Using Remote Sensing Techniques for Estimating Water Stress Index for Central of Nile Delta

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Water scarcity is one of the main challenges facing water management in Egypt. This in turn will have direct impacts on the agricultural sector which is a key sector for the socio-economic development in Egypt, and plays a significant role in the Egyptian national economy. In Egypt, water resources are limited to the Nile River, rainfall, deep groundwater, and potential desalination of sea. Climate change, rapid population growth, and economic development will significantly affect the future availability of water resources for agriculture sector, which consumes about 85% of total water resources in Egypt. Therefore, continuously monitoring of crop statutes and crop water consumption plays a vital role in water resources management in developing countries such as Egypt. Recently Remote sensing techniques provide decision makers with spatial information about crop statutes and water stress at region scale. Remote sensing techniques also have the ability to monitor large areas with saving time and cost. The main objective of this study is investigating the capabilities of satellite data in monitoring of water stress and crop statues in the central portion of Nile delta by using the water stress index (WSI). The water stress index was used to identify locations of poor irrigation in order to maximize the crop yield. The proposed model was calibrated and validated against the measured data by using 20 points of ground measurements for actual evapotranspiration (ETC) and wet evapotranspiration (ETWet). The performance of the model was measured using various evaluation criteria. Validation results showed that satellite data are capable of estimating WSI since the comparison between WSIobs and WSIest resulted in R2=0.5003. Therefore WSI can be considered as a quick, costless and moderate tool to provide farmers and decision makers with spatial information about crop statues and water stress.