FAO provides an innovative approach for detailed crop
mapping of Urmia Lake basin

As part of ongoing
knowledge-loaded efforts led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO) to help the Iranian policymakers in taking sound measures
to restore Urmia Lake, the Organization has partnered with Water Engineering Research
Institute of Tarbiat Modares University (WERI) to develop a pioneer report
focused on providing a crop mapping for the Urmia Lake basin.

Conducted in the
framework of the “Integrated Programme for Sustainable Water Resources
Management in the Urmia Lake Basin,” a project jointly run by FAO and Urmia
Lake Restoration Program (ULRP) and funded by the Embassy of Japan, the report
uses “innovative earth observation missions, including time-series imageries of
the Synthetic Aperture Radar and optical satellites to provide a
high-resolution crop map of the basin for the year 2019,” says Mr Ali
Mousivand, a Senior Scientist at WERI.

As the project aims
to halt and invert Urmia Lake’s desiccation by targeting a 40 percent reduction
of water consumption in the basin, “this new crop mapping approach, in
combination with evapotranspiration maps would enable the authorities to find
the crop types grown in the hot-spot zones consuming more water,” he added.

According to this
Iranian Scientist, “given the availability of the exact crop map of the basin,
policymakers would be able to determine the area allocated to each crop.”

This new crop map
also “allows ULRP to more accurately assess the water resources and water
consumptions in agricultural practices,” as per Mr Behdad Chehrenegar, the Head
of Research Division of ULRP. 

Mr Chehrenegar
further said that “accurate data leads to more accurate assumptions and
feedbacks to policymakers in order to reach to more balance water
allocation between Urmia Lake ecosystem and large water consumers like
agriculture sector.”

Describing some
policy implications of this detailed crop mapping, Mr Mousivand who led this
study at WERI said that despite the ULRP’s attempt to reduce water-demanding
crops growing in the region, the new and more accurate crop map reveals that
“still, there have been considerable lands devoted to water-demanding crops
around the lake.” On the other hand, for less water-demanding crops such as
rapeseed that is advocated by the authorities to be cultivated in the area,
“the results show that this crop has not been given sufficient priority
and has only been grown in small patches across the basin.”

Crop mapping is a
critical step in agricultural monitoring, land resources management systems and
land use policies. It is also of prominent importance for water accounting to
estimate surface roughness of each crop type.

FAO, being the lead
UN agency dedicated to food and agricultural development, offers its technical
expertise, data and tools to support its member countries in their efforts to
plan and implement crop patterns for cultivating climate-resilient crops types,
with enhanced tolerance to heat, drought and salinity stresses. 

Source of News: http://www.fao.org/iran/news/detail-events/en/c/1287477/