Performance Analysis and Irrigation Scheduling For a Part of Parambikulam Aliyar Project Using Cropwat and Remote Sensing

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy, contributing about 22% to the country’s GDP. Fifty years since the first green revolution, innovations in the field of agriculture have lost vigor and India lags behind others developed countries with respect to the efficiency of the irrigation systems. Developments haven’t occurred to cope with the burgeoning population and it is becoming increasingly difficult to feed the billion mouths of the country. This research was undertaken with an aim to estimate the efficiency of an existing irrigation system and to propose changes in the system (if necessary) so that the scarcely available water resources are utilized economically. This paper introduces the use of modern tools like Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and CROPWAT to improve the management of the existing irrigation systems. Crop identification at distributary level was made from Remote Sensing satellite images, using image processing techniques, such as supervised and unsupervised classification. The cropping pattern and the area of land under each crop were identified using IRS-1D, LISS-III satellite image. Satellite Image Processing was carried out using ERDAS Imagine 8.4. For the purpose of delineating the study area in the satellite image, the study area was digitized in Arc View GIS 3.2a using Survey of India topo-sheets as a base map. At the end of the study, a comparison has been made between the existing system and the system proposed.