Application of INSPIRE directive to water management on large irrigation areas (original) (raw)
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Italian Journal of Agronomy, 2010
In this number of the Italian Journal of Agronomy, ten scientific papers are published on the results obtained from the AQUATER project (along with one keynote), which were presented during a final conference held in Bari, Italy on 12-13 May 2009. The rationale of this project, supported by Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry policies in the framework of Research and Development for areas of Southern Italy, is based on the consideration that the availability of irrigation water for agriculture is becoming ever more limited due to climate change, a deterioration in water quality and an increase in irrigated areas. Consequently, agricultural research must provide guidelines and products in order to achieve the sustainable use of such an important natural resource. New instruments and technologies are now available to manage the use of water in agriculture more effectively. Remote sensing (RS) can be used to obtain information about land use, vegetation status, soil moisture, surface roughness and, more generally, to estimate crop and soil information also for applied studies on plant nutrition, plant protection and precision agriculture. Different methods have been developed to estimate evapotranspiration from RS data using energy balance equations and thermal infra-red information. Basic and applied knowledge about crop water requirements are well documented, but water distribution authorities require tools and support to manage water in the best way at district level. Crop simulation models are mathematical representations of the soil-plant-atmosphere system involving interaction between biological factors and the environment. Spatially distributed models can be used also in basin, watershed or regional simulations. In the AQUATER project, a variety of tools and methodologies were used such as remote sensing images, soil and land use maps at different spatial and temporal scales, geostatistical methodologies, geographic information systems, ground truth measurements, land use, canopy and soil temperature, soil and plant water status, normalized difference vegetation index, crop water stress index, leaf area index, actual evapotranspiration, crop coefficients, crop yield, agroecological indicators and crop simulation models. In Italy, an efficient management of water resources is crucial, particularly for southern areas which are characterized by a Mediterranean climate, in order to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of agricultural activity. The innovative aspect of this project is that of linking remote sensing information with soil and plant information and crop simulation models to set up a decision support system (DSS) aimed towards establishing the best water management practices for district level irrigation. The project was divided into four work packages: remote sensing and image analysis, cropping systems, modelling and software development and stakeholders. The following research institutions were partners of the project:-Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura. Unità di Ricerca per i Sistemi Colturali degli Ambienti caldo-aridi, Bari (coordinator);
European water directive evaluation and decision support system to improve irrigation management
2008
The safeguard of water resources is becoming a major environmental priority, because water is an essential mean of production for agriculture and a basic element for the survival of all human activities. The recent reform of the Common Agriculture Policy is oriented towards an ecologically-sound agriculture and to a reasonable use of the production factors (technical features, including water), without waste, without releases of pollutants in water, soil and products. In this context, the Water Directive n. 60/2000 introduces in the water resources management new principles such as "polluter pays", the full cost and volumetric pricing. Implementation of the directive could have important effects on the agricultural sector and management.
In order to monitor and improve environmental conditions, the cardinal needs of planners and decision makers on available, reliable and affordable information delivered in time on environmental pressure and stress need to be served. The ESA GMES Service Element "SAGE" lead by Infoterra GmbH addresses European environmental policies such as the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) with the "AquaSAGE" and the Soil Thematic Strategy (STS) with the "SoilSAGE" service development. The service portfolio integrates Earth Observation based Land Cover / Land Use (LULC) information - a so-called "core ser- vice" - together with in-situ and other geo-information into quantitative models. It will allow more frequent large-area updates focussed on land cover classes being key model parame- ters than current comparable approaches (e.g. CORINE Land Cover) plus short-term hot spot monitoring at affordable costs. 1 User Needs Stakeholders in the domain of ...
Application of OGC services to water management on large irrigation areas
The goal of this paper is to illustrate how INSPIRE can facilitate orientation and advice to calculate the water requirements of crops. These technologies can provide information adapted to specific conditions, updated daily and in an interactive way. These tools permit the integration and management of georeferenced agroclimatic data, soil maps, quality of waters, crop information and technical parameters of a farm. The final objective is to develop a decision support system to facilitate decision-taking processes in a comfortable and generic access through WWW, incorporating different techniques and access into GIS data. The information technologies and in a more precise way, the new technologies, applied in different agriculture environments, can introduce important improvements in optimization of the agricultural production factors. Directive 2007/2/EC1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the Eu...
The SIRIUS (Sustainable Irrigation Water Management and River – basin Governance: implementing User - driven Services) project, funded by EC FP7, is developing new services for water managers and food producers, including maps detailing irrigation water requirements in different areas, crop water consumption estimates, and a range of add itional information products in support of sustainable irrigation water use and management under conditions of water scarcity and drought. To build an archive of local knowledge that leads to understand the local community fabric and facilitates the project objectives there are developed in SIRIUS two main participatory tools: the PPGIS community and the stakeholder workshops. The paper reports the activities carried out during the implementation of the PPGIS in the Italian pilot areas, showing how this new kind of participatory tools can contribute, along with the technology, to reach the goal of the efficient water management in agriculture.
INEA, as part of the EU Operative Programme " Water Resource, in Objective 1 Italian Regions" (Reg. n. 2081/93 -Q.C.S. 1994/99), has developed, using GIS (Geographic Information System) technology, a methodology, based on integrated use of different data sources, on crop water requirements evaluation. The GIS is implemented with several cartographic layers (land use, soils, water sources, climate) and is related to a data base with administrative and statistic data on crop surfaces and experimental data on crop water requirements. The system is integrated with analysis, evaluation and simulation modelling to support the decision makers in water resources management.
A GIS FOR IRRIGATION NETWORKS IN SOUTHERN ITALY
INEA, as part of the EU Operative Programme "Water resources", has developed a Geographic Information System (GIS) on the whole irrigation network of Southern Italy Regions. The GIS is implemented with several cartographic layers (land use, soil, water sources, climate) and is related, thanks to a Relational Data Base Management Systems (RDBMS), to a data base on technical and functional characteristics of each cartographic element of the network. The system is integrated with analysis, evaluation and simulation modelling to support the decision makers in water resources management.
INSPIRE Directives assessment of multiple geospatial information for vegetable production
This report is concerned to spatial data infrastructures about vegetable production and performance by GIS. Based on INSPIRE Directives and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) the purpose is creating conceptual model for assessment of horticulture land using. The report presents an integrated view of the heterogeneity of data components and used in geographic information. One of the main concept is collecting and analyzing information from real investigation, then convert it in spatial data and develop into multiplicity vegetable production maps. The volume of data include information about, etc. The extensive scope requires deep analysis, significant and possibly influence between all aspects about vegetable production. As a result converting all spatial data about vegetable development into detailed maps allows illustrating links between all substantial and additional information. This kind of representation facilitates working with huge amount of data, without re...
1997
For agricultural or environmental purposes, the European Union needs to have tools giving sufficient and reliable information on soils at a global scale for decision making. For example, the MARS project developed an agrometeorological model for predicting yield at regional and national levels for the main crops in Europe. The knowledge of Soil Water Available for Plants (SWAP) is essential for estimating the water balance. The Soil Geographical Data Base of Europe at scale 1:1,000,000 represents the most detailed data source on soil covering the whole European territory. Using this database, a tool for estimating SWAP was developed. This tool estimates SWAP using basic variables from the Soil Geographical Data Base, variables estimated by pedotransfer rules stored in a knowledge data base, and users-defined parameters. The calculation is made on three layers which limits are determined by the users-defined parameters and the estimated depth of soil. The available water for each layer is calculated using three suction limits: at-5 kPa for field capacity,-200 kPa for the easily available water limit, and-1500 kPa for the wilting point. The SWAP corresponds to the summing of the available water of each layer. The tool was developed within the same system as those used to store the Soil Geographical Data Base, and the knowledge database. This leads to an easy access to the results and allows easy thematic mapping.