Abstract
Efficient land and water management require the accurate selection of suitable crops that are compatible with soil and crop water requirements (CWR) in a given area. In this study, twenty soil profiles are collected to represent the soils of the study area. Physical and chemical properties of soil, in addition to irrigation water quality, provided data are utilized by the Agriculture Land Evaluation System for Arid and semi-arid regions (ALES-Arid) to determine crop suitability. University of Idaho Ref-ET software is used to calculate CWR from weather data while the Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land Model (SEBAL) is utilized to estimate CWR from remote sensing data. The obtained results show that seasonal weather-based CWR of the most suitable field crops (S1 and S2 classes) ranges from 804 to 1625 mm for wheat and berssem, respectively, and ranges from 778 to 993 mm in the vegetable crops potato and watermelon, respectively, under surface irrigation. Mean daily satellite-based CWR are predicted based on SEBAL ranges between 4.79 and 3.62 mm in Toshka and Abu Simbel areas respectively. This study provides a new approach for coupling ALES-Arid, Ref-ET and SEBAL models to facilitate the selection of suitable crops and offers an excellent source for predicting CWR in arid environments. The findings of this research will help in managing the future marginal land reclamation projects in arid and semi-arid areas of the world.
Highlights
Arid and semi-arid zones represent more than one-third of the land area of the world [1], and are characterized by a long dry season as well as sporadic precipitation [2]
Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land Model (SEBAL) has been tested in many countries, especially in arid–semi-arid regions under several different irrigation conditions [45,46,47,48,49,50]. It is for the abovementioned reasons; this study aims to combine ALESarid, Ref-ET, and SEBAL models as a new and comprehensive approach to improve the selection of suitable crops for available land and water resources, which could be considered the novelty of the current work
Crop type and water management must be compatible with land and water resources
Summary
Arid and semi-arid zones represent more than one-third of the land area of the world [1], and are characterized by a long dry season as well as sporadic precipitation [2]. Egypt lies primarily in arid and semi-arid regions and faces increasing food and water demand. As a result, it struggles to meet its basic food and water needs, due to the continuous increase in population. Increasing crop production without depleting water and land resources in addition to efficient management are significant challenges. The Lake Nasser area in the Aswan governorate of Egypt (22◦–24 N and 31◦–33.5 E) is a good representative for arid and semi-arid environments (Figure 1)
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