Hydrological Characterization of a Riparian Vegetation Zone Using High Resolution Multi-Spectral Airborne Imagery

The Middle Rio Grande River (MRGR) is the main source of fresh water for the state of New Mexico. Located in an arid area with scarce local water resources, this has led to extensive diversions of river water to supply the high demand from municipalities and irrigated agricultural activities. The extensive water diversions over the last few decades have affected the composition of the native riparian vegetation by decreasing the area of cottonwood and coyote willow and increasing the spread of invasive species such as Tamarisk and Russian Olives, harmful to the river system, due to their high transpiration rates, which affect the river aquatic system. The need to study the river hydrological processes and their relation with its health is important to preserve the river ecosystem. To be able to do that a detailed vegetation map was produced using a Utah State University airborne remote sensing system for 286 km of river reach. Also a groundwater model was built in ArcGIS environment which has the ability to estimate soil water potential in the root zone and above the modeled water table. The Modified Penman- Monteith empirical equation was used in the ArcGIS environment to estimate riparian vegetation ET, taking advantage of the detailed vegetation map and spatial soil water potential layers. Vegetation water use per linear river reach was estimated to help decision makers to better manage and release the amount of water that keeps a sound river ecosystem and to support agricultural activities

New Mexico pecan production

Presented at Urbanization of irrigated land and water transfers: a USCID water management conference on May 28-31, 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona.Includes bibliographical references.Pecans are a major agricultural crop in New Mexico. Currently there are approximately 11,000 hectares of pecans in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, consuming more than one third of the annual diversion. The research presented here provides previously unavailable broad-scale estimates of pecan ET and pecan yield response to water. The data at the foundation of this paper were generated using the Regional ET Estimation Model (REEM) developed at New Mexico State University for agricultural and riparian vegetation (Samani et al. 2005, 2006, 2007). REEM uses remotely sensed satellite data to calculate ET as a residual of the energy balance. This research extends the results of REEM to an analysis of yield response to water in irrigated pecan production in the EBID. The study region is rapidly urbanizing and experiencing growing competition for scarce surface and groundwater supplies. The results of this research provide new insight into pecan water use and yields. This research illustrates the linkages that can be made between remote sensing technology, farm-level water management, and yield outcomes. This research sheds new light on the long-standing practice of deficit irrigation in pecans, the yield and conservation impacts of this practice, as well as water conservation policy implications

USCID water management conference

Presented at Meeting irrigation demands in a water-challenged environment: SCADA and technology: tools to improve production: a USCID water management conference held on September 28 - October 1, 2010 in Fort Collins, Colorado.Includes bibliographical references.The Colorado Satellite-Linked Water Resources Monitoring System: 25 years later -- Using state water law for efficient water use in the West -- On-farm strategies for deficit or limited irrigation to maximize operational profit potential in Colorado's South Platte Basin -- Economics of groundwater management alternatives in the Republican Basin -- Effects of policies governing water reuse on agricultural crops -- Flow calibration of the Bryan Canal radial gate at the United Irrigation District -- Considering canal pool resonance in controller design -- Synthetic canal lining evaluation project -- South Platte Ditch Company: demonstration flow monitoring and data collection project -- The case for ditch-wide water rights analysis in Colorado -- Bore wells: a boon for tail end users -- Irrigation efficiency and water users' performance in water management: a case study on the Heran distributary, Sanghar, Sindh, Pakistan -- Initiating SCADA projects in irrigation districts -- Use of GIS as a real time decision support system for irrigation districts -- Interaction of Advanced Scientific Irrigation Management (ASIM) with I-SCADA system for efficient and sustainable production of fiber on 10,360 hectares -- Improving irrigation system performance in the Middle Rio Grande through scheduled water delivery -- Cost-effective SCADA development for irrigation districts: a Nebraska case study -- Accomplishments from a decade of SCADA implementation in Idaho's Payette Valley -- Critical success factors for large scale automation experiences from 10,000 gates -- Mapping ET in southeastern Colorado using a surface aerodynamic temperature model -- Alfalfa crop coefficients developed using a weighing lysimeter in southeast Colorado -- Turfgrass ET from small lysimeters in northeast Colorado -- Monitoring turf water status with infrared thermometry -- Training tool for on-farm water management using heuristic simulation software -- Water production functions for high plains crops -- Assessment of economic and hydrologic impacts of reduced surface water supply for irrigation via remote sensing -- Developing corn regional crop coefficients using a satellite-based energy balance model (ReSET) in the South Platte River area of Colorado

Water Resources

This book is a collection of innovative up-to-date perspectives on key aspects of water resources planning, development, and management of importance to both professional practitioners and researchers. Authors with outstanding expertise address a broad range of topics that include planning strategies, water quality modeling and monitoring, erosion prediction, freshwater inflows to estuaries, coastal reservoirs, irrigation management, aquifer recharge, and water allocation

Colorado water, January/February 2011

The newsletter is devoted to enhancing communication between Colorado water users and managers and faculty at the state's research universities.Newsletter of the Water Center of Colorado State University. Theme: Decision support systems

Multi-scale actual evapotranspiration mapping in South America with remote sensing data and the geeSEBAL model

O monitoramento preciso da evapotranspiração (ET) é crucial para gerenciar os recursos hídricos, garantir a segurança alimentar e avaliar os impactos das mudanças climáticas. Modelos de Balanço de Energia da Superfície (SEB) que usam dados de sensoriamento remoto são os mais confiáveis para estimar a ET, mas muitas vezes são difíceis de aplicar em grande escala devido ao longo tempo de processamento, necessidade de calibração local, entre outros obstáculos. Esta tese tem como foco a melhoria do geeSEBAL, uma implementação do modelo Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) na plataforma Google Earth Engine (GEE), adaptando-o para modelagem em escala continental, usando imagens do Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). O novo modelo, chamado geeSEBALMODIS, foi usado para gerar uma série temporal de ET a cada 8 dias para a América do Sul com pixels de 500 m. Estudos de validação mostram que o geeSEBAL-MODIS é mais preciso do que outros produtos globais de ET, com uma redução do erro de 13% na escala de campo e 30% na escala de bacia hidrográfica. O conjunto de dados está disponível para o público e pode ser usado para monitorar tanto mudanças climáticas em grande escala quanto as variações locais de ET relacionadas às atividades humanas. A análise de tendências mostra um aumento de 8,4% na ET sobre a América do Sul, associado ao aumento da demanda atmosférica, e à redução da precipitação e disponibilidade de água. Esses resultados destacam a importância de informações precisas sobre os processos do ciclo hidrológico para auxiliar no planejamento e gerenciamento dos recursos hídricos em um cenário de maior escassez. Nesse contexto, projetos como o OpenET, que fornece dados confiáveis e de alta resolução espacial de ET nos Estados Unidos, são cruciais para monitorar o consumo de água e auxiliar no desenvolvimento sustentável. Este trabalho também apresenta uma reprodução parcial do processo do OpenET para a intercomparação de modelos de sensoriamento remoto com dados de torres de fluxo, usando torres micrometeorológicas na América do Sul. Os resultados são promissores e abrem caminho para a expansão do OpenET além dos Estados Unidos e em direção a uma aplicação global.Accurately monitoring evapotranspiration (ET) is crucial for managing water resources, ensuring food security, and assessing the impacts of climate change. Surface Energy Balance (SEB) models that use remote sensing data are the most reliable for estimating ET, but they are often challenging to apply on a large scale due to long processing times, and local calibration requirements, among other obstacles. This dissertation focuses on improving geeSEBAL, an implementation of the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) model on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, by adapting it for continental-scale modeling using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images. The new model, called geeSEBAL-MODIS, was used to generate a temporal series of ET every 8 days for South America with pixels of 500 m. Validation studies show that geeSEBAL-MODIS is more accurate than other global ET products, with a reduction in error of 13% at the field scale and 30% at the basin scale. The dataset is publicly available and can be used to monitor both largescale climate change and local ET variations related to human activities. Trend analysis shows an 8.4% increase in ET over South America, associated with increased atmospheric demand, and reductions in precipitation and water availability. These findings underscore the importance of accurate information on hydrological cycle processes to assist in planning and managing water resources in a scenario of greater scarcity. In this context, projects like OpenET, which provides reliable and high spatial-resolution ET data in the United States, are crucial for monitoring water consumption and aiding in sustainable development. This work also presents a partial reproduction of the OpenET process for intercomparing remote sensing models with flux tower data, using micrometeorological towers in South America. The results are promising and pave the way for expanding OpenET beyond the United States and toward global application

Colorado water, November/December 2015

The newsletter is devoted to highlighting water research and activities at CSU and throughout Colorado.Newsletter of the Colorado Water Center. Theme: Agricultural water conservation: tools, technology, and collaboration

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.As a lower riparian country Bangladesh is largely dependent on 57 transboundary rivers. The upstream courses of these river systems traverse India, China, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. Each day, approximately 3,000 million cubic meters of water discharge into the Bay of Bengal through these rivers. However, flows are much lower during the dry season when surface water is critical to such uses as irrigation, salinity control, habitat preservation, effluent dilution and navigation. Unilateral diversion of water from the transboundary rivers impedes agricultural development using irrigation-fertilizers-modern varieties technology. Thus, sustainable irrigation system is instrumental for the growth of food production. For this, peoples' participation is prerequisite to form social capital in building consensus about the irrigation water uses. Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has developed a model to facilitate sustainable use of water resources and demonstrated its effectiveness for irrigation management. It develops stakeholders-driven water infrastructure in subprojects each covering 1,000 ha or less. LGED involves local people in subproject planning, design, construction and operation and maintenance (O&M). It has constructed 320 subprojects under the Small Scale Water Resources Development Sector Project. Case study in a subproject in northwestern part of the country found that local stakeholders' participation in managing water resources and operation of water control infrastructure results in excellent performance of irrigation system and improvement of distribution system. This raises irrigation efficiency with productive use of water and releases constraints on land use through facilitating cultivation in three crop seasons and increases the proportion of irrigated area under small farms