Location: Water Management and Conservation Research
Project Number: 2020-13660-009-009-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2022
End Date: Jul 31, 2025
Objective:
The project will enhance estimation accuracy of crop evapotranspiration for irrigated districts along the Lower Colorado River within the Lower Colorado Annual Summary of Evaporation and Evapotranspiration (LCRAS) Program.
Approach:
The project will utilize a method previously developed for the Yuma area based on combining crop type maps with satellite images collected every 3-5 days. Vegetation index (VI) data will be extracted from the images throughout the year for fields of known crops using Google Earth Engine (GEE) processing and locally written R scripts. The time-series VI values will be transformed to crop growth stage durations for fields of selected crops and combined with existing crop coefficients to return daily and seasonal ET values. Scripts and techniques used to implement the method will be fully documented and compiled into an open-source toolset and will be applied routinely in the LCRAS program.
