H046-02
High-resolution monitoring of root-zone soil moisture for vineyard irrigation scheduling

Tuesday, 8 December 2020: 16:04
Virtual
Wade T Crow1, Fan Chen2,3, Fangni Lei4, William P Kustas5, Kyle Knipper6, Maria Mar Alsina7 and Nick Dokoozlian7, (1)USDA ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Lab, Beltsville, MD, United States, (2)U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Beltsville, United States, (3)SSAI Inc., Greenbelt, MD, United States, (4)Mississippi State University, Starkville, MD, United States, (5)U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, United States, (6)University of California Davis, Davis, CA, United States, (7)E&J Gallo, Modesto, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Accurate, high-resolution (30-m/daily) estimates of soil moisture are valuable for vineyard irrigation decision support – particularly at sites equipped with variable rate drip irrigation systems. Specifically, the accurate monitoring of the spring decline in plant available water is valuable for timing the start of intensive irrigation. Starting irrigation too early can waste water and reduce grape quality (especially for red wine varieties). Conversely, starting too late can negatively impact grape yield. Existing techniques for estimating soil moisture include: i) in-field ground instrumentation, ii) soil water balance modelling, iii) radar remote sensing, and iv) thermal-infrared (TIR) remote sensing. Unfortunately, applied on their own, none of these techniques can currently meet the accuracy, scalability, resolution, and frequency product requirements for vineyard irrigation decision support. In conjunction with E&J Gallo, the NASA Water Resources Applied Research program and the GRAPEX experiment, we have developed a land data assimilation system, coined the Vineyard Data Assimilation (VIDA) system, to mitigate these shortcomings via an integrative approach that corrects a continuous soil water balance model via the assimilation of temporally sparse, high-resolution radar and TIR imagery to generate a daily, 30-m, root-zone (30-60 cm) soil moisture product. We will describe the 2020 application of VIDA for operational soil moisture delivery within three E&J Gallo production vineyards (previously instrumented as part of GRAPEX field activities) and the planned 2021 expansion of operational production to >100 vineyards in the California Central Valley. Results demonstrate the feasibility of applying VIDA to vineyard irrigation scheduling and the potential for geographically scaling the approach over a broader area. Specific challenges associated with the interpretation of radar and TIR sources of soil moisture information and the integration of VIDA soil moisture products into an irrigation decision support system will also be discussed.
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