A satellite-based ex post analysis of water management in a blueberry orchard

Abstract

In the scenario of current water scarcity caused by climate change and increasing water demand for food production, farmers must adapt their water management practices by shifting from supply-driven water management to demand-driven water management, considering trade-offs among quality, quantity and costs. Thus, agricultural practices must take full advantage of technology, research and development and adapt to local requirements. Nowadays, remote sensing is a useful tool for estimating crop water demand (evapotranspiration) as well as mapping their spatial and temporal variability. In this work, we present a new methodology that allows the user to audit (ex post) the irrigation strategies of a blueberry field in central Chile using a decision support system for irrigation decision called AquaSat® as the main tool. This tool combines satellite information with field data and provides spatially distributed information on crop water use for managing irrigation at a farm scale. The main contribution of this work is to detail a new approach for irrigation management through the comparison of volume of applied water, against evapotranspiration and potential demand. This procedure allows the user to audit current irrigation management and to determine the impacts on productivity. From our results, we can conclude that the applied water levels used at the farm during both seasons throughout of the irrigation sector were insufficient to reach the potential blueberries yield.