Development of High Resolution Data for Irrigated Area and Cropping Patterns in India

Abstract:

Information of crop phenology and its individual effect on irrigation is essential to improve the simulation of land surface states and fluxes. We use moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) - Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) at 250 m resolution for monitoring temporal changes in irrigation and cropping patterns in India. We used the obtained dataset of cropping pattern for quantifying the effect of irrigation on land surface states and fluxes by using an uncoupled land surface model. The cropping patterns are derived by using the planting, heading, harvesting, and growing dates for each agro-ecological zone separately. Moreover, we developed a high resolution irrigated area maps for the period of 1999-2014 for India. The high resolution irrigated area was compared with relatively coarse resolution (~ 10km) irrigated area from the Food and Agricultural Organization. To identify the seasonal effects we analyzed the spatial and temporal change of irrigation and cropping pattern for different temporal seasons. The new irrigation area information along with cropping pattern was used to study the water budget in India using the Noah Land surface Model (Noah LSM) for the period of 1999-2014.