NASA DEVELOP Project - Costa Rica Agriculture Summer 2016

Objective: To utilize simulated ECOSTRESS data products to estimate the changes in water stress in crops over a daily cycle and to evaluate the utility of future ECOSTRESS data streams for supporting agricultural water resources management.

Team: *Gregory Halverson, Mark Barker, Savannah Cooley, Steven Pestana (*indicates Team Lead)

Mentors: Dr. Christine Lee, Dr. Joshua Fisher

Partners at EARTH University: Dr. Johan Perret, Jose Eduardo Villalobos Leandro, Karim Abdalla Bolanos, Carol Lucia Fuentes Fallas

Community Concern: Agriculture represents over 70% of the consumptive use of water worldwide. Satellite based remote sensing provides an opportunity to help optimize water use by improving understanding of water stress conditions in croplands. This knowledge can inform irrigation practices so that water resources can be used more efficiently. Our partners in Costa Rica at EARTH University, whose campus includes 5000 hectares of agricultural lands, are interested in using remotely sensed data to understand rates of evapotranspiration to manage resources for their crops more efficiently.