Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: MODIS satellite images were used together weather data for large-scale water balance assessments in rainfed sugarcane crops, with a long-term data set from 2007 to 2024 in Northeast Brazil. Precipitation (P) was spatially quantified from interpolated pluviometer data and actual evapotranspiration (ET) estimated by applying the SAFER (Simple Algorithm for Evapotranspiration Retrieving). Considering the sugarcane cropped areas for each year, the mean annual P ranged from 3,172 million cubic meters in 2021 to 8,555 million cubic meters in 2009, while for ET this range was from 3,375 million cubic meters in 2017 to 5,869 million cubic meters in 2007. The assessments showed gaps between rainfall water supplies and the root-zone moisture levels, highlighting the evaporative fraction (Ef), i.e. the ratio of ET to reference evapotranspiration (ET0), as the best root-zone moisture indicator, which showed benefits of supplementary irrigation during the transition from grand growth to maturation stages. It was demonstrated that the assessments of large-scale sugar cane water balance using long-term series of data has potential to subsidize public policies which aim the sustainable crop management as well as for its rational expansion in areas with environmental aptitude under the actual climate and land-use changes scenarios.
Source: Sustainability
DOI: 10.3390/su18136610
Authors: Antônio Teixeira, Inajá Sousa, Janice Leivas, Celina Takemura, Thiago Santos
Institutions: Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Embrapa Territorial
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Zero hunger, Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
Award: G2250202372
OpenAlex ID: W7166710446