Relating Crop Water Consumption to Irrigation Water Supply by Remote Sensing

A new set of irrigation performance indicators based on remote-sensing estimates of evapotranspiration is introduced. These 'evapotranspiration indicators' are the relative evapotranspiration or crop stress and the water efficiency as well as their uniformity. With a remote-sensing evapotranspiration algorithm (SEBAL) maps of actual crop water consumption are derived. These maps are one of the inputs in the evapotranspiration indicators, together with GIS data (digitized irrigation unit boundaries) and field data (irrigation delivery schedule and water flow). This approach is applied on the Rio Tunuyan irrigation scheme, Mendoza, Argentina, which is served by surface water and privately owned ground water pumps. A homogeneous pattern of actual crop water consumption is detected from the highest irrigation level till the lowest (farm) level (coefficient of variance from 8.6% to 6.1% and 14.0% of secondary, tertiary and pixel level, respectively). Considering that a rotational irrigation schedule at tertiary and farm level is present, the results indicate that ground water supply through extraction and capillary rise equalize the spatial patterns in crop water consumption. The latter is proved by a comparison between (i) the areal water consumption from remote-sensing measurements, (ii) the areal water supply and (iii) additional field information on ground water extraction and capillary rise.