Assessment of the Irrigation Capacity during the Dry Season Using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information (Case Study in the Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam)

Abstract

Today satellite system provides a main instrument supplying regular data on land inventory and monitoring of land use/land cover changes, in a timely manner. These data are keys to many applications in different sectors: environment, forestry, hydrology, irrigation, agriculture, geology, resource management and planning. Using Landsat image and change detection, this paper presents a method to extract changes of agricultural land, as the basis for the assessment and development of irrigation systems, which enhance production and protect land resources. During the period 1996-2014, the agricultural land in Binh Thuan decreased from 43.5% (in 1996) to 40.1% (February, 2014) of the total land surface in the province. However, the land area under cultivation tends to decrease rapidly, from 25.7% in 1996 to 14.0% in 2014. Combining the results of land use change and assessing the capacity of the irrigation systems show which areas are frequently irrigated versus those are not. This allows proposing irrigation development needs contributing to more production while protecting land resources.