CGIAR Research Program on

Water, Land and Ecosystems:

Use of remote sensing and GIS tools

in the irrigation commands to assist planning and management
Summary
Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information systems (GIS) have huge potential to improve the
performance of canal irrigation. Increased uptake of these modern techniques by irrigation agencies
should be encouraged.

Introduction
For centuries, irrigated agriculture has been the backbone of global food security. How efficiently it
can continue to deliver crop growth using diminishing quantities of water is, therefore, of critical
concern for the future of humanity. Currently, major surface irrigation systems in many countries
appear to be stuck in a cycle of poor performance, deferred maintenance and constant rehabilitation.
Benchmarking of irrigation systems, a systematic process for securing continual improvement through
comparison with relevant and achievable internal or external performance indicators, remains wistful
thinking. Attempts to assess performance or benchmark irrigation systems have often failed. One
crucial reason for this is the difficulty of identifying cost-effective performance monitoring indicators
that can be assessed rapidly, consistently and continuously.

Occasional assessment of irrigation system performance over vast areas has been greatly facilitated
by high-resolution images acquired from satellites. They offer inexpensive, rapid and consistent
methodologies to monitor spatial and temporal variation of large-scale processes. Over the past three
decades, various combinations of images and algorithms had been used to estimate:

 irrigated areas;
 cropping patterns;
 cropping intensity;
 soil moisture availability;
 evapotranspiration;
 crop water stress;
 land and water productivity;
 prospective yields; and
 extent of land degradation due to salinization, waterlogging, flooding and soil erosion.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has been at the forefront of moves to apply
these techniques in Asia and Africa. The Institute’s recent work in this field include:

 updating irrigated area maps;

 salinization mapping in Iraq;
 modeling and mapping flood-prone zones in the Nile and Ganges;
 mapping water productivity at the river basin scale;
 developing a near real-time methodology to assess adequacy, equity and reliability of water
from crop evapotranspiration at canal command levels; and
 development of ‘water information kits’ for Sri Lanka.

Remote sensing-based irrigation and flood advice tools for smallholders in

Africa
Weekly and bi-weekly, plot-specific information from high-resolution satellite measurements were used
as inputs to an improved Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL). This improved version
of the algorithm was able to estimate changes in vegetation index and evapotranspiration rates, which
were communicated to irrigation managers on demand through web platforms and mobile phone short
messaging service (SMS). The service has now been rolled out in three pilot areas: Ethiopia (Arata
Chufa), Egypt (Nubaria) and Sudan (Gash Delta).
In Sudan, where spate irrigation is practiced, detailed flood and hydrological modeling is also
incorporated. Flood information is disseminated in addition to crop growth and water use data.

More information is available at the project website (www.smartict-africa.com) and via the country-
specific web platforms:

 Egypt: www.fieldlook.com.eg
 Sudan: www.fieldlook.com.sd
 Ethiopia: www.fieldlook.com.et

Irrigated area mapping

One irrigation management performance indicator is the area irrigated from a given reservoir.
Traditionally, assessments had been made using crop surveys, which are tedious and often prone to
error. An effective alternative is to map the area using RS images. In 2005, IWMI quantified the
irrigated area, globally, using satellite images obtained between 1999 and 2000. It was the first effort
of its kind to provide a global estimate of irrigated areas. Recently, these maps created for Asia and
Africa have been updated using higher resolution satellite data and improved analytical techniques.

Evaluating adequacy, reliability and equity in water available for

evapotranspiration
Remote sensing-derived raster maps (such as actual evapotranspiration and evaporative fraction) can
be merged with vector maps of irrigation water delivery systems to better understand real-time
performance under actual field conditions. Traditional indicators of canal irrigation are equity,
adequacy and reliability, and are estimated from the supply side. Equity assessment, however,
reveals whether spatial and temporal water use across a canal command is consistent. Adequacy is
the quantitative component, and is defined as the sufficiency of water use in an irrigation system. In
contrast, reliability is the time component and defined as the correspondence of water supply upon
request. These indicators of water supply to cropped area have been assessed using the evaporative
fraction maps, which directly reveal the crop supply conditions. However, in a canal command, where
conjunctive water use is predominant, it is judicious to estimate them based on water consumed by
crops. IWMI has recently completed an analysis of these indicators for an eleven-year period.

Mapping flood ‘hot spots’ for climatic change

At a global-scale, georeferenced flood occurrence data between 1900 and 2011 were gathered from
multiple sources to identify places where floods were frequent. Information on population density,
agricultural land and gross domestic product (GDP) was overlaid to identify ‘hot spot’ areas. Hot spot
analysis suggests that more investments are needed to minimize risk, and such investments are likely
to have a substantial payoff in terms of reduced loss during floods.

Flood-risk mapping and assessment in South Asia

Time-series Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite datasets were used to
understand seasonal and annual changes in flood extent. IWMI has developed a generic flood-
mapping algorithm that has included, from 2000 to 2011, spectral indices such as Normalized
Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Land Surface Water Index
(LSWI) every 8 days with a spatial resolution of 500 m. Several flood products were generated from
the inundated area database which included flood seasonality, flood duration and flood recurrent
interval. These factors are of prime importance for the mitigation of floods. If insurers could identify the
recurring patterns of floods in a particular area, they could insure farmers against extreme weather
events. So, they would know what to payout in the case of an unexpected drought or a larger-than-
usual flood that affected a farmer's harvest. This information assists communities in managing land
 development and businesses, and home owners in making better informed financial decisions
regarding the protection of their property.

Flood mapping and modeling in a spate irrigation system in Sudan

Remote sensing and the Smart-ICT system (outlined above) were integrated to demonstrate how
effective water and agricultural management can help farmers manage land and water resources.
IWMI and its partners commissioned operational services for the Gash irrigation scheme, which
includes daily and weekly flood inundation extent, flood hydrographs and agricultural products. In
particular, a flood forecasting model using the hydrologic modeling system, HEC-HMS, was
developed for the Gash Basin through a distributed modeling approach using space inputs. The
approach includes rainfall-runoff modeling, hydrodynamic flow routing, and calibration and validation
using field discharge data. The model is calibrated using field hydrometeorological data from 2011
and validated using data from 2012. The model was tested during the 2013 floods with real-time,
three-hour interval Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42RT data. This information can
help field officers optimize water resources and maximize irrigation efficiency.

Contact us at:
Image : CC: NASA Goddard Photo & Video

CGIAR Research Program on Water,

Land and Ecosystems
127, Sunil Mawatha,
Pelawatte, Battaramulla
Sri Lanka

Email: [email protected]
Website: wle.cgiar.org

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