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Site-specific water management in Mediterranean Agriculture. Ioannis Manakos and Christos Karydas Department of Environmental Management Athens, May 2005. Site-specific management (SSM). Site-Specific Management (SSM) aims at improving the economics of the agricultural enterprise and
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Site-specific water management in Mediterranean Agriculture Ioannis Manakos and Christos Karydas Department of Environmental Management Athens, May 2005
Site-specific management (SSM) Site-Specific Management (SSM) aims at • improving the economics of the agricultural enterprise and • protecting the environment through adaptation of input quantities to the real site-specific needs of the field (‘management zones’). A vineyard in a false-colour combination of a satellite image Original image (reality) Homogeneous approach Site-specific approach
Use of GIS/RS in Water SSM (WSSM) SSM can be employed for water savings bydesignating different water management zones in the field. Parameters to be encountered in irrigation water management (management zone designation) are: • soil properties • crop growth • slope and other terrain parameters • existing farming practices GIS and Remote Sensing technology (GIS/RS) are introducing combined solutions to the aforementioned.
Soil properties with GIS …and production of thematic maps with GIS functions Sampling of soil properties on a grid…
NDVI Crop growth derived from imagery Heterogeneous crop growth can be detected with Vegetation Indices, e.g, NDVI derived from multi-spectral satellite imagery…
Legend Photographic plots 20 60 Rel. coordinates (m) NDVI values: Crop growth derived from a ground sensor … or with a special sensor by registering reflection samples on the ground.
Slope 19% Slope 9% Slope 5% Slope 1% Slopes derived from a DEM • Slope of the terrain is crucial in irrigation management • In a Mediterranean environment slope is very variant Fields with high slope variance. In one field, slope ranges from 1 to 5% (changing slope class, i.e,from 0-3% to 3-8%).
Framework of the special Mediterranean Agriculture conditions Mediterranean Agriculture is characterised by • a highly heterogeneous and fragmented environment • an undulating relief • small mean parcel size • low farmer income
WSSM for Mediterranean farmers SSM for Mediterranean farmers must be • cheap to invest on • cheap to apply • easy to adopt (user-friendly techniques and short training) • beneficial in economizing water and/ or improving the farmer’s income
Indicative cost of GIS/RS equipment • Cost of a full GIS/RS/Cartography Unit: 25.000 € • Cost of a satellite image: 15 € / km2 (photogrammetric preprocessing in the lab), >100 € / km2 ready for analysis imagery products) • Cost of a special camera for use on the ground: 3.000 € • Cost of aGPS: 500 € • Cost of operating sensor system mounted on the tractor working in conjunction with board computer (appr. 12.000 €)
Implementation on operational basis • Collective purchase of equipment and acquisition of data (consequently very low cost per farmer) • Processing and data analysis by competent research and academic organisations • Result dissemination to the farmers by the local authorities