Eranet-Med Optimed- Water Project: Results on soil Moisture Maps of Semi-Arid Environment by using Optical/Microwave Satellite Data

Kurzfassung

This project deals with the implementation of an innovative water management system in Mediterranean countries (i.e. Tunisia and Egypt), which suffer from chronic water scarcity, together with two European countries (Germany and Italy). The consortium is developing and applying synergic methods and algorithms for investigating the water cycle, using remote sensing techniques. The focus is on the use of satellite data (optical and microwave) for monitoring vegetation cover and water status along with soil moisture temporal evolutions in order to improve the knowledge of the water cycle in arid areas. Both local and regional monitoring are carried out in order to investigate different spatial scales. The scope of the project is to propose practical and costeffective solutions for driving and updating a method for the sustainable use of water in agriculture. First results on soil moisture mapping retrieved in Tunisia using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based algorithm is presented in this pape