NATURAL RESOURCES DATA BANK FOR IRRIGATION SCHEDULING

1. Building a data bank of natural resources dealing with height, slope, exposure, soil types, climate, hydrology starting from the acquisition of all elements. The area is divided in a conventional way in a finite number of elementary pixels to which the variables values are attributed.
2. the assessment of a crop productivity model allowing us to quantify the effect of the irrigation on production and the time scheduling.

The model consists in a deterministic approach to the biomass production based on the description of the most relevant processes concerning the soil-plant-atmosphere system. ICROM Model (Irrigated Crop Model) simulates the soil moisture balance with steps of fifteen minutes, fluxes of water in the plants then on the basis of allometric relations and stomata resistances, the carbon assimilation. The simulation of irrigation allow us to forecast the effect of water on final yield and to optimize the water utilization.

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