Success Stories: Application Of Remote Sensing Technologies To Irrigation Advisory Services In The Portuguese Case Study Of DEMETER

The remote sensing technologies are a valuable tool for the identification of water needs in irrigated crops. On the frame of DEMETER project, the Caia Irrigation District has been selected as the Portuguese pilot zone, due to it’s multi‐crop production area, with a very heterogeneous cultivation pattern, where private irrigation dominates, with sprinkler “pivot” type systems. Images from Landsat 5 and 7 were used to evaluate crop coefficients and the irrigation needs in the Caia region for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005. Results were disseminated, through the IDRHa, to the farmers in near‐real time during the campaign of 2005.