1. Introduction
Agricultural irrigation has a major impact on water
resources management as it accounts for more than
80% of total water withdrawn [1-3]. The global extent
of irrigated area has expanded during the last 30 years
by 1.6% per year [4] leading to a significant increase
in freshwater consumption and therefore to water
resource degradation and depletion. Further, the
emerging concern over climate and land use change
impact on agriculture needs accurate monitoring of
crop yield production. Precise use of fresh water
resources for irrigation is required for implementation
of sustainable water management policies and to
monitor high yields in a changing climate and rising
water demands. Soil moisture, water content in the
root zone, and vegetation indices are critical
parameters for crop yield forecasting, irrigation
management, and issuing early warning of droughts.
Soil moisture data with high spatial and temporal
resolution over the agricultural growing season have
potential for rational planning of irrigation
management and increased crop yields. Temporal
monitoring of soil moisture at different growth stages
of crop could prevent water stress and improve the
crop yield [5]. Soil moisture characteristics influence
the availability of nitrogen and water to the crop
during the growing season, strongly affecting the
availability of soil nitrogen during periods of low
water availability [6]. On the other hand, excessive
irrigation leads to leaching of fertilizer (N and P),
inducing groundwater pollution and soil degradation
[7]. Using knowledge of soil moisture to manage
insects and plant disease [8] is a potential application
that needs more research. Information on spatial
distribution of soil moisture over the field will allow
pesticides to be applied selectively to achieve
economic and environmental benefits.
Currently, various crop monitoring schemes are
used to retrieve crop yield information from
visible/near IR remote sensing data. These schemes
could be improved with the addition of microwave
based soil moisture information to achieve greater
efficiency. Many studies carried out during past three
decades have successfully demonstrated the use of
active and passive microwave remote sensing
techniques to obtain spatial and temporal estimates of
soil moisture mapping over large regions [9-12]. In the
case of passive microwave system, the radiometric
emission measure as a brightness temperature
decreases with the increasing soil moisture. However,
in the case of active microwave system, the stronger
radar backscatter signals are observed at higher soil
moisture [13].
The spatial heterogeneity soil moisture and
precipitation make it difficult to estimate soil moisture
at relevant scales from field soil moisture
measurements. Lacking accurate information,
farmers/managers often leave irrigation systems