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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #350465
Research Project: Integrating Remote Sensing, Measurements and Modeling for Multi-Scale Assessment of Water Availability, Use, and Quality in Agroecosystems

Location: Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory

Title: The Grape Remote Sensing Atmospheric Profile and Evapotranspiration eXperiment (GRAPEX)-a synopsis

Author
item Kustas, William - Bill

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/22/2018
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Considering California’s recent multi-year drought as well as the severe droughts recently in Italy and South Africa, there is a critical need for accurate and timely evapotranspiration (ET) and crop stress information to ensure long-term sustainability of high-value value perennial crops (vineyards and orchards). Providing this information requires the development of tools applicable across the continuum from sub-field scales to improve water management within individual fields up to watershed and regional scales to assess water resources at local and district levels. Vineyards and orchards are major water users and growers will need better tools to improve water use efficiency to remain economically viable and sustainable during periods of prolonged drought. To develop these tools, government, university, and industry partners worldwide are working together. An example of this collaboration is the GRAPEX (Grape Remote sensing Atmospheric Profile and Evapotranspiration eXperiment) project, which during the 2013 to 2017 growing seasons has collected micrometeorological and biophysical data within adjacent Pinot noir vineyards in the Central Valley of California. Additionally, each year ground, airborne and satellite remote sensing data were collected during Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs) representing different vine phenological stages. A major objective of this project is to evaluate and refine a multi-scale remote sensing-based modeling system for estimating plant water use and stress over vineyards, which eventually can be implemented in an irrigation scheduling decision support system. An overview of the measurements and some initial results regarding the impact of vine canopy architecture on modeling ET and plant stress are presented. Refinements to the ET modeling system based on GRAPEX are being implemented initially at the field scale for validation and then will be integrated into the regional modeling toolkit for large area assessment.