Abstract:

A study was performed on onion and carrot fields to develop yield prediction models and to assess the crop water use (CWU) with the use of Landsat-8 (L8) and Sentinel-2 (S2) satellite data. The experimental fields, which belong to the Tawdeehiya Farms located in the central region of Saudi Arabia, were used to predict yield, evapotranspiration (ET) and estimate CWU. Yield samples were collected randomly with the assistance of a handheld global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver and subsequently analyzed for commercial harvest (CH) yield and above-ground biomass (AGB). The CWU was estimated as ET_a using the simplified surface energy balance (SSEB) with an accuracy of 89.2%, and the differences between amounts of the actual irrigation water and the ET_a were ranged between 10.6% (onion) and -12.6% (carrot) across the growth period. The outputs of this study can be used to improve irrigation management in the study area and related areas.