Remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS) are revolutionising irrigation management. They represent a relatively cheap and rapid method of acquiring up-to-date information over a large geographical area. and are the only practical way to obtain data from inaccessible regions. At small scales, regional phenomena which are invisible from the ground can be clearly visible. Presented at the 1st World Irrigation Forum, 2013, Mardin, Turkey.

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Water for a food-secure world
RS & GIS applications to
manage irrigated agriculture
S.A. Prathapar,
on behalf of
Amarnath, Chemin, Karimi, Rebelo, Sharma, Siddiqui & Platonov

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Water for a food-secure world
If you can’t measure, you can’t manage!
• Relatively cheap and rapid method of
acquiring up-to-date information over a large
geographical area.
– Example: Landsat scene covers 180 km x 180 km at ground resolution of 30 every 16 days
• It is the only practical way to obtain data from
inaccessible regions,
– Example: Antarctica, Amazonia.
• At small scales, regional phenomena which
are invisible from the ground are clearly
visible.
– Examples: faults and other geological structures. A classic example of seeing the forest instead of
the trees.

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Water for a food-secure world
Operating Satellites
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_weapons_and_global_security/space_weapons/technical_issues/ucs-satellite-database.html

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Selected Applications by IWMI

5. Water Productivity in IGP
Rice Wheat

6. Land Productivity in IGP
Rice Wheat

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Water for a food-secure world
Mapping Agro-wells

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Water for a food-secure world
Boro Paddy Mapping – West Bengal
2000 20102006

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Water for a food-secure world
WA+ Resource base sheet
Indicators Definition
Exploitable water fraction Explitable water divded by the net inflow
Storage change fraction Fresh water storage change divided by exploitable water
Available water fraction Available water divided by exploitable water
Basin closure fraction Utilized flow divided by available water
Reserved flow fraction Reserved outflows divided by the total outflow

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Water for a food-secure world
Nile Basin: Input RS data

11. Broad wetland classes derived from annual
flood dynamics Distribution of wetland vegetation
Rebelo, L-M., 2010. Eco-hydrological characterization of inland wetlands in Africa using L-band SAR. IEEE Journal of
Special Topics in Earth Observation and Remote Sensing Vol 3 No 2
Mapping Wet lands

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Water for a food-secure world
Water & Climate Atlas
• The IWMI World Water and Climate Atlas gives irrigation
and agricultural planners rapid access to accurate data
on climate and moisture availability for agriculture
• The Atlas includes monthly and annual summaries for:
• precipitation,
• temperature,
• humidity,
• sunshine,
• Evaporation & evapotranspiration
• wind speed,
• rainfall,
• frost

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Water for a food-secure world
Detail Presentations on
• RS & Smart ICT for Agricultural Water
Management
• Monitor Droughts & Floods
• Map Irrigated areas

14. Applications in Canal Irrigation
Performance
Adequacy, Equity and Reliability

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Water for a food-secure world
Canal Irrigation Management in Pakistan
Adequacy, Equity and Reliability of Water Availability

16. Evaporative Fraction within Hakra, Punjab, Pakistan on
4/10/2012

17. Hakra Daily mean EF
(2000-12)
20 irrigation seasons are visible (Large groups of val=1.0)
Maybe few more, less visible.

18. Linking Remote Sensing Models and ICT
M2M
U
S
E
S
U
P
P
L
Y
Central Processing Unit
Estimate AET
Estimate Performance

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Water for a food-secure world
Thank You