Evaluation of Irrigation Uniformity and Equity Under Center Pivot Using Remote Sensing

Baioumy, Essam Mohamed; El-shirbeny, Mohammed Ahmed; El-ansary, Mohamed Yussef; Awad, Montaser Abdallah

doi:10.21608/sjas.2023.242150.1347

Evaluation of Irrigation Uniformity and Equity Under Center Pivot Using Remote Sensing

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ agricultural application department, NARSS

² Prof. of Ag. Eng., Ag. App. Dept., NARSS, Egypt.

³ Prof., of Ag. Eng., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Benha U., Egypt.

⁴ Assoc., Prof. of Ag. Eng., Ag. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Ag., Benha U., Egypt.

10.21608/sjas.2023.242150.1347

Abstract

Due to fresh water being rare, especially in the arid regions, the need to produce more food, and facing the climate change effects on agricultural production, so, enhancing irrigation systems and raising their efficiency become urgent necessity. The good evaluation of irrigation systems leads to better water management and sustainable agricultural development. This study proposed a framework for evaluating the center pivot irrigation systems based on remotely sensed data and field measurements. Irrigation uniformity distribution (CU and DUlq) were assessed from field data using catch cans method. Irrigation equity was evaluated by estimating actual evapotranspiration (ETa) based on the triangle
method from satellite data. The spatial variation of ETa was assessed from the coefficient of variation (CV), and ETa maps were produced for better interpretation. Irrigation equity assessed at different two scales, the whole cultivated area and different placements of the center pivot irrigation system. The results showed that the irrigation system water distribution uniformity was “poor” as the CU value was between 70%-79% and the DUlq was 61%. The results also indicated the absence of irrigation equity (i.e., fairness of irrigation distribution) especially in the early and late stages of the crop life cycle, as the STDV of ETa and the CV values were high during the monitoring dates. Also the irrigation equity did not exist along the center pivot irrigation system radius at different 4 placement of irrigation.

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