Data shared elaboration to irrigation water needs evaluation supported by GIS

This paper refers to the methodologies applied and the results of a project research granted by Regional Watershed Autorithy of Latium in order to evaluate the Pontina Plain agricultural water needs. This study followed a procedure involving many “focus groups” with the main representative stakeholders of agricultural sector to better understand the cultivation spatial distribution and their water needs and irrigation methodology. In fact, whatever methods chosen to evaluate the irrigation water needs, the hardest parameter to find in the “land-use” and the cultivation spatial distribution; some GIS themes are often available, like the Eu Corine LandCover one, but the classes used for the classification are not so detailed for this kind of studies. To improved a new, finest, classification, by remote sensing or aerophoto analysis, can be much expensive, requires much time and always requires some “in situ” verification; moreover, to frequently update the results of these kinds of analysis is not so simple in terms of time and cost. These kind of considerations have addressed the choice of the procedure presented in this paper.