Mapping soil suitability using phenological information derived from MODIS time series data in a semi-arid region: A case study of Khouribga, Morocco.

To address the increasing global demand for food, it is crucial to implement sustainable agricultural practices, which include effective soil management techniques for enhancing productivity and environmental conditions. In this regard, a study was conducted to assess the efficacy of utilizing phenological metrics derived from satellite data in order to map and identify suitable agricultural soil within a semi-arid region. Two distinct methodologies were compared: one based on physicochemical soil parameters and the other utilizing the phenological response of vegetation through the application of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) Modis-time series.

Comparative assessment of different reference evapotranspiration models towards a fit calibration for arid and semi-arid areas.

The enhancement of water efficiency requires controlling the high demand for irrigated agriculture which depends on improving the capabilities to accurately simulate the water cycle and its components. Among these, evapotranspiration is widely studied to estimate reference evapotranspiration (ET) but the performance and accuracy of the estimates vary. Moreover, these estimates require some hardly available or misrepresentative meteorological data which lead, mainly in arid and semi-arid areas, to errors and inaccuracies.