Eco-hydrological modeling using field-based and Earth Observations to assess water use efficiency and support agricultural water resources management
Abstract
The objective of this NASA project is to develop an integrated modeling platform using Earth Observations to simulate large-scale hydrological processes and food production in support of water use decision and agricultural policy. The decision tool will provide timely and relevant assessments of crop growth, agricultural water use and available water supply from local to regional scales, with the capability to predict the impact of different climate and water resources management scenarios on food production. The approach is based on the use of field and Earth observations to calibrate an eco-hydrological model, and climate simulations to forecast crop condition and yield through the crop season. The expected primary outcomes and results for stakeholders is potential best water management practices to improve water use efficiency and prevent excessive losses of water and nitrogen to the environment. These will be provided to in-country end-users within various relevant Ministries and Departments, in order to inform regional and national decisions. Changing precipitation patterns, droughts of increasing duration and severity and growing demand for food have significant implications on water management practices, spurring an increased need for irrigation in a sustainable manner and better monitoring of water resources for the agricultural sector in general. Understanding the context and water resource constraints that stakeholders and smallholder farmers face in climate sensitive regions is critical to target and understand the potential impact of water use management. We focus on a diverse set of regional pilot cases in Argentina, South Africa, Tanzania and the United States that are representative of a range of agricultural systems, water issues and climate impacts. The application is integrated in the GEOGLAM project, an existing widely-used web-based platform which will aid synthesizing the project outcomes and expert domain knowledge to provide timely and actionable water resources and crop condition information to assist local, regional and national water management decisions. At the end, the application will be interactive and will offer the end-user organizations the possibility to submit new water resource management scenarios online for impact evaluation.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.H43G2538R
- Keywords:
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- 1817 Extreme events;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1855 Remote sensing;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring;
- HYDROLOGY