Global Map of Irrigation Areas

Austria

The area equipped for irrigation in the three NUTS-regions as documented in the table below was calculated by selecting for each region the maximum irrigable area in the years 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2003 as reported by EUROSTAT [AT01]. The total area equipped for irrigation of the country computed that way was summing up to 97 480 ha. A total area equipped for irrigation of almost 100 000 ha was also confirmed by another report [AT02]. The area actually irrigated was 45 720 ha in 1995 [AT01].

By far the most irrigated area is concentrated in five irrigation areas in Lower Austria (Marchfeld, Weinviertel, Tullnerfeld, Südliches Wiener Becken and Krems). The outlines of these areas were digitized from a map published in [AT03]. In the next step arable land and vineyards located within these irrigation areas were extracted from the Corine land cover 2000 database for Europe [AT04]. 40 000 ha irrigated area was assigned to arable land located on the lower terrace of the Marchfeld scheme since it was reported that the arable land (in total 41 000 ha) is almost completely equipped for irrigation there [AT03]. Another 3400 ha irrigated land was assigned to vineyards located within the 5 irrigation areas mentioned above. The location and outlines of irrigation areas belonging to water use cooperatives in the Marchfeld scheme was digitized from another irrigation map published in [AT03] and 6200 ha irrigated area was assigned to these polygons. The majority of irrigated area belonging to cooperatives is located on the upper terrace of the Marchfeld scheme. Finally the location and extent of 6 irrigation areas located in other regions of Austria was digitized from maps published in [AT03], [AT05] and [AT06] and arable land and pastures located within these polygons were extracted from the Corine land cover 2000 database for Europe [AT04]. The remaining part of irrigated area was assigned to the extracted arable land (in all irrigation areas) or pasture (only in irrigation areas outside Lower Austria).

References

[AT01]: Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT). 2006. Irrigation by regions. Online data base (available at http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu), 07/07/2006.
[AT02]: Neudorfer, W. 2003. Recommodations for irrigation water - new Austrian guidelines. Journal of Applied Irrigation Science 38(02), 163-172.
[AT03]: Katzmayer, H. and Rennert, G. 2003. Bewässerung in Niederösterreich. Bericht von der Fachtagung der DLG-Arbeitsgruppe Feldberegnung Juli 2003, 13 pp., available at: http://www.fachverband-feldberegnung.de/basisinfo.htm, 07/07/2006.
[AT04]: EEA. 2005. Corine land cover 2000 - vector by country (CLC2000), version 1. (available at: http://dataservice.eea.europa.eu/dataservice/metadetails.asp?id=667).
[AT05]: Framji, K., Garg, B. and Luthra, S. 1981. Irrigation and drainage in the world, Volume I, map on p. 82, ICID, New Delhi, India.
[AT06]: Achtnich, W. 1980. Bewässerungslandbau. map on p. 25, Ulmer, Stuttgart, 621 pp.

Distribution of irrigated area in Austria per NUTS-1 region: