Articles
Enhancing irrigation development and expansion through accurate spatial information of irrigated areas
Article number
1409_41
Pages
315 – 326
Language
English
Abstract
Although irrigated area mapping is integral to basin characterisation, hydrological modelling, improved crop-water productivity, smallholder agriculture resilience, and agriculture planning, among other agricultural water management processes, there are still significant challenges to producing accurate irrigated area maps.
This study extracted agricultural fields of Limpopo Province, South Africa, from 2015 Landsat 8 images using the maximum likelihood supervised classifier.
The normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) applied on Landsat images on the mapped fields during the dry season (July to August) was used to identify irrigated areas, as years of satellite data analysis suggest that healthy crop conditions during dry seasons are only possible with irrigation.
Extensive field surveys conducted for three years supported the mapping exercise. 77% of agricultural land in the province is rainfed, 23% of the cropped area is equipped for irrigation, and 31% of the area equipped for irrigation was not operational in 2015. Accurate spatial information on the distribution of current irrigated areas is central for strategic irrigation development and expansion decision-making.
Informing policy decisions on irrigation expansion and development is informed by recent national and regional frameworks calling for increasing the area under irrigation to meet the food requirements of a growing population and enhance the resilience of the agriculture sector to climate change.
Mapping irrigated areas allows monitoring of cropped areas’ productivity and shows areas needing immediate intervention.
This study extracted agricultural fields of Limpopo Province, South Africa, from 2015 Landsat 8 images using the maximum likelihood supervised classifier.
The normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) applied on Landsat images on the mapped fields during the dry season (July to August) was used to identify irrigated areas, as years of satellite data analysis suggest that healthy crop conditions during dry seasons are only possible with irrigation.
Extensive field surveys conducted for three years supported the mapping exercise. 77% of agricultural land in the province is rainfed, 23% of the cropped area is equipped for irrigation, and 31% of the area equipped for irrigation was not operational in 2015. Accurate spatial information on the distribution of current irrigated areas is central for strategic irrigation development and expansion decision-making.
Informing policy decisions on irrigation expansion and development is informed by recent national and regional frameworks calling for increasing the area under irrigation to meet the food requirements of a growing population and enhance the resilience of the agriculture sector to climate change.
Mapping irrigated areas allows monitoring of cropped areas’ productivity and shows areas needing immediate intervention.
Authors
S. Mpandeli, L. Nhamo, J. Magidi, S. Liphadzi, S. Hlophe-Ginindza, M. Kapari, J. Molwantwa, T. Mabhaudhi
Keywords
remote sensing, food security, water productivity, rainfed agriculture, smallholder agriculture
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