Monitoring and Assessment of Surface Water Abstractions for Pasture Irrigation from Landsat Imagery: Bega–Bemboka River,NSW, Australia |
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Authors: | Ivars Reinfelds |
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Affiliation: | (1) Department of Agronomy, University of Cordoba, Campus Rabanales, 14071 Cordoba, Spain;(2) Centre for Water Science, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, UK |
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Abstract: | Irrigation of pasture forms the greatest single use of irrigation water in Australia yet there has been little monitoring
of its spatial extent and water demands across southeast Australian coastal catchments where irrigated dairy farming forms
an important rural livelihood. This paper provides an analysis of spatio-temporal patterns in the extent of irrigated pasture
in the Bega–Bemboka catchment on the south coast of New South Wales from Landsat imagery, and establishes quantile regression
relationships between metered monthly irrigation abstraction volumes, evaporation and rainfall. Over the metering period (2000–2007),
annual water usage averages 4.8 ML ha − 1 year − 1, with January being the month of highest demand with an annualised usage of 10.4 ML ha − 1 year − 1. Analysis of Landsat imagery indicates that the spatial extent of irrigated pasture across the catchment has increased from
1266 ha in 1983 to 1842 ha by 2002, together with amalgamation of smaller holdings along less reliable streams into larger
parcels along the trunk stream. Quantile regressions to estimate monthly mean and maximum abstraction volumes from monthly
evaporation and rainfall data indicate that abstraction volumes are more closely correlated with evaporation. When combined
with Landsat analyses of the spatial extent of irrigated areas, such relationships enable estimation of catchment-scale hydrological
effects of irrigation abstractions that in turn can help guide regional-scale assessments of the ecological effects and sustainability
of spatially and temporally changing irrigation abstraction volumes. |
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