Analysis of irrigation system performance based on an integrated approach with Sentinel-2 satellite images

The improvement of performance of irrigation systems plays a fundamental role in increasing their efficiency in order to reach a sound use of irrigation water. The COPAM (Combined Optimization and Performance Analysis Model) has proven its usefulness in performance evaluation of on-demand irrigation systems; however, in many cases, input data, such as water volumes delivered by hydrants, is not readily available. To support a wider application of the COPAM, we tested the possibility of using irrigation volumes estimated by means of space-borne remote sensing. The Sentinel-2 (S2) constellation provides high spatial resolution images with a frequency between 2 and 5 days, which is compatible with COPAM input requirements. In the present work, an irrigation sector in the Capitanata irrigation network (Foggia Province, no. 6 of District 10) in Italy was chosen to assess its performance by using COPAM with volumes estimated from Sentinel-2 data. As an input of COPAM, the upstream discharge was determined after a proper transformation of the estimated irrigation water requirement volumes and the recorded volumes into flowrates. The estimation of the irrigation water requirement volumes was accomplished through the estimation of crop evapotranspiration, Etcrop, and effective precipitation, Pn, by combining crop parameters (leaf area index - LAI, fractional vegetation cover - fc, and Albedo) derived from S2 images and the meteorological data from the ERA5 single levels reanalysis dataset collected for the whole study period, from June 1st to September 30th, 2019. The study comprised a comparison of the estimated irrigation water volumes and the corresponding recorded volumes. The results showed a good agreement between the estimated and the registered volumes in a large time scale for 10 days and a one-month period, while a large difference was observed in a daily time scale. The performance analysis was carried out for the overall system and at hydrant level. The estimated discharge was lower than the registered discharge, indicating better performance. Last but not least, some recommendations were proposed for improving performance in critical zones.