With 58%¹ water depletion, the river Narmada is depleting at an alarming rate. The river serves as a major source of drinking water, irrigation, and hydroelectricity for the states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The average Soil moisture map for the month of September over the river basin of the Narmada river clearly shows the signs of an impending hard time. The changes in the river, the agricultural yield in the ayacut area, etc can be monitored by analyzed soil moisture over the area. Soil moisture, the water held within the soil pores in the liquid or vapor phase is the major factor that supports plant growth. Plants can readily absorb water if the moisture content of the soil is optimum. Knowledge of spatiotemporal variation of soil moisture is of utmost importance as it helps in understanding the health of crops and can thereby predict soil agricultural yield.

Passive microwave sensors provide soil moisture globally at a coarser spatial resolution whereas active microwave sensors have a higher spatial but low temporal resolution (2–4 weeks). Using soil moisture data directly from any of these sensors will have compromised spatial or temporal resolution. Satyukt Analytics Pvt Ltd has developed an innovative methodology which merges active and passive microwave data to obtain soil moisture data of high spatiotemporal resolution. Some of the applications where this high-resolution soil moisture data would be useful are:

• • Optimal irrigation in farms
  • Improved flood risk estimation
  • Monitor agricultural drought in near real time
  • Likely crop Yield
  • Irrigation Management
  • Improved weather forecast
  • Analyze the impact of an irrigation project
  • Automatic billing of farm based on the actual irrigation

1. “https://isha.sadhguru.org/rally-for-rivers/ourdyingrivers/narmada/”