Application of Crop Water Stress Index in Sugarcane Irrigation Scheduling Using Landsat Thermal Data and AquaCrop Model

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD student in Irrigation and Drainage, Faculty of Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz and Head of Remote Sensing and GIS Department, Sugarcane Research and Development Training Institute, Ahvaz, Iran.

2 Professor, Irrigation and Drainage Department, Faculty of Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

Abstract

In this study, to overcome some limitations, the AquaCrop model was used together with field measurements of Leaf Sheath Volumetric Water Content (VWC) and Landsat 8 and 9 images to determine the upper and lower bounds of Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) more accurately. This research was conducted at Debal Khuzaei Sugarcane Cultivation and Industry Company from March 2022 to October 2022.The results showed a significant negative relationship between CWSI and VWC; that is, as the plant water content decreased, CWSI increased (R2=0.71). The effect of field age during the mid-growth stage on this relationship was not significant. Based on the linear regression between CWSI and VWC, the plant water status was classified into five classes: water stress, irrigation time, moderate, moist, and very moist. Spatial analyses also showed that the spatial distribution of CWSI extracted from satellite imagery was consistent with actual variations in plant moisture, enabling dynamic monitoring of water stress and precise irrigation timing. Overall, the integration of the AquaCrop simulation model, ground-based data, and the thermal CWSI offers a more accurate and innovative approach than the methods based on hot and cold pixels, and it can be used for smart irrigation management of sugarcane in arid and semi-arid regions.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Water Research in Agriculture
Volume 39, Issue 4
March 2026
Pages 373-390

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