Urban Irrigation Efficiency in Weber Basin County

Irrigation of residential properties in urban settings is typified by small and irregular areas, many untrained water users, limited end-use metering, and differing groundcover in contrast to agricultural settings. This makes analyzing irrigation patterns to promote efficient water use challenging. Analysis of Irrigation by Remote Sensing (AIRS) combines multispectral aerial imagery, evapotranspiration data, and ground-truthed measurements to overcome these challenges. We demonstrate the application of AIRS on eight neighborhoods in West Haven, Utah using 0.6 m National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) and 0.07 m drone imagery, reference ET, and water meter data from Weber Basin Water Conservancy District (WBWCD). We find the difference between the actual and hypothetical water required for each parcel and compare water use over three time periods of interest (2018, 2021 and 2023). We find that users are overwatering by smaller amounts with time. Using AIRS would allow water utilities to track water user habits over time and see if conservation efforts impact water usage. I included a a shapefile showing where secondary meters are placed.