The Santa Clara Valley Water District (District) applied for and was awarded CalFedgrant funds to accurately measure the classified large landscape areas of urban parcelsand agricultural farmland within Santa Clara County. The project, which began in early2002, acquired multi-spectral images of Santa Clara County, performed image analysis(classification) to identify the area of 18 different classifications for each parcel (site) andprepared a database of these area measurements to support Landscape Water Budgets aswell as support the ITAP Landscape Survey and Agricultural Mobil Lab Programs.As described in the original grant application, the District is developing a database-backedwebsite (WebITAP) to deliver real-time Landscape Water Budget information toproperty and landscape managers via the web. WebITAP will utilize the areameasurements from this project to calculate the site-specific water budget. The District will routinely update each budget using evapotranspiration (ETo) data from the CaliforniaIrrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) so that the budgets reflect actual siteirrigation demands. Currently WebITAP is in the beta testing phase and will soon bereleased to the public.It is estimated these landscape water budgets will reduce water use for these sites by atleast 10% (or 5,000 acre-feet per year for the entire county). These savings estimates willbe verified through an extensive monitoring program, which will include the following:tracking of completed budgets;comparison of budgeted versus actual use (aggregate);tracking of number of sites that receive assistance; and, comparison of pre- and post-performance (water use relative to budgeted use). Includes tables, figures.
