Dynamic Management Zones for Irrigation Scheduling
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Author
Fontanet, Mireia
Scudiero, Elia
Skaggs, Todd H.
Fernàndez-Garcia, Daniel
Ferrer, Francesc
Rodrigo, Gema
Publication date
2020-05-07ISSN
0378-3774
Abstract
Irrigation scheduling decision-support tools can improve water use efficiency by matching irrigation recommendations to prevailing soil and crop conditions within a season. Yet, little research is available on how to support real-time precision irrigation that varies within-season in both time and space. We investigate the integration of remotely sensed NDVI time-series, soil moisture sensor measurements, and root zone simulation forecasts for in-season delineation of dynamic management zones (MZ) and for a variable rate irrigation scheduling in order to improve irrigation scheduling and crop performance. Delineation of MZ was conducted in a 5.8-ha maize field during 2018 using Sentinel-2 NDVI time-series and an unsupervised classification. The number and spatial extent of MZs changed through the growing season. A network of soil moisture sensors was used to interpret spatiotemporal changes of the NDVI. Soil water content was a significant contributor to changes in crop vigor across MZs through the growing season. Real-time cluster validity function analysis provided in-season evaluation of the MZ design. For example, the total within-MZ daily soil moisture relative variance decreased from 85% (early vegetative stages) to below 25% (late reproductive stages). Finally, using the Hydrus-1D model, a workflow for in-season optimization of irrigation scheduling and water delivery management was tested. Data simulations indicated that crop transpiration could be optimized while reducing water applications between 11 and 28.5% across the dynamic MZs. The proposed integration of spatiotemporal crop and soil moisture data can be used to support management decisions to effectively control outputs of crop × environment × management interactions.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Accepted version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
631 - Agriculture in general
Pages
47
Publisher
Elsevier
Is part of
Agricultural Water Management
Citation
Fontanet, Mireia, Elia Scudiero, Todd H. Skaggs, Daniel Fernàndez-Garcia, Francesc Ferrer, Gema Rodrigo, and Joaquim Bellvert. 2020. "Dynamic Management Zones For Irrigation Scheduling". Agricultural Water Management 238: 106207. doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106207.
Grant agreement number
EC/H2020/823965/EU/Accounting for Climate Change in Water and Agriculture Management/ACCWA
Program
Ús Eficient de l'Aigua en Agricultura
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2651]
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/