Agricultural Water Monitoring for Water Management Under Pivot Irrigation System Using Spatial Techniques

In arid and semi-arid regions, the water-use efficiency (WUE) is highly important for water administration and management. The water losses increased, when water application records low efficiency. The water losses maybe amplified, when the irrigation system ignores soil variability and water applied uniformly. Which means more water application, more energy demand, and more money expenses. The current investigation aims at using remotely sensed data and GIS Techniques for monitoring irrigation water consumption and its correlation with crop yield under the pivot irrigation system. El-Salhia region contains a big agricultural farm located at the South Eastern of Nile delta. The investigated field was irrigated under the pivot central sprinkler irrigation system which cultivated with the wheat crop. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) were calculated based on landsat data. The crop water stress index (CWSI) depends on the variance between the LST of the targets and their air temperature (Tair) to detect the relative moisture condition. The soil texture, organic matter, time-domain reflectometer (TDR), thermal infrared, leaf area index (LAI), and actual yield measurements were taken for 47 systematic samples during the wheat growing season of the year 2012/2013. Accordingly, the available water (AW) displayed relatively lower accuracy than the rest of the other parameters. The canopy temperature ( T c ), CWSI, field capacity (Fc), and LAI showed high accuracy to predict the wheat yield as shown from the statistical analysis. The WUE recorded 1.07 (kg/m 3 ) in the southeast boundary and gradient toward the northwest boundary with a rate of 2.2 (kg/m 3 ). The WUE distribution is comparable to soil parameters and measured yield circulation, which indicates high applicability with significant improvement in yield response.