Location: Sustainable Agricultural Water Systems Research
Project Number: 2032-13220-002-034-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2026
End Date: Jun 30, 2028
Objective:
Research personnel will be hired to develop and evaluate multi-scale methods that translate leaf- and canopy-level measurements into improved field-scale satellite information for agricultural water management in woody perennial cropping systems. The work will advance GRAPEX and TREX approaches to partition bulk evapotranspiration into evaporation and transpiration components, and to distinguish crop-row versus inter-row contributions within a satellite pixel. The project will also prototype stress detection indicators that leverage thermal infrared and spectral information to capture rapid changes in crop water status during heat and water-limited periods. In addition, the project will develop and assess satellite-retrievable metrics of gross primary productivity and water use efficiency in discontinuous canopies typical of vineyards and orchards. Work will be coordinated between collaborating UC Davis and USDA labs and will compliment ongoing research efforts in GRAPEX and TREX projects.
Approach:
Hired personnel will work closely with existing staff at SAWS to conduct integrated field, airborne, and satellite analyses across a network of instrumented vineyard and orchard sites spanning the Central Valley (as part of GRAPEX and TREX projects). The sites include permanent micrometeorological towers measuring surface energy fluxes, meteorological drivers, and soil conditions. The cooperator will collect repeated ground observations aligned with satellite overpasses, including physiological measurements, and complementary structural information to represent discontinuous canopy architecture. These datasets will be used to refine model representations of vineyard/orchard systems and to test alternative formulations. The cooperator will support development and evaluation of improved ET modeling and forecasting capabilities and will validate scaling of component fluxes from sub-meter airborne resolution to satellite pixel scales. The cooperator will also conduct multi-scale stress detection analyses by linking thermal and spectral indicators to physiological responses during seasonal heat and water-stress conditions, supported by targeted leaf- and canopy-level measurements. The cooperator will contribute to multi-source time-series synthesis to improve temporal fidelity of field-scale water-use monitoring during key phenological and management windows. The work will be iterative across seasons to quantify sensitivity to canopy structure, inter-row ground cover, and meteorological variability. Outputs will include documented methods, dashboard applications for data management, and coauthored publications and presentations.