Earth Observation technologies for rural water management
Abstract
In most parts of the world, irrigated agriculture is the main user of freshwater resources. Efficient water management is therefore of essential importance, especially in arid and semi-arid climates, where water scarcity is tangible and will be further stressed by growing urbanisation and decreasing annual precipitation. A more detailed knowledge about the amount of water required by crops at a given development stage and in specific climatic conditions is thus needed to achieve a rational use of limited water resources during the irrigation season at both field and river-basin level. Earth observation (EO) techniques are able to provide timely and personalised information to farmers, by taking into account the actual development of farmers’ crops, resulting from past and current meteorological and environmental conditions and agricultural practices. EO4WATER aims at improving methodologies to produce maps of crop water needs, by integrating optical high resolution data from satellite and in-situ agro-meteorological measurements. We will focus on the Marchfeld area (Eastern Austria), and include field experimental activities with users in order to test and fine-tune these methodologies in local environment. By the end of the project, a set of methodologies will have been validated and adapted to local agricultural conditions. Also, a group of farmers will be trained to new space-based technologies, and their requirements will be reported for future developments. At river-basin scale, the project will offer innovative management concepts and tools that are complementary to current investments in irrigation infrastructures - such as the “Marchfeld-Kanal Projekt”.
keywords Earth observation Agrometeorology Water management Irrigation Agriculture
Publikationen
Project staff
Francesco Vuolo
Dr. Francesco Vuolo
francesco.vuolo@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-85735
BOKU Project Leader
01.04.2012 - 30.04.2014
Clement Atzberger
Univ.Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Clement Atzberger
clement.atzberger@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-85711
Project Staff
01.04.2012 - 30.04.2014
Josef Eitzinger
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Josef Eitzinger
josef.eitzinger@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81422
Project Staff
01.04.2012 - 30.04.2014
Sabina Thaler
Mag. Mag. Dr. Sabina Thaler
sabina.thaler@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81420
Project Staff
01.04.2012 - 30.04.2014
Hubert Zehetbauer
Dipl.-Ing. Hubert Zehetbauer
hubert.zehetbauer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-85705
Project Staff
01.04.2012 - 30.04.2014