Quantifying saltwater intrusion impact on agricultural greening: remote sensing to guide sustainable water management strategies in a cultural landscape
Eugenio STRAFFELINI, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry - University of Padova, Italy
Jian LUO, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry - University of Padova, Italy
Matteo BOZZOLAN, Consorzio di Bonifica Delta del Po, Italy
Paolo TAROLLI, Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry - University of Padova, Italy
Sustainable water management in coastal areas is an issue of great importance to secure agriculture. Saltwater intrusion is a threat to freshwater aquifers in the sea proximity. It is a complex process resulting from a combination of several factors, both of natural and anthropogenic nature (Werner et al., 2013). Prolonged drought can increase the upstream flow of saline water and consequently boost salinity peaks (Ardon et al., 2013). In addition, climate change-related dry periods could aggravate the salinization process. Although this phenomenon is widely studied, there is still much work to be done in quantifying the impacts of saltwater intrusion on agricultural crops at sub-regional scales. In this challenge, remote sensing techniques open up new horizons for understanding physical processes occurring on Earth. Indeed, open-source big data provided by international space programmes enables large areas studies covering several years of observation. This research aims at investigating the impact of saltwater intrusion on agricultural greening on a remarkable Italian cultural landscape, the Po River Delta (UNESCO, 2022), where salinisation is one of the main problems. Agriculture is the primary activity in the area, made possible by centuries of land reclamation, a sector in balance with wetlands of high ecological interest. Impacts quantification is based on the correlation of river water salinity at 47 sampling sites with Landsat 5-based NDVI and Salinity Index (SI) values calculated on the agricultural fields surrounding each site. The research investigates the summer of 2006, a severe drought period in which the Po River discharge reached significant minimums (Luo et al., Under Review). Research outcomes could provide a cost-effective, remote sensing-based method for quantifying/mapping the impacts of saltwater intrusion in agriculture at the delta scale, guiding stakeholders in adopting more sustainable/efficient management of freshwater near the sea.
Mots clés : Saltwater intrusion|Remote sensing|NDVI|Salinity Index|Cultural Landscape
A103718ES