Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Water scarcity due to climate change, drought, and rising water demands from non-agricultural sectors, isx000D
threatening food production. Innovations in irrigation water management are required to optimize agriculturalx000D
water use in water stressed regions of Canada. This will not only sustain increased crop yields, but will alsox000D
reduce nutrient leaching and contamination of soil and water. Conventional irrigation water applications relyx000D
mainly on soil moisture measurements, which are labor intensive, and also difficult to accurately representx000D
heterogeneity of soil and crop parameters at large spatial scales. However, remotely sensed plant stressx000D
indicators, based on the visible and near-infrared spectral regions, have the advantage of high spatial andx000D
spectral resolutions, and account for spatial and temporal variability of crops and soil. The proposed research isx000D
geared towards the adoption of remotely sensed images, acquired from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, as ax000D
potential method to precisely determine irrigation applications. The project focuses on the use of advancedx000D
data and image analysis techniques to provide more precise information about plant water status for real-timex000D
irrigation water management that would be cost-effective and commercially available to farmers. Thisx000D
innovative research would generate new scientific knowledge on the use of remotely sensed, real-time data tox000D
schedule irrigation and advance variable rate irrigation technology. The industrial partner is Huron Geomatics,x000D
a wholly owned Canadian aerial mapping company based in Southern Ontario.