Forecasting California Agricultural Water Needs

Ramakrishna Nemani & the ECOCAST TeamNASA/Ames Research Center

Moffett Field, Calif.

http://ecocast.arc.nasa.gov

Earth System Science at 20 SymposiumJune 23, 2009

Water in California

• Agriculture uses nearly 80% of water resources

• California currently in third year of drought, with snowpack at 63% of normal (as of May 8)

• Large areas of Central valley are left fallow due to water shortages

• Current conditions likely to be typical of future as climate change begins to impact state water supply

• Studies showed better information on irrigation scheduling increased crop yields (8%) and reduced water use (13%)

We need large scale adoption of the water saving technologies

Canopy densityfrom imagery

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Ppt, mmWeather data from CIMIS

Crop data from Variety

Irrigation Forecasts for grapevines in Napa and Central Valleys

Weather forecasts from NWS

Forecasting Irrigation Demand

Growers Interacting with Crop Monitoring Tool

• Expanding the study to other regions and crops

• Use of wireless sensor networks will facilitate soil moisture monitoring and weather conditions for use in calibration and validation of irrigation forecasts

• Constellation of satellites providing regular crop assessment

• Delivering and gathering crop information via mobile phones

Next Steps …