Operational tools for irrigation water management based on Earth observation: the DEMETER project

The project DEMETER (DEMonstration of Earth observation TEchnologies in Routine irrigation advisory services) was designed to assess and demonstrate improvements introduced by Earth observation (EO) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in farm and Irrigation Advisory Service (IAS) day-to-day operations. The DEMETER concept of near-real-time delivery of EO-based irrigation scheduling information to IAS and farmers has proven to be valid. The operationality of the space segment was demonstrated in three different pilot zones in South Europe during the 2005 irrigation campaigns. Extra-fast image delivery and quality controlled operational processing make the EO-based crop coefficient maps available at the same speed and quality as ground-based data (point samples), while significantly extending the spatial coverage and reducing service cost. The new online Space-Assisted Irrigation Advisory Service (e-SAIAS) is the central outcome of the project. Its key feature is the operational generation of irrigation scheduling information products from a virtual constellation of high-resolution EO satellites and their delivery to farmers in near-real-time using leading-edge on-line analysis and visualization tools. First feedback of users at IAS and farmer level is encouraging. The paper gives an overview of the project and its main achievements.