WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision Making

Irrigation is the primary consumer of freshwater by humans and accounts for over 70% of all annual water use. However, due to the shortage of open critical information in agriculture such as soil, precipitation, and crop status, farmers heavily rely on empirical knowledge to schedule irrigation and...

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Main Authors: Haoteng Zhao, Liping Di, Ziheng Sun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-04-01
Series:ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/11/5/271
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author Haoteng Zhao
Liping Di
Ziheng Sun
author_facet Haoteng Zhao
Liping Di
Ziheng Sun
author_sort Haoteng Zhao
collection DOAJ
description Irrigation is the primary consumer of freshwater by humans and accounts for over 70% of all annual water use. However, due to the shortage of open critical information in agriculture such as soil, precipitation, and crop status, farmers heavily rely on empirical knowledge to schedule irrigation and tend to excessive irrigation to ensure crop yields. This paper presents WaterSmart-GIS, a web-based geographic information system (GIS), to collect and disseminate near-real-time information critical for irrigation scheduling, such as soil moisture, evapotranspiration, precipitation, and humidity, to stakeholders. The disseminated datasets include both numerical model results of reanalysis and forecasting from HRLDAS (High-Resolution Land Data Assimilation System), and the remote sensing datasets from NASA SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) and MODIS (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer). The system aims to quickly and easily create a smart, customized irrigation scheduler for individual fields to relieve the burden on farmers and to significantly reduce wasted water, energy, and equipment due to excessive irrigation. The system is prototyped here with an application in Nebraska, demonstrating its ability to collect and deliver information to end-users via the web application, which provides online analytic functionality such as point-based query, spatial statistics, and timeseries query. Systems such as this will play a critical role in the next few decades to sustain agriculture, which faces great challenges from climate change and increased natural disasters.
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spelling doaj.art-4220b523809f44c786e3f3e701044df12023-11-23T11:19:24ZengMDPI AGISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information2220-99642022-04-0111527110.3390/ijgi11050271WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision MakingHaoteng Zhao0Liping Di1Ziheng Sun2Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USACenter for Spatial Information Science and Systems, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USACenter for Spatial Information Science and Systems, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USAIrrigation is the primary consumer of freshwater by humans and accounts for over 70% of all annual water use. However, due to the shortage of open critical information in agriculture such as soil, precipitation, and crop status, farmers heavily rely on empirical knowledge to schedule irrigation and tend to excessive irrigation to ensure crop yields. This paper presents WaterSmart-GIS, a web-based geographic information system (GIS), to collect and disseminate near-real-time information critical for irrigation scheduling, such as soil moisture, evapotranspiration, precipitation, and humidity, to stakeholders. The disseminated datasets include both numerical model results of reanalysis and forecasting from HRLDAS (High-Resolution Land Data Assimilation System), and the remote sensing datasets from NASA SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) and MODIS (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer). The system aims to quickly and easily create a smart, customized irrigation scheduler for individual fields to relieve the burden on farmers and to significantly reduce wasted water, energy, and equipment due to excessive irrigation. The system is prototyped here with an application in Nebraska, demonstrating its ability to collect and deliver information to end-users via the web application, which provides online analytic functionality such as point-based query, spatial statistics, and timeseries query. Systems such as this will play a critical role in the next few decades to sustain agriculture, which faces great challenges from climate change and increased natural disasters.https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/11/5/271irrigationgeographical information systemgeospatial cyberinfrastructureremote sensinghigh-resolution land data assimilation system (HRLDAS)
spellingShingle Haoteng Zhao
Liping Di
Ziheng Sun
WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision Making
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
irrigation
geographical information system
geospatial cyberinfrastructure
remote sensing
high-resolution land data assimilation system (HRLDAS)
title WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision Making
title_full WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision Making
title_fullStr WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision Making
title_full_unstemmed WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision Making
title_short WaterSmart-GIS: A Web Application of a Data Assimilation Model to Support Irrigation Research and Decision Making
title_sort watersmart gis a web application of a data assimilation model to support irrigation research and decision making
topic irrigation
geographical information system
geospatial cyberinfrastructure
remote sensing
high-resolution land data assimilation system (HRLDAS)
url https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/11/5/271
work_keys_str_mv AT haotengzhao watersmartgisawebapplicationofadataassimilationmodeltosupportirrigationresearchanddecisionmaking
AT lipingdi watersmartgisawebapplicationofadataassimilationmodeltosupportirrigationresearchanddecisionmaking
AT zihengsun watersmartgisawebapplicationofadataassimilationmodeltosupportirrigationresearchanddecisionmaking