Integrated Methodology for Estimating Water Use in Mediterranean Agricultural Areas

Agricultural use is by far the largest consumer of fresh water worldwide, especially in the Mediterranean, where it has reached unsustainable levels, thus posing a serious threat to water resources. Having a good estimate of the water used in an agricultural area would help water managers create inc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2009-09, Vol.1 (3), p.445-465
Main Authors: Alexandridis, Thomas K., Cherif, Ines, Chemin, Yann, Silleos, George N., Stavrinos, Eleftherios, Zalidis, George C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Evapotranspiration
irrigation
Landsat
Remote sensing
surface energy fluxes
water
Water resources
Water use
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Summary:Agricultural use is by far the largest consumer of fresh water worldwide, especially in the Mediterranean, where it has reached unsustainable levels, thus posing a serious threat to water resources. Having a good estimate of the water used in an agricultural area would help water managers create incentives for water savings at the farmer and basin level, and meet the demands of the European Water Framework Directive. This work presents an integrated methodology for estimating water use in Mediterranean agricultural areas. It is based on well established methods of estimating the actual evapotranspiration through surface energy fluxes, customized for better performance under the Mediterranean conditions: small parcel sizes, detailed crop pattern, and lack of necessary data. The methodology has been tested and validated on the agricultural plain of the river Strimonas (Greece) using a time series of Terra MODIS and Landsat 5 TM satellite images, and used to produce a seasonal water use map at a high spatial resolution. Finally, a tool has been designed to implement the methodology with a user-friendly interface, in order to facilitate its operational use.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs1030445