A life-size and near real-time test of irrigation scheduling with a sentinel-2 like time series (SPOT4-Take5) in Morocco

2014

Article référencé dans le Web of Science WOS:000345530700042

Le Page M., Toumi J., Khabba S., Hagolle O., Tavernier Adrien, Kharrou M. H., Er-Raki S., Huc M., Kasbani M., El Moutamanni A., Yousfi M., Jarlan Lionel

Remote Sensing, 2014, 6 (11), p. 11182-11203 ISSN 2072-4292

This paper describes the setting and results of a real-time experiment of irrigation scheduling by a time series of optical satellite images under real conditions, which was carried out on durum wheat in the Haouz plain (Marrakech, Morocco), during the 2012/13 agricultural season. For the purpose of this experiment, the irrigation of a reference plot was driven by the farmer according to, mainly empirical, irrigation scheduling while test plot irrigations were being managed following the FAO-56 method, driven by remote sensing. Images were issued from the SPOT4 (Take5) data set, which aimed at delivering image time series at a decametric resolution with less than five-day satellite overpass similar to the time series ESA Sentinel-2 satellites will produce in the coming years. With a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 0.91mm per day, the comparison between daily actual evapotranspiration measured by eddy-covariance and the simulated one is satisfactory, but even better at a five-day integration (0.59mm per day). Finally, despite a chaotic beginning of the experiment-the experimental plot had not been irrigated to get rid of a slaking crust, which prevented good emergence-our plot caught up and yielded almost the same grain crop with 14% less irrigation water. This experiment opens up interesting opportunities for operational scheduling of flooding irrigation sectors that dominate in the semi-arid Mediterranean area.

Bioclimatologie [072] ; Télédétection [126]

MAROC

Fonds IRD [F B010063109]

fdi:010063109