Assessment of Water Availability and Consumption in the Karkheh River Basin, Iran—Using Remote Sensing and Geo-statistics

L. Muthuwatta (), Mobin-ud-Din Ahmad, M. Bos and T. Rientjes

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2010, vol. 24, issue 3, 459-484

Abstract: This study was conducted to assess water availability and consumption in the Karkheh River Basin in Iran using secondary data and freely available satellite data. Precipitation was estimated using geo-statistical techniques while a Surface Energy Balance approach was selected for evapotranspiration estimation. The spatial distribution of actual evapotranspiration (ET a ) for the Karkheh Basin has been estimated by use of 19 cloud free Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images, which cover a complete cropping year from November 2002 to October 2003. ET a estimates were compared to potential crop evapotranspiration (ET p ) estimates for two predominantly irrigated wheat areas in Upper and Lower Karkheh. Differences were found to be 12.5% and 11.7% respectively. Results of the ETa and precipitation estimates reveal that for the study period, the Karkheh Basin received 18,507 × 10 6 m 3 as precipitation while ET a is estimated at 16,680 × 10 6 m 3 . Estimated outflow from the basin for the study period only is 7.8% of the precipitation and indicates that water is a very scarce resource in the Karkheh basin. The basin has been divided in sub-basins to allow for more detailed analysis and results indicate that water balance closure at sub-basin scale ranges from 7.2% to 0.6% of the precipitation. This suggests that the water balance is sufficiently understood for policy and decision making. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Keywords: Evapotranspiration; Remote sensing; Spatial analysis; Water balance; Karkheh (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1007/s11269-009-9455-9

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