PISA-CA — Welcome

Proactive Irrigation Scheduler for Almond Orchards, California

⚠ Research Tool — Use at Your Own Risk

PISA-CA is an academic research project in active development at UC Davis. It provides estimates based on satellite remote sensing and scientific models. Results are not certified irrigation recommendations and may differ from conditions in your specific field.

By using this tool you accept full responsibility for any irrigation decisions made. For questions, or to participate in the research project, contact:
Prof. Maciej Zwieniecki · UC Davis Plant Sciences
mzwienie@ucdavis.edu

How to use PISA-CA

  1. Click your orchard on the map. A marker will appear at that location.
  2. Click "Get Water Budget." The tool downloads satellite data for your location — rainfall, evaporation demand, canopy size (NDVI), and soil water-holding capacity.
  3. Set your irrigation season using the sliders (e.g. May – October). The tool calculates how much water your trees need each month.
  4. Review Winter Irrigation. The tool recommends how much to apply before the season to fill the soil. Adjust if you applied more or less.
  5. Starting mid-season? If you begin in May or later, sliders appear for each earlier month — enter how much you actually irrigated (if anything) in those months. Rainfall data for those months is fetched automatically.
  6. Read the chart. The green line is soil water. Dark blue bars are scheduled irrigation. Orange bars mean water wasted — reduce irrigation that month. Red in the soil line means your trees are stressed.
  7. Adjust sliders to explore what-if scenarios — the chart updates instantly.

Data: Google Earth Engine · TerraClimate (ET₀) · gridMET (rainfall) · Sentinel-2 (NDVI) · OpenLandMap (soil)

PISA-CA | Proactive Irrigation Scheduler for Almond Orchards, California

Or Sperling (ARO-Volcani)  ·  Maciej Zwieniecki, Zac Ellis (UC Davis)  ·  Niccolò Tricerri (UNITO-IUSS Pavia)

📍 Click your orchard on the map, then click Get Water Budget
i
Click your field on the map to get started …