How much water is used for irrigation? A new approach exploiting coarse resolution satellite soil moisture products

Knowledge of irrigation is essential for ensuring food and water security, and to cope with the scarcity of water resources, which is expected to exacerbate under the pressure of climate change and population increase. Even though irrigation is likely the most important direct human intervention in the hydrological cycle, we have only partial knowledge on the areas of our planet in which irrigation takes place, and almost no information on the amount of water that is applied for irrigation.