2021-10-01, 08:00–08:30, Ushuaia
The WAPLUGIN is a tool created on the open-source software QGIS for the computation of water accounting and crop water productivity indicators based on WaPOR data, the open-access remote sensing database from FAO. The plugin creates a bridge between WaPOR information and QGIS and offers some tools to process and calculate the indicators, such as the overall consumed ratio, the depleted fraction, the overall field application ratio, among others. Most of these water accounting and productivity indicators reflect the impact that agriculture has on water resources. Hence, their analysis will help identify specific issues that can be addressed by policymakers, large scheme irrigation managers, river basin authorities, water professionals, among others.
It is possible to access the WAPLUGIN as any other QGIS plugin. Moreover, it has two main features: the "WaPOR Catalog" and the "Indicator Calculator". On the one hand, the first feature has the capacity to bring data from WaPOR to QGIS, providing direct access to the full catalogue, and the selection will depend on the user specifications (date, location, parameter, resolution). The selected map data will then appear on the canvas as a raster layer. On the other hand, the plugin's second feature offers the possibility of calculating some of the essential water accounting and productivity indicators based on WaPOR data. As in the first feature, the user has to specify the primary data like date, location, resolution and units. Depending on the indicator, the input data can also include information provided by the user, apart from the WaPOR data. Finally, the resulting indicator map will be added as a raster layer in the QGIS canvas, facilitating access to WaPOR data for QGIS users and providing good compatibility with the QGIS tools for further processing.
The WAPLUGIN is an innovative tool, due to it facilitating water accounting and productivity analysis, by bringing together two powerful open-source platforms for the water and remote sensing community. The plugin reduces the time consuming and enables the easy access and processing of WaPOR data, making this less time consuming for GIS analysts. Furthermore, the indicators will support users by generating maps and reports for further assessment and evaluation, identifying the places of high and low irrigation efficiency and the crop and water productivity behaviour.
The WAPLUGIN is a bridge that connects WaPOR, the free FAO portal, and QGIS, the open-source software, making the WaPOR data easy to access and providing the possibility to calculate water accounting and productivity indicators for agricultural purposes.
To know more about the WAPLUGIN and how the idea came up, please check the following video, in which the WAPLUGIN Team was invited to the QGIS Open Day, February 26/2021, to share their experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqd_o01x1t0&ab_channel=QGIS
The WAPLUGIN was implemented using pyQGIS and the script is in the GitHub platform that gives access to the open-source community.
https://github.com/fhfonsecaa/wap_plugin
Author: Natalia Cárdenas Niño.
Co-authors:
- Akshay Dhonthi
- Margaret Nkhosi
- Nabil Khorchani
- Fabian Humberto Fonseca Aponte
Open data
Topic –Data collection, data sharing, data science, open data, big data, data exploitation platforms
Level –2 - Basic. General basic knowledge is required.
Language of the Presentation –English
Agricultural engineer from Colombia with an MSc. degree in Water Science and Engineering with a specialization in Land and Water Development for Food Security from the IHE-Delft Institute for water education, The Netherlands. Focused on sustainable water management for agriculture, using precision farming practices such as remote sensing.