Runoff Irrigation in the Sahel Zone Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems for Determining Potential Sites

About this book

Scarcity of water is often the most severe constraint for traditional agriculture in the Sahel. Surface water is usually not available in amounts sufficient to maintain natural rainfed agriculture. Runoff irrigation, ie irrigation utilizing rainfall without temporary storage facilities, is one way of improving the use of surface runoff. The aim of this book is to develop a way of identifying potential areas for the application of runoff irrigation systems in the semi-arid Sahel zone. The significant factors are climate, hydrology, vegetation, agricultural practice, soils, sociology and infrastructure.

Contents

Part 1 Physical and social geography in the Sahel with special reference to the northern Kayes region: climate and hydrology; vegetation; agriculture; soils; sociology and infrastructure. Part 2 Runoff irrigation: principles of runoff irrigation; summary of important parameters for implementing runoff irrigation in the Sahel. Part 3 Hydrologic fundamentals: rainfall-runoff; factors detemining the overland flow process - climatic factors, geomorphological factors, channel characteristics, geographic location of the catchment area, coils, vegetation, land use; rainfall-rainoff models - rational method, isochronic or time-area method, the unit hydrograph method, the US Soil Conservation Service (SCS) method, BOUGHTON method, ORSTOM mode,, the etats de surface concept. Part 4 Remote sensing for the determination of potential sites for runoff irrigation: application of satellite imagery; principles of satellite remote sensing - types of sensors, assessment procedure; outline of a geographical information system (GIS); application of remote sensing in the reference location in Mali - acquisition of appropriate satellite imagery (TM and SPOT), selection of classification procedure, selection of classes and training areas, selection of channels for classification, classification results; results of classification in the reference location in Mali. Part 5 Specification of potential runoff irrigation areas in northern Kayes Region in Mali. Part 6 Approach for the determination of the water harvest potential: characteristic features of the Henno catchment area; hydrological data on the catchment area; application of the rainfall-runoff models - rational method, unit hydrograph method, SCS method, BOUGHTON method, etats de surface method; discussion of results with reference to the source-area concept. Part 7 Planning schedule. Part 8 Evaluation of methodology and prospects.

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