APPLYING EARTH OBSERVATION TO DETECT NON-AUTHORISED IRRIGATION: THE CASE STUDY OF CONSORZIO SANNIO ALIFANO (ITALY)

The dominance of agricultural water usage isa critical issue especially considering that, in Europe, about 75% of 16 million hectares of equipped agricultural fields is centered in Mediterranean countries (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain), a region periodically exposed to periods of crisis in water availability. The following example shows how the method was applied to map the irrigated area of a part of the general district served by the Consorzio Sannio Alifano, in Southern Italy, illustrating aspects of the study which can be generalized in favor of Authorities and management bodies committed to ensuring a sustainable and legal use of water resources in agriculture. From an operational point of view, the procedure consists of the following stages: a) Choice of data and preliminary processing In this phase the types of sensors most suitable for the study are chosen based on the requirements in terms of spatial resolution, temporal and spectral. b) Production of multi-time series of vegetation index NDVI maps At this stage, a spectral index map NDVI is produced for each of the acquisitions of the low spatial resolution series. Subsequently, a temporal stack (layer stack) is created (a secondary activity conducted is the manual masking of areas not of interest, typically urban, mountain and wetlands such as rivers, lakes and water basins in these maps). c) ISODATA by EO data is a reliable support tool for irrigation management capable of identifying unauthorized irrigation in agriculture rapidly and remotely. The system used has the following strengths: * qualitative/quantitative...