Geospatial information for sustainable food systems

Assessing water demand in Amu Darya River Basin during summer season 2022

Year published: 23/01/2024

Better understanding of cropland water demand provides useful guidance for efficient irrigation practices. Potential evapotranspiration can be defined as a proxy of cropland water demand, i.e., the amount of water that can be transferred to the air from land1 . Potential evapotranspiration was retrieved from MODIS remote sensing imagery and cropland extent from a land cover dataset based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data2,3. A bivariate map with a hexagon grid (cells of 90 square kilometers) is shown to analyze the water demand and the cropland distribution in the Amu Darya River Basin. This analysis contributes to the Afghanistan Emergency Food Security Project (OSRO/AFG/213/WBK).