Remotely sensed data used for modelling at different hydrological scales

Abstract

AbstractThere is a growing awareness that water will be one of the most critical natural resources and that there is a need for better management of the limited water resources. This paper reports on a study of a water‐scarce river basin in western Turkey. Hydrological analyses, emphasizing water use for irrigation, are performed at three different spatial scales (field scale, irrigation scheme scale and basin scale) using two kind of model: a parametric basin‐scale model and a physically based crop‐scale model. Data accessibility for this basin, especially for areal data, was low. A combined use of public domain data sets and remotely sensed data was used to solve this problem. A public domain digital elevation model was used to generate the streamflow network and the distances and slopes to streams. Land‐cover data and leaf area index data were derived from public domain NOAA–AVHRR images. For one irrigation scheme in the basin, detailed areal water balances were obtained from the simulation model and a comparison was made between a normal and a water‐short year. At the basin scale, observed flows were compared with simulated flows. It is concluded that remotely sensed data and other public domain data can be used with simulation models at different scales to create a powerful tool to evaluate water resources in a basin context. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.