Assessment of Equity and Adequacy of Water Delivery in Irrigation Systems Using Remote Sensing-Based Indicators in Semi-Arid Region, Morocco

The irrigation performance criteria of equity and adequacy are of primary concern for irrigation managers. The input data required at various scales to assess irrigation performance, often not available, need costly intensive field campaigns. Remote sensing techniques, used to directly estimate crop evapotranspiration (ETc), became recently an attractive option to assess irrigation performance from individual fields to irrigation scheme or river basin scale. In this study, ETc maps were obtained by combining the FAO-56 dual approach with relationships between crop biophysical variables and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), using high spatial resolution time series of SPOT and Landsat images. This approach was applied for 2002/2003 growing season in Haouz plain, Morocco. Remote sensing-based indicators, reflecting equity and adequacy of the irrigation water delivery were estimated. Adequacy was determined according to Relative Irrigation supply (RIS), Depleted Fraction (DF) and Relative Evapotranspiration (RET) and equity according to the coefficient of variation of ETc. The analysis of these indicators exhibits a great variability among fields. Variability in irrigation performance at all levels, associated factors and possible improvements are discussed. This study demonstrates how remote sensing-based estimates of water consumption provide better estimates of irrigation performance at different scales than the traditional field survey methods.

[1]  Marinus G. Bos,et al.  On irrigation efficiencies. , 1974 .

[2]  W. Bausch,et al.  Crop Coefficients Derived from Reflected Canopy Radiation: A Concept , 1987 .

[3]  J. T. Musick,et al.  Water-Yield Relationships for Irrigated and Dryland Wheat in the U.S. Southern Plains , 1994 .

[4]  Wim G.M. Bastiaanssen,et al.  Relating Crop Water Consumption to Irrigation Water Supply by Remote Sensing , 1997 .

[5]  Mark W. Rosegrant,et al.  The world food situation: Recent developments, emerging issues, and long-term prospects , 1997 .

[6]  David Molden,et al.  Accounting for water use and productivity , 1997 .

[7]  Marinus G. Bos,et al.  Performance indicators for irrigation and drainage , 1997 .

[8]  Charlotte de Fraiture,et al.  Indicators for comparing performance of irrigated agricultural systems , 1998 .

[9]  L. S. Pereira,et al.  Crop evapotranspiration : guidelines for computing crop water requirements , 1998 .

[10]  W. Bastiaanssen,et al.  A remote sensing surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL). , 1998 .

[11]  A. Holtslag,et al.  A remote sensing surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL)-1. Formulation , 1998 .

[12]  Wim G.M. Bastiaanssen,et al.  Irrigation Performance Indicators Based on Remotely Sensed Data: a Review of Literature , 1999 .

[13]  Heping Zhang,et al.  Water-yield relations and optimal irrigation scheduling of wheat in the Mediterranean region , 1999 .

[14]  中島 正博.  報告 Water Users' Organization for Institutional Reform in Pakistan's Irrigation Sector , 2000 .

[15]  Martha M. Bakker,et al.  Low Cost Satellite Data for Monthly Irrigation Performance Monitoring: Benchmarks from Nilo Coelho, Brazil , 2001 .

[16]  Vinay Kumar Dadhwal,et al.  Estimation of crop evapotranspiration of irrigation command area using remote sensing and GIS , 2001 .

[17]  T. Oweis,et al.  Improving water productivity in the dry areas of West Asia and North Africa , 2003 .

[18]  David Molden,et al.  Irrigation and Drainage Performance Assessment: Practical Guidelines , 2004 .

[19]  E. Fereres,et al.  Evaluating irrigation performance in a Mediterranean environment , 2004, Irrigation Science.

[20]  Wim G.M. Bastiaanssen,et al.  Review of measured crop water productivity values for irrigated wheat, rice, cotton and maize , 2004 .

[21]  S. D. Gorantiwar,et al.  Performance assessment of irrigation water management of heterogeneous irrigation schemes: 1. A framework for evaluation , 2005 .

[22]  Douglas J. Hunsaker,et al.  Wheat basal crop coefficients determined by normalized difference vegetation index , 2005, Irrigation Science.

[23]  Luis S. Pereira,et al.  FAO-56 Dual Crop Coefficient Method for Estimating Evaporation from Soil and Application Extensions , 2005 .

[24]  A. Chehbouni,et al.  Monitoring wheat phenology and irrigation in Central Morocco: On the use of relationships between evapotranspiration, crops coefficients, leaf area index and remotely-sensed vegetation indices , 2006 .

[25]  Benoît Duchemin,et al.  Combining FAO-56 model and ground-based remote sensing to estimate water consumptions of wheat crops in a semi-arid region , 2007 .

[26]  Benoît Duchemin,et al.  Calibration and Validation of the STICS Crop Model for Managing Wheat Irrigation in the Semi-Arid Marrakech/Al Haouz Plain , 2007 .

[27]  Luciano Mateos,et al.  Spectral vegetation indices for benchmarking water productivity of irrigated cotton and sugarbeet crops , 2008 .

[28]  V. Simonneaux,et al.  The use of high‐resolution image time series for crop classification and evapotranspiration estimate over an irrigated area in central Morocco , 2008 .

[29]  Benoît Duchemin,et al.  A simple algorithm for yield estimates: Evaluation for semi-arid irrigated winter wheat monitored with green leaf area index , 2008, Environ. Model. Softw..

[30]  Hugh Turral,et al.  Diagnosing irrigation performance and water productivity through satellite remote sensing and secondary data in a large irrigation system of Pakistan , 2009 .

[31]  Erhan Akkuzu,et al.  Using satellite remote sensing to assess irrigation performance in Water User Associations in the Lower Gediz Basin, Turkey , 2009 .

[32]  Camilo Daleles Rennó,et al.  Remote sensing for irrigation water management in the semi-arid Northeast of Brazil , 2009 .

[33]  Sander J. Zwart,et al.  A remote sensing-based irrigation performance assessment: a case study of the Office du Niger in Mali , 2010, Irrigation Science.

[34]  Benoît Duchemin,et al.  Combining Satellite Remote Sensing Data with the FAO-56 Dual Approach for Water Use Mapping In Irrigated Wheat Fields of a Semi-Arid Region , 2010, Remote. Sens..

[35]  K. N. Tiwari,et al.  Estimation of Crop Coefficient and Evapotranspiration of Wheat (Triticum aestivum) in an Irrigation Command Using Remote Sensing and GIS , 2010 .

[36]  M. Tasumi,et al.  Performance assessment of an irrigation scheme using indicators determined with remote sensing techniques , 2010, Irrigation Science.

[37]  Benoît Duchemin,et al.  Water use efficiency and yield of winter wheat under different irrigation regimes in a semi-arid region , 2011 .