In-season time series analysis of Resourcesat-1 AWiFS data for estimating irrigation water requirement

AWiFS sensor on board IRS-P6 (Resourcesat-1), with its unique features—wide swath and 5-day revisit capability provides excellent opportunities to carry out in-season analysis of irrigated agriculture. The study carried out in Hirakud command area, Orissa State indicated that the progression of rice crop acreage could be mapped through analysis of time series AWiFS data set. The spectral emergence pattern of rice crop was found useful to identify the period of rice transplantation and its variability across the command area. This information, integrated with agro-meteorological data, was used to quantify 10-daily canal-wise irrigation water requirement. A comparison with field measured actual irrigation supplies indicated an overall supply adequacy of 88% and showed wide variability at lateral canal level ranging between 18% and 109%. The supply pattern also did not correspond with the chronological variations associated with crop water requirement, supplies were 15% excess during initial part of season (December and January) and were 20.1% deficit during later part of season (February to April). Rescheduling the excess supplies of the initial period could have reduced the deficit to 15% during peak season. The study has demonstrated the usefulness of AWiFS data to generate the irrigation water requirement by mid-season, subsequent to which 38% supplies were yet to be allocated. This would support the irrigation managers to reschedule the irrigation water supplies to achieve better synchronization between requirement and supply leading to improved water use efficiency.