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- GC21B-03: Pipe Dreams: Mapping Field-Scale Irrigation Water Use Across the Contiguous United States (CONUS)
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NOLA CC
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Jeremy Rapp, Michigan State University (First Author, Presenting Author)
Anthony Kendall, Michigan State University
Jacob Stid, Michigan State University
Accurate estimates of water used for farming are essential for managing water resources effectively and ensuring sufficient water exists for agriculture and food production. In the United States, irrigation uses about 43% of all yearly water withdrawals, with 72% being consumptive, per recent USGS data. However, detailed map-ready datasets showing water applied to individual fields are limited, often researchers must rely on the general guidelines or reported values from sources like the USDA Census. To address this, we created a new dataset of irrigated fields by combining existing fields from the Cropland Sequence Boundaries with annual irrigation maps based on satellite imagery, comparing this to irrigated areas reported by the USDA Census. Recognizing irrigation technology (surface, sprinkler, or drip) impacts water usage, we developed a classification method that considers features like slope, distance to streams, and the actual shape of the fields. Next, we distribute USGS watershed-level water use estimates to individual fields using relationships between evapotranspiration and satellite observations. Our study analyzed how water use has changed over space and time, comparing our results with those estimated from USGS/USDA. This offers one of the first field-by-field water use datasets in the U.S., offering insights for agricultural water management.
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