SATELLITE-BASED MEASUREMENTS FOR BENCHMARKING REGIONAL IRRIGATION PERFORMANCE IN GOULBURN-MURRAY CATCHMENT

Abstract. Irrigation has a significant impact on regional water resources in south-eastern Australia. It is therefore important that objective assessments of the current use of water are undertaken on a routine basis. New remote sensing technologies now provide an opportunity to assess and monitor water use at farm and catchment scales. This study demonstrates the use of satellite-based estimates of evapotranspiration (ET) and NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index) in irrigation performance indicators that relate crop water use to crop water requirement (CWR) in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation Region of South-Eastern Australia. The METRIC energy balance algorithm (Allen et al 2007) was used to derive ET estimates from Landsat satellite data.