HR: 1340h
AN: B13D-1530 [Abstracts]
TI: Enhanced monitoring of the temporal and spatial relationships between water demand and water availability
AU: * Schneider, C A
EM: cas@riverside.com
AF: Riverside Technology, inc, 2290 E Prospect Road,
Suite 1, Fort Collins, CO 80525, United States
AU: Aggett, G R
EM: gra@riverside.com
AF: Riverside Technology, inc, 2290 E Prospect Road,
Suite 1, Fort Collins, CO 80525, United States
AU: Hattendorf, M J
EM: mhattendorf@ncwcd.org
AF: Northern Colorado Water Conservacy District, 220 Water Avenue, Berthoud, CO 80513,
United States
AB:
Better information on evapotranspiration (ET) is essential to better understanding of consumptive use of water by
crops. RTi is using NASA Earth-sun System research results and METRIC (Mapping ET at high Resolution with
Internalized Calibration) to increase the repeatability and accuracy of consumptive use estimates. METRIC, an
image-processing model for calculating ET as a residual of the surface energy balance, utilizes the thermal band
on various satellite remote sensors. Calculating actual ET from satellites can avoid many of the assumptions
driving other methods of calculating ET over a large area. Because it is physically based and does not rely on
explicit knowledge of crop type in the field, a large potential source of error should be eliminated. This paper
assesses sources of error in current operational estimates of ET for an area of the South Platte irrigated lands of
Colorado, and benchmarks potential improvements in the accuracy of ET estimates gained using METRIC, as
well as the processing efficiency of consumptive use demand for large irrigated lands. Examples highlighting
how better water planning decisions and water management can be achieved via enhanced monitoring of the
temporal and spatial relationships between water demand and water availability are provided.
DE: 0402 Agricultural systems
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0470 Nutrients and nutrient cycling (4845, 4850)
DE: 0480 Remote sensing
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting