Why is it important?
In Uganda, irrigation development contributes to food security, poverty alleviation and economic growth by using water sustainably.
Satellite remote sensing of evapotranspiration (ET) is an essential part of global observation systems. It provides inputs for agriculture, water resources management, weather forecasts, climate studies and many other applications. Easy access to reliable estimations of ET is a key requirement within these domains. When ET is successfully estimated at high resolution it can map crop water stress at field scale.
Project highlights:
Developing and implementing an open-source AI algorithm that merges optical, thermal and meteorological data.
The ability to get information on water stress levels for farms in Uganda. Due to the resolution, we can provide evapotranspiration information at farm level
Better insights can lead to 30% less water use for the same yield.
In more detail..
This project aims to develop and roll-out a novel algorithm for obtaining evapotranspiration and crop water stress at farm level for a large national irrigation scheme in Uganda.
The site chosen for this project is Mubuku in the Kasese District.
It is expected that the project can lead to 30% less water use for the same yield, which would greatly benefit the local community and farmers.
Since the code will be open source the project can pave the way for better irrigation in drought prone countries.
The project is done in collaboration with our partners, the Ugandan geo-information company, Geo Gecko.
Microsoft and National Geographic AI for Earth Innovation Grant:
A new, joint grant program that will challenge environmental issues of the 21st century with the most advanced technologies available today.
“AI for Earth Innovation” grants will fund new solutions that leverage AI and cloud technologies to monitor, model and manage Earth’s natural resources.
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