Mapping 20 years of irrigated croplands in China using MODIS and statistics and existing irrigation products

As a routine agricultural practice, irrigation is fundamental to protect crops from water scarcity and ensure food security in China. However, consistent and reliable maps about the spatial distribution and extent of irrigated croplands are still unavailable, impeding water resource management and agricultural planning. Here, we produced annual 500-m irrigated cropland maps across China for 2000–2019, using a two-step strategy that integrated statistics, remote sensing, and existing irrigation products into a hybrid irrigation dataset. First, we generated intermediate irrigation maps (MIrAD-GI) by fusing the MODIS-derived greenness index and statistical data. Second, we collected all existing available irrigation maps over China and integrated them with MIrAD-GI into an improved series of annual irrigation maps, using constrained statistics and a synergy mapping method. The resultant maps had moderate overall accuracies (0.732~0.819) based on nationwide reference ground samples and outperformed existing irrigation products by inter-comparison. As the first of this kind in China, the annual maps delineated the spatiotemporal pattern of irrigated croplands and could contribute to sustainable water use and agricultural development.