Agcor provides water supply information and converts that information into an acre-foot per acre representation for a water district.
Additionally, there is a crop layer that shows which crops are present and estimates crop water needs, which creates an estimated water budget.
Workflow Tip
Understanding whether there is enough water on a parcel or group of parcels should start with a look at the water budget.
What is a water budget? Agcor defines a water budget as the water supply minus the water demand (you can learn more in this blog post).
Water Supply
The water budget estimates water supply based on reported water deliveries to water districts and reported water supplies by a water district. The supply is them calculated to provide an acre-foot of water per acre of land estimate.
Water Demand
The water budget estimates the applied evapotranspiration data for each crop type from the California Department of Water Resources to create a demand estimate. The estimate is applied to the crop data set and an acre-foot per acre demand estimate is calculated.
How do I determine if there is enough water for the future of an operation?
Agcor provides a historical water table and chart to assist with understanding the reliability of a water supply. We are working on better ways to provide a forecast so that looking into the future will be easier to do and readily available to add to your water research workflow.