Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2006NM50B

Estimating Water Use through Satellite Remote Sensing (Bleiweiss)

Institute: New Mexico
Year Established: 2006 Start Date: 2006-03-01 End Date: 2007-02-14
Total Federal Funds: $10,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $4,510

Principal Investigators: Max Bleiweiss

Project Summary: Recently, an evaluation of the Lower Rio Grande indicated that over half the water is unaccounted for in the water budget. That water is likely used for households, riparian vegetation, supplemental farm irrigation, and off-season runoff. In order to determine how the water is being consumed, the researchers will use innovations in satellite technology that have made it possible to process satellite data to estimate evapotranspiration. A team of investigators at NMSU have developed the software to provide regional ET maps from the NASA-TERRA satellite. These maps can be used to help schedule irrigation, for example. The maps will also allow for assessing the impact of water conservation policies on a regional basis by measuring water use before and after the implementation of policies. Real time ET maps will be made available to the public thereby allowing farmers to compare the water use of different crops and determine the best irrigation schedule.