Monitoring of Irrigation Water Use in Italy by Using IRRISAT Methodology: The INCIPIT Project

The INCIPIT project (INtegrated Computer modeling and monitoring for Irrigation Planning in ITaly) focuses on the development of a methodological framework to monitor irrigation water uses at different spatial scales and under different hydro-meteorological conditions in six Italian regions (Apulia, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Lombardia, Sardinia, and Sicily). The objective of the INCIPIT project is to fill the wide gap between research and application in order to meet the requirements of sustainable water-related policies – such as the Water Framework Directive (WFD), and the MIPAAF Ministry Decree of July 31, 2015- where a specific set of obligations of measurement and estimation of the irrigated areas and irrigation water volumes is defined. For this purpose, the ESA Sentinel-2 (S2) satellites provide a very valuable source of information for mapping irrigated areas and estimating spatially-distributed irrigation water requirements. This study illustrates the results achieved using the IRRISAT methodology. In detail, the quantification of the irrigation water abstraction was achieved using the one-step approach, based on the Penman–Monteith equation, and properly adapted with canopy parameters namely crop height, Leaf Area Index (LAI), and surface albedo derived from S2 data. The quantification of the irrigated areas was performed by using pre-existing maps, unsupervised (clustering), and supervised classification (Machine Learning Algorithms) applied to dense temporal series of vegetation indices. The analysis was performed for the irrigation seasons 2019 and 2020 in seven irrigated areas, which differ in size, type of irrigation schemes, farm delivery, irrigation methods, and crop types.