Performanance Evaluation of the Cauvery Irrigation System, India, Using Remote Sensing and Gis Technology

Evaluation of any irrigation project involves the assessment of area, improved by the project. Irrigated agriculture will play a major role in determining the future food security of most Asian countries, and it will also be the major contributor to the additional food production required as world population expands. Therefore, it is important to raise the agricultural performance of low productivity/ irrigation systems, while sustaining the performance of more-productive systems. In many countries, and particularly in India, accurate evaluation of irrigation system performance and sustainability is hampered by lack of adequate, reliable, and timely irrigation statistics. Usually, performance indicators such as yield, cropping intensity, and irrigation intensity are measured at an aggregated level, often at the state or national levels. Data at project level are rarely collected. If collected, they frequently are unreliable or not easily accessible. It is in this context emerging technologies in irrigation management, applied remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques to study the Cauvery Irrigation System and to analyze agricultural performance issues. The diagnostic analysis of the operation of the Cauvery canal command area in south side India reported here was the result of collaborative research by the National Remote Sensing Agency. Satellite remote sensing was utilized to obtain data on basic agronomic characteristics and crop yield. Hydrologic analysis based on ground data was carried out, aided by GIS and supplemented with output data from a distributed computer model that simulates the spatiotemporal behaviour of canal water, soil water, and groundwater. The salient findings from this research are reported here and in Remote Sensing and Hydrologic Models for Performance Assessment in Irrigation Circle, India. The Cauvery Irrigation System is above average in agricultural performance compared with other irrigation systems in Tamilnadu.