In the face of climate variability and its impact on global agricultural practices, the sustainable use of soil and water resources has become increasingly critical. The FAO WaPOR portal offers an extensive database of readily available data derived from remote sensing products, enabling the monitoring of agricultural water productivity worldwide.
While two online platforms currently provide access to these data, the retrieval process can be complex and time-consuming. To address this challenge, the WAPlugin, a QGIS plugin, has been developed to directly retrieve WaPOR data within QGIS. It offers an interactive interface that ensures access to all available data sets and allows simultaneous download of multiple rasters.
Additionally, as WaPOR data primarily relies on remote sensing products, it is essential to conduct data validation processes to ensure accuracy for further analysis and decision-making. WAPlugin incorporates a comprehensive built-in option for users to validate downloaded WaPOR data. This process involves comparing the WaPOR data with ground-based measurements provided by users, enabling the computation of various metrics that deepen the understanding of the agreement between WaPOR and ground data. The validation results can be exported in various formats for further processing.
Furthermore, users can compute various performance indicators, which serve as metrics for assessing and monitoring water and land productivity. WAPlugin offers a selection of built-in indicators that can be easily computed.
By automating the process of water and land productivity assessments using WaPOR data, WAPlugin allows users to focus on decision-making rather than data download and processing. This presentation will showcase the capabilities of WAPlugin and highlight its potential in facilitating informed decision-making in areas such as irrigation schemes, crop production, and water consumption.

The Food and Agriculture Organization's Water Productivity Portal (FAO WaPOR) is an open-access database offering a wide range of data derived from remote sensing products, supporting global assessments of water productivity in agriculture - an essential component of sustainable land and water resource management. WAPlugin, a QGIS plugin, enables users to retrieve and analyze WaPOR datasets directly within QGIS, improving accessibility and efficiency. Its robust validation feature, using ground-based data, ensures data accuracy, increasing the credibility of subsequent analyses. In addition, WAPlugin provides integrated productivity indicators for rapid assessment of water and land productivity trends, enabling informed decisions for sustainable agricultural practices. This workshop offers a unique opportunity to harness the full potential of FAO WaPOR datasets through the WAPlugin in QGIS. Participants can extract valuable insights and enhance assessments of agricultural water productivity.

Description

This workshop provides step-by-step instructions on using all the features in WAPlugin. We cover the following topics:

1. FAO WaPOR data download: Participants will learn how to navigate to the specific datasets they need and download raster time series over various spatial extents (canvas extent or clipped to a vector layer) using WAPlugin.
2. Data Validation: Attendees will learn a step-by-step approach on how to validate WaPOR data using ground-based data in the WAPlugin and visualize the computed results.
3. Indicator calculation: Participants will explore the different integrated water productivity indicators, how to select and calculate each one, and how to visualize the results, as well as an in-depth discussion of their interpretation and significance.

Requirements for the Attendees

● Basic knowledge of QGIS is required
● Account to access WaPOR data (WaPOR V2: wapor.apps.fao.org or WaPOR V3: data.apps.fao.org)
● Installation of WAPlugin is recommended (can be done also during the workshop)

During this workshop you'll learn how to use PCRaster for hydrological analysis and modelling through the QGIS PCRaster Tools plugin.

PCRaster is a powerful package of software for map algebra, dynamic and stochastic modelling. The main applications of PCRaster are found in environmental modelling, e.g. geography, hydrology, ecology. PCRaster has been around since 1995 and available as a free tool. Nowadays it is a robust open source Python package used by many modellers around the world. In September 2021 the PCRaster Tools plugin for QGIS was launched, a processing provider plugin that adds ~100 map algebra operators to the QGIS Processing Toolbox.

During the workshop you'll be introduced to PCRaster through the PCRaster Tools plugin. Next, we'll automate work flows using the QGIS graphical modeller, followed by developing processing scripts.

PCRaster is a powerful package of software for map algebra and environmental dynamic modelling. The main applications of PCRaster are found in environmental modelling. In the PCRaster package a rich suite of geomorphological and hydrological functions is available. These include functions for visibility analysis, catchment analysis and routing of transport (drainage) of material in a catchment using interactively generated local drain direction maps and transport (routing) operations. These operations are made available in the QGIS Processing Toolbox through the PCRaster Tools plugin. This presentation will show applications, the current state of the plugin and the plans for the future.