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Title: Predicting Crop Water Use from Ground Cover and Remote Sensing

Author
item Trout, Thomas
item JOHNSON, LEE - California State University
item Wang, Dong

Submitted to: International Horticultural Congress
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2010
Publication Date: 8/23/2010
Citation: Trout, T.J., Johnson, L., Wang, D. 2010. Predicting Crop Water Use from Ground Cover and Remote Sensing. 28th International Horticultural Congress Book of Abstracts:

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Scheduling irrigations for horticultural crops with evapotranspiration calculations is difficult. Horticultural crops are grown under a wide range of cultural practices and conditions, making it difficult to select appropriate crop coefficients. A primary determinant of crop water use is light interception. Lysimeter studies conducted in California and elsewhere have shown that crop fractional ground cover, which is related to light interception, is closely related to the ratio of crop water use to reference evapotranspiration, or equivalently, the crop coefficient. Studies have also shown that vegetation indices from satellite imagery is closely related to fractional ground cover. With these relationships, crop water use can be predicted from a combination of ground based reference ET and remotely sensed vegetation indices. A decision support system is being developed to predict crop water use for crops in the California San Joaquin Valley using Landsat imagery and the CIMIS weather station network. With this system, crop water use can be efficiently predicted for individual fields over a wide area.