What is evapotranspiration?
The "ET" in OpenET stands for evapotranspiration —the process by which water evaporates from the land surface and transpires from plants. Evapotranspiration, a key measure of water consumed by crops and vegetation, can be followed by satellites because the process cools plants and soil down, so irrigated fields show up cooler in satellite images.
Utilizing publicly available information, OpenET will make a few methods for estimating evapotranspiration more generally accessible, ultimately helping to build more extensive trust and agreement around this information. OpenET will also make it possible to track the amount of evapotranspiration reduced when farmers change cropping patterns, invest in new technologies or adopt water-saving practices.
OpenET is expected to be available to the public in 2021.
OpenET will initially provide field-scale ET information in 17 states, with plans to expand to the entire United States and beyond. The 17 states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
"OpenET will help fill one of the biggest information gaps in water management in the western United States. Our essential goal is to make sure we are providing evapotranspiration data that is accurate, consistent, scientifically based and useful for water management, whether for a individual agricultural field or a entire stream basin," said Forrest Melton, program scientist for the NASA Western Water Applications Office. "OpenET is being created through an imaginative collaboration among a national group of researchers, technology experts, farmers, government policy-creators and natural nonprofits."
"OpenET is an amazing application of cloud registering that will lead to quantifiable results on the ground in the agriculture sector. Google is glad to support such a important new tool," said Google Earth Engine developer advocate Tyler Erickson.
"After 10 long periods of working with farmers and water offices to create ET estimates, it couldn't be more rewarding to be creating a application like OpenET that utilizes best available science and makes ET information much more affordable and accessible to all," said Justin Huntington, a research professor at Desert Research Institute. "We additionally see OpenET having the potential to scale up to other areas of the world, including South America and Africa."
"OpenET will engage farmers and water directors across the West to fabricate more accurate water budgets and identify stress, bringing about a more tough system for agriculture, people and ecosystems," said Robyn Grimm, senior administrator, water information systems, at EDF. "We envision OpenET leveling the playing field by giving all ranchers with information that until now have not been broadly accessible to everyone."
Extraordinary joint effort
OpenET is being created with contribution from more than 100 stakeholders across the West.
NASA, EDF, DRI and HabitatSeven are the undertaking leads for OpenET. Additional collaborators include Google Earth Engine, USGS, USDA Agricultural Research Service, California State University Monterey Bay, University of Idaho, University of Maryland, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The OpenET project has received funding from the NASA Applied Sciences Program Western Water Applications Office, S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Water Funder Initiative, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, Delta Water Agencies, and the Windward Fund. In-kind support has been given by Google Earth Engine and partners in the agricultural and water management communities.
Giving farmers and local water managers free ET information is a core objective of the OpenET project. For-profit elements and different organizations looking for large-scale access to OpenET information will have the option to purchase it through a application programming interface (API). Revenue generated will fund proceeding research and development of OpenET information services.
Backing for OpenET
"The Harney Basin is running a groundwater deficit of 120,000 section of land feet to 130,000 section of land feet every year. We have utilized ET data to increase a better understanding of our water consumption and design more efficient irrigation systems that use about 15% less water. This could translate to a savings of 18% to 20% on electricity costs for pumping, as well. With the demands on water from a growing population and feeding more people, we have to make sense of how to get the best esteem from every drop of water. ET information is essential to providing this information. "
— Oregon State Rep. Imprint Owens. Owens owns or oversees 3,200 sections of land of farmland.
"Reliable water data is nearly as basic to farmers and water supervisors as the water supply itself. With included pressure from population growth and the uncertainty that atmosphere change impacts have on existing and future water supply, OpenET allows arranging for horticultural water needs in a way that just wasn't possible before."
— E. Joaquin Esquivel, Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board
"Each five years, the Bureau of Reclamation is tasked with creating a report that summarizes water use and loss for the Upper Colorado River Basin states. Currently, there are several satellite-based methodologies to measure water, a significant number of which will be incorporated into OpenET. Consequently, OpenET will serve as a valuable instrument for us to test and look at ET measurement methodologies to decide the best approach for future studies."
