INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Remote Sensing of Irrigated Crop Area

Mapping and Irrigation Crop Water
Requirement

O
R
IS
S,
IIR Abhishek Danodia
Scientist/Engineer ‘SD’
Agriculture & Soils Department
abhidanodia@iirs.gov.in

04/08/2020
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Contents :
 Crop area mapping: Importance & Need

Crops: Spectral signature

O


R
 Irrigated crop area mapping (Global, National, Regional, Local)

IS
 Synergistic use of optical & SAR data

S,
 Irrigation crop water requirement


IIR
IWR: Methods

 CWR: ET Approach
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Crop area mapping: Importance & Need

 Accurate information on the extent of cropland is critical for crop
acreage, water allocation decisions and yield estimations.

O
 This information will help decision makers monitor dynamic

R
landscapes, such as agricultural lands, fallow croplands and land

IS
cover such as forests, water bodies, and wetlands.

S,

IIR
Department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare will
need such spatial information at the village-level in order to send
advisories to farmers on timely inputs and best practices for
agricultural management.
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Crop area mapping

 Nearly 80% of all freshwater used by humans is for irrigation.
 Irrigation is widely thought to provide 40% of the world’s food from

O
R
around 17% of the cultivated area.

IS
 Irrigated areas increased at about 2.6% per annum from a modest

S,
 Around 95 million hectares in the early 1940s to between 250 and
IIR
280 million hectares in the early 1990s.
 The actual areas irrigated and their spatial distributions should be
assess and it can be further improved using Remote Sensing.
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated crop area mapping: Evolution

 Traditional approach: Village level acreage by Govt. officials
 Advance approach: Remote Sensing

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Spectral Signature:

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Global Irrigated Area Mapping (GIAM)

 This project (2002-2004) is being implemented to achieve precise

O
understanding of actual irrigated area in terms of crop area

R
cultivated under irrigation in each season of the year.

IS
 Objective: This will give a better understanding of the extent and
intensity of land and water use for food production, which in turn

S,
will allow better forecasts of alternative strategies to meet future
IIR
global food needs.
 This work revolves around remote sensing, which potentially offers
a way of mapping irrigated area globally with more precision.
https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Data used Mega File Data Cube (MFDC) creation

Table 1 & 2

O
R
IS
S,
IIR

Thenkabail et al. 2009, IJRS

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Methodology: GIAM

O
R
IS
S,
IIR

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/ ; Thenkabail et al. 2009, IJRS

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Spectral Matching
Techniques (SMT):

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
Ground truth (GT) data
Thenkabail et al. 2009, IJRS
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Class labelling protocol (GIAM)

O
R
IS
S,
IIR

Thenkabail et al. 2009, IJRS

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

GIAM: World Global Irrigated Area Map

O
R
IS
S,
IIR

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/ ; Thenkabail et al. 2009, IJRS

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

GIAM: Irrigated croplands & Rainfed croplands map

O
R
IS
S,
IIR

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/ ; Thenkabail et al. 2009, IJRS

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Comparison of GIAM country-by-country irrigated areas with

FAO/UF country-by-country irrigated areas:

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
 Statistics:198 Countries
 Total Global Annual Irrigated Area of 467Mha
 India has 28.3% (2nd Rank in World) Thenkabail et al. 2009,IJRS
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Causes of uncertainties in irrigated areas

 Minor irrigation statistics are inadequately accounted for

in national statistics

O
R
 IAFs in GIAM may need local fractions

IS
 Resolution influencing irrigated areas

S,

IIR
Minimum mapping unit (MMU) in determining areas

 Supplemental classes

 Traditional versus remote sensing data

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: National Level

 In India, agriculture is the largest sector of employment and
around 56% of total population depends on it for sustenance

O
and economic livelihood.

R
 Objective: The current spatiotemporal extent of irrigated lands

IS
and inter-annual change at regional scales in India is still area
of potential work due to outdated available maps or already

S,
prepared with spatially-coarse resolution data.
 IIR
Few studies have been done for India by Thenkabail et al.
(2009), Dheeravath et al. (2010), Ambika et al. 2016,
individually and under GIAM project (IWMI) .
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: National Level

O
R
IS
S,
IIR Variation of
NDVI in
spiral curves
Space-time

(ST-SCs)

irrigated and
non-irrigated
areas
Ambika et al. 2016, Scientific Data
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: National Level

Irrigated area in India

during the selected

O
drought years (2000;

R
2012; 2015)

IS
S,
IIR Taluk based Irrigated
area in percentage
(2000; 2012; 2015)

Ambika et al. 2016, Scientific Data

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: National Level

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
The irrigated area for all the states showed RMSE of
0.83 Mha and coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.95 Ambika et al. 2016, Scientific Data
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: National Level

 (a). Irrigated area
developed using the
250m MODIS NDVI,

O
R
 (b). Irrigated area
from 250m resolution

IS
map from IWMI,

S,
 (c). Regional views
IIR depicted by Landsat
ETM data, and

 (d) AWiFS Land Use

Land Cover (LULC)
Ambika et al. 2016, Scientific Data
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Regional Level

 Current estimated trends in irrigation development are

generally derived from national agricultural statistics with

O
many uncertainties about their accuracy.

R
The principal objective of regional study is to map irrigated

IS

areas at different levels (regional to local) and at different

S,
scales using satellite sensor data from various eras.

IIR
The critical parameter is to map with acceptable levels of
accuracy with minimal mixed classes with natural
vegetation.
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Regional Level

 A series of innovative methods and approaches were
introduced to analyze and consisted of:
(a) Brightness-greenness-wetness (BGW) RED-NIR 2-dimensional

O
feature space,

R
IS
(b) End-member (spectral angle) analysis using RED-NIR single
date (RN-SD) plots,

S,
(c) Combining several RN-SDs in a single plot to develop RED-NIR
IIR
multi-date (RNMDs) plots,
(d) Introduction of a unique concept of space-time spiral curves
(ST-SCs), and
(e) To establish unique class signatures based on NDVI (CS-NDVI)
and/or multiband reflectivity (CS-MBR) for each class
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Regional Level

The Ganges and Indus basins:

O
R
Ground truth data point distributions

IS
S,
IIR

Thenkabail et al. 2005, RSE

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Regional Level

Methodology: Flow chart

O
R
IS
S,
IIR

Thenkabail et al. 2005, RSE

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Regional Level

O
R
IS
S,
Brightness–Greenness–
IIR Wetness (BGW) RED-NIR
feature space: A selection
of the 100 unique spectral
classes for May, 2001

Thenkabail et al. 2005, RSE

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Regional Level

O
R
IS
S,
IIR Multi-band reflectivity signatures
(MB-RS)

Space-time spiral curves (ST-SCs)

Thenkabail et al. 2005, RSE
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Regional Level

O
R
Quantitative Fuzzy
Classification Accuracy

IS
Assessment (QFCAA):
the relative

S,
classification
accuracies of the 29
IIR classes varied from
56% to 100%—with
17 classes above 80%
accurate and 23
classes above 70%
accurate
Thenkabail et al. 2005, RSE
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Local Level

 Irrigation potential has been increased from 22.6 Mha in year 1951
to 102.77 Mha by the end of the 10th five year plan, i.e., year 2007
with the total investment of more than 71,21,300 Million (GoI

O
2010).

R
Objective: Irrigated crop area mapping is a challenging task at

IS

watershed/ local/ field level due to variability in crop species with

S,
different crop phenological stages.
 IIR
Here, remote sensing based classification approaches i.e.
Unsupervised, Supervised, Decision tree, Object based, Integrated
approach will play a key role to segregate the crop class at
desirable accuracy.
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Local Level

O
R
IS
S,
Decision Rules:
IIR
Methodology: Flow chart
Singh et al. 2020, RSASE
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping: Local Level

1. Object-based, 2. Multi-date supervised, 3. Knowledge-based DT

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
Overall accuracy: 86.15
Kappa coefficient: 0.73
Singh et al. 2020, RSASE
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping:

Local Level

O
R
IS
S,
IIR

Nikam et al. 2020, JISRS

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigated Area Mapping:

Local Level

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
Overall accuracy: 94.5
Kappa coefficient: 0.92
Nikam et al. 2020, JISRS
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

RS based Crop Inventory: Limitation & Solution

 Unavailability of optical satellite datasets due to large cloud
coverage over India in monsoon period (Kharif season) and

O
R
foggy weather condition in winter period (Rabi season)

IS
specially at Indo-Gangetic plain and irrigated areas

S,
Minimal ground observations embrace non-remote sensing

IIR
based studies on irrigated areas

Solution: Remote Sensing with synergistic use of optical and

SAR data
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

SAR Data Based Classification

Feature space
showing
maximum
separability

O
between crops

R
IS
S,
IIR

Overall accuracy: 82.7; Kappa coefficient: 0.78 Shanmugapriya et al. 2019, GI

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigation water requirement

Total water quantity to be supplied to the crops during

their life cycle. Considering the losses due to infiltration into

O
sub-soil and the losses during conveyance of water through

R
canal network.

IS
IWR = CWR + WL – WG

S,
Where,
IWR = Irrigation Water Requirement
IIR
CWR = Crop Water Requirement
WL = Water Losses
WG = Water gain from other sources
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigation water requirement: Field scale

The irrigation requirement can be calculated using direct soil
moisture measurements or can be predicted by modeling the soil-moisture-
plants relationships (soil-moisture depletion curve).

O
(a) Net Irrigation Requirement:-

R
IS
Where,

S,
d = net irrigation requirement (cm),

IIR
Mfci = field capacity moisture content in the ith layer of the soil (%),
Mbi = moisture content before irrigation in the ith layer of the soil (%),
Ai = bulk density of the soil in the ith layer
Di = depth of the ith soil layer within the root zone (cm)
n = number of soil layers in the root zone D.
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigation water requirement: Field scale

(b) Gross Irrigation Requirement:- The total amount of water required for
irrigation is termed as ‘gross irrigation requirement’. In other words, it is net
irrigation requirement plus losses in water application and other losses.

O
R
IS
Where,
IR = GIR at the field head (cm),

S,
d = net irrigation requirement (cm)
IIR
E(application system) =
efficiency of water application
system (%)
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Irrigation water requirement: Village level

𝑇
Seasonal Crop Water CWR

O
𝐶𝑊𝑅 = ෍ 𝐸𝑇𝑐 − 𝑃𝑒𝑓𝑓.
Requirement

R
𝑡=0

σ𝑛𝑖=1 𝑐𝑤𝑟𝑖 . 𝑠𝑖

IS
Net Irrigation Water NIWR 𝑁𝐼𝑊𝑅 =
Requirement 𝑆

S,
Si = Area occupied with the crop i
Gross Irrigation Water 1
Requirement IIR
GIWR 𝐺𝐼𝑊𝑅 = . 𝑁𝐼𝑊𝑅
𝐸
E = Efficiency of irrigation system
GIWR: Village
level
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

Crop evapotranspiration:
Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) refers to evapotranspiration of a disease-
free crop, grown in very large fields, not short of water and fertilizer.

O
ETc is governed by weather, crop condition, management and

R
environmental aspects.

IS
ETc = kc * ET0
Where,

S,
ETc = Actual crop evapotranspiration rate
IIR
kc = Crop coefficient
ET0 = Evapotranspiration rate for a grass reference crop / Reference crop
evapotranspiration

Crop water requirement (CWR) = ETc + M (Metabolic activities<1%)

 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

FAO Penman-Monteith Equation (ET0)

O
R
Where,

IS
Rn= Net radiation at the crop ea= Actual vapour pressure (kPa),

S,
surface (MJ/m2/day), G= Soil heat es-ea= Saturation vapour pressure
flux (MJ/m2/day), T= Mean daily air deficit (kPa), Δ= Slope of the
IIR
temperature at 2 m height (°C),
u2= Wind speed at 2 m height
vapour pressure curve (kPa/°C), γ=
Psychrometric constant (kPa/ °C).
(m/s), es= Saturation vapour
pressure (kPa),
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

FAO Penman-Monteith Equation (ET0)

This equation uses location (altitude & latitude), standard climatological records
of solar radiation (sunshine), air temperature, humidity and wind speed.

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

ET: Measurement & Computation

Measurement Computation

O
R
 Lysimeter method  Temperature based approach

IS
 Atmometer  Radiation based approach
Pan evaporative method Combination approach

S,
 
Aerodynamic methods Energy Balance - RS approach


IIR
Soil-water balance methods

(Land Surface Temperature
 Large Aperture Scintillometer based method, Scatter based
method)
 Eddy flux tower
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF REMOTE SENSING, DEHRADUN

O
R
IS
S,
IIR
Email- abhidanodia@iirs.gov.in
Tel- 0135-2524141