Benli et al. (2025) The Application of Remote Sensing to Improve Irrigation Accounting Systems: A Review

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Water
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-02
• Authors: Hakan Benli, M A Cassiano, Giacomo Giannoccaro
• DOI: 10.3390/w17233430

Research Groups

The provided text describes a review paper and does not specify the affiliations of the authors or the research groups involved in conducting this specific review.

Short Summary

This systematic review assesses the state of remote sensing for irrigation water accounting, revealing a strong focus on technological advancements and management benefits but significant gaps in institutional integration, policy, and application in water-scarce regions of the Global South. It concludes that despite efficiency improvements, operational adoption is hindered by institutional, regulatory, and methodological barriers, necessitating interdisciplinary approaches and stakeholder engagement.

Objective

• To systematically review the current literature on remote sensing applications for irrigation water accounting, identifying technological readiness, management impact, implementation barriers, policy integration, and innovation gaps.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global literature review, noting a concentration of studies in digitally advanced regions and limited attention to water-scarce areas in the Global South.
• Temporal Scale: Review of existing scientific literature on remote sensing for irrigation water accounting, without a specified start or end date for the literature search.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not applicable (review paper).
• Data sources: Scientific documents identified through a systematic review following the PRISMA protocol. 1485 documents were screened, and 79 studies were selected for in-depth analysis. Papers were classified using a structured labeling process into categories: Technological Readiness, Management Impact, Implementation Barriers, Policy Integration, and Innovation/Gaps.

Main Results

• The reviewed literature shows a strong emphasis on management benefits and technological innovation in remote sensing for irrigation water accounting.
• Institutional, policy, and governance aspects of remote sensing adoption are significantly under-addressed in the current research.
• Research is predominantly concentrated in digitally advanced regions, with limited focus on water-scarce areas, particularly in the Global South.
• Although remote sensing enhances efficiency and data availability for water accounting, its operational adoption is severely challenged by existing institutional, regulatory, and methodological gaps.
• Many studies addressed multiple themes, but governance integration and real-world barriers were frequently overlooked.

Contributions

• Provides a systematic and comprehensive review (following PRISMA protocol) of remote sensing applications for irrigation water accounting.
• Identifies critical research gaps concerning institutional integration, policy frameworks, and the application of these technologies in water-scarce regions of the Global South.
• Highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration, stronger validation efforts, and active stakeholder engagement to transition remote sensing tools into operational components of integrated water management.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Benli2025Application,
  author = {Benli, Hakan and Cassiano, M A and Giannoccaro, Giacomo},
  title = {The Application of Remote Sensing to Improve Irrigation Accounting Systems: A Review},
  journal = {Water},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3390/w17233430},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/w17233430}
}