability of EO data lead to the development of global PET datasets by means of remote monthly temperature data [78].…”

“…Studies based on spatially distributed ET and plant water status have used reflectance, thermal radiance, vegetation index-based crop coefficients, and soil water balance [40,89]. Alvino [76] identified a positive relationship between crop-water status and yield and recommended more attention on remote sensing studies to improve productivity. Remote sensing has the potential to accurately map ET at unprecedented resolution and potentially with much less effort as these methods become easily operational [89].…”

“…CSIRO in Australia has developed an IrriSatSMS system (Irrigation Water Management by Satellite and SMS) with satellite data, mobile phones, and web-GIS platform [40]. Wireless soil moisture sensors and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are other important remote sensing techniques which increase the efficiency of site-specific irrigation management by monitoring and assessing groundwater and plant growth in precision agriculture [76]. These techniques are capable of capturing soil moisture status and some physical properties, predicting harvest, canopy status and crop water status, and pests [91].…”

The Extraction Method of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) Mapping Using Different Remote Sensing Data Sources Based on Vegetation Growth Properties

“…At present, some alfalfa studies have been conducted based on remote sensing technology [25][26][27]. Starks et al, considered that canopy reflectance could help in the rapid assessment of nutritive values over large areas devoted to growing alfalfa and in assessing the nutritive quality in real time [28].…”