Columbia River Basin Evapotranspiration Project

The Columbia River Basin Evapotranspiration Project is a multi-state collaboration to improve water management with easy access to satellite-based ET data and mapping tools.

Project Objectives

Inform water management in the Columbia River Basin using watershed scale summaries of evapotranspiration (ET) and irrigated lands data
Promote shared learning about OpenET data and uses across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and other states in the Columbia Basin
Refine OpenET functionality for water balance estimates and water management use applications (https://explore.etdata.org/)
Create Columbia River Basin Evapotranspiration Mapping Tool for easy access to watershed scale summaries

Potential Applications

Farmers can improve irrigation practices to maximize “crop per drop” and reduce costs for fertilizer, water, and energy.
Water managers can develop more accurate water budgets, incentive programs and other innovative strategies.
Rural communities can design locally driven water conservation and trading programs.
Policymakers can more accurately track water supplies and co-develop solutions with local communities.

Columbia River Basin Evapotranspiration Mapping Tool Functionality

Tool functionality will be determined from input offered by project partners and stakeholders. Functionality includes, but is not limited to:

Displaying consumptive use volumes from irrigated agriculture at HUC-12 watershed scales in the Columbia River Basin from the OpenET database.
Filter and query data layers, measure areas and distances, view metadata, download data, add external map services, upload local data, and create maps
Leverage data and mapping tool features available through the Oregon Explorer: www.oregonexplorer.info

Check out the Columbia River Basin Evapotranspiration Mapping Tool.