Satellite-based Water Use Dynamics Using Historical Landsat Data (1984-2014) in the Southwestern United States

Historical (1984-2014) Landsat-based ET maps were generated for Palo Verde Irrigation District (PVID) and eight other sub-basins in parts of Middle and Lower Central Valley, California. A total of 3,396 Landsat images were processed using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy balance (SSEBop) model that integrates weather and remotely sensed images to estimate monthly and annual ET within the study areas over the 31 years. Model output evaluation and validation using gridded-flux data and water balance ET approaches indicated relatively strong association between SSEBop ET and validation datasets. Historical trend analysis of seven agro-hydrologic variables were done using the Seasonal Mann-Kendall test.