Güiza-Villa et al. (2026) Impacto del riego estimado por satélite en la modelación hidrológica: análisis del balance hídrico y desempeño del modelo TETIS en la cuenca del río Po

Identification

• Journal: Ingeniería del agua
• Year: 2026
• Authors: Nathaly Güiza-Villa, Nicolás Cortés-Torres, Félix Francés
• DOI: 10.4995/ia.24708

Research Groups

• IIAMA (Instituto de Ingeniería del Agua y Medio Ambiente): Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.

Short Summary

This study evaluates the integration of satellite-derived irrigation estimates into the TETIS v9.1 hydrological model for the Po River basin. The research demonstrates that incorporating irrigation data, coupled with model recalibration, significantly improves discharge simulations (particularly low flows) and provides a more realistic representation of the basin's water balance.

Objective

• To evaluate the impact of including satellite-derived irrigation data as a forcing variable in hydrological modeling.
• To analyze the sensitivity of the water balance and the spatiotemporal representation of soil moisture and evapotranspiration to irrigation inputs.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Po River basin, Northern Italy (approximately 72,000 $km^2$); model resolution of 1 km.
• Temporal Scale: 2016–2021 period; daily temporal resolution for simulations, with weekly irrigation data inputs.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: TETIS v9.1 (a distributed, conceptual-physical hydrological model).
• Data sources:
  • Meteorology: EMO-1 (European Meteorological Observations) for precipitation, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration.
  • Irrigation: Satellite-derived estimates based on soil moisture inversion (Dari et al., 2023).
  • Discharge: Observed data from GRDC and regional environmental agencies (ARPA Piemonte and Emilia-Romagna).
  • Validation: MODIS/Terra (evapotranspiration) and SMAP (surface soil moisture) satellite products.
• Experimental Design:
  • SC40: Baseline (no irrigation, calibrated to observed discharge).
  • SC41: Irrigation added as forcing to SC40 without recalibration.
  • SC42: Irrigation added as forcing and model recalibrated using naturalized discharge (observed discharge + estimated abstractions).

Main Results

• Discharge Performance: The recalibrated model (SC42) showed a significant improvement in the Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) at the Pontelagoscuro station, increasing from 0.51 (baseline) to 0.86.
• Water Balance: The inclusion of irrigation in SC42 led to a physically consistent redistribution of flows: escorrentía directa (direct runoff) decreased, while interflow, percolation, and baseflow increased compared to the baseline.
• Spatiotemporal Dynamics:
  • The Spatial Efficiency (SPAEF) metric for evapotranspiration improved from -0.40 to -0.32 with irrigation inclusion.
  • Surface soil moisture SPAEF improved from -0.43 to 0.03.
  • The coefficient of determination ($R^2$) for the temporal dynamics of evapotranspiration reached 0.97 in the recalibrated scenario.
• Sensitivity: The model showed high sensitivity to irrigation in the irrigated valley areas, but recalibration extended these impacts across the entire basin due to adjustments in regional correction factors.

Contributions

• Demonstrates a viable methodology for integrating satellite-based anthropogenic forcings into distributed hydrological models.
• Highlights the critical necessity of model recalibration when introducing irrigation data to maintain physical consistency in the water balance.
• Provides evidence that satellite data can effectively fill information gaps regarding irrigation volumes and timing in large agricultural basins.

Funding

• European Space Agency (ESA): 4DHydro initiative (4000141141/23/I-EF).
• Generalitat Valenciana: Project WATER4CAST 2.0 (CIPROM/2023/5).
• Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation: Project TETISPREDICT (PID2022-141631OB-I00) and predoctoral grant (PRE2022-103901).
• COLFUTURO & Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Colombia): Programa Crédito Beca (2022 and 2024).

Citation

@article{GüizaVilla2026Impacto,
  author = {Güiza-Villa, Nathaly and Cortés-Torres, Nicolás and Francés, Félix},
  title = {Impacto del riego estimado por satélite en la modelación hidrológica: análisis del balance hídrico y desempeño del modelo TETIS en la cuenca del río Po},
  journal = {Ingeniería del agua},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.4995/ia.24708},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.4995/ia.24708}
}

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