Study of the water saving potential of an irrigation area based on a remote sensing evapotranspiration model

To estimate the water saving potential of an irrigation area and create a scientific water saving plan, the irrigation water use efficiency and water productivity of the Hulanhe irrigation area for 2007–2014 were calculated, and the water saving potentials of different water saving plans were determined from the perspectives of engineering and crop water saving. The results showed that the evapotranspiration calculated from the surface energy balance algorithm for land model (SEBAL) agreed well with the measured results. The irrigation water use efficiency in the Hulanhe irrigation area was positively correlated with precipitation of irrigated land and was negatively correlated with the net irrigation water volume. The engineering water saving potential ranges for periods of 5, 8, 11, and 15 years were (1.702 × 108, 5.103 × 108) m3, (1.783 × 108, 5.184 × 108) m3, (1.865 × 108, 5.266 × 108) m3, and (2.301 × 108, 5.702 × 108) m3, respectively, and the water saving potential increased year over year. Low amounts of precipitation of irrigated land corresponded with small amounts of net irrigation water and greater water saving potential. Based on the cumulative frequency of the water productivity calculated for the Hulanhe irrigation area from 2007 to 2014, the target water productivity for short (50% of the multi-year average cumulative water productivity) and long (70% of the multi-year average cumulative water productivity) terms were 1.03 kg/m3 and 1.22 kg/m3, respectively, and the cumulative crop water saving potentials for short and long terms were 1.18 × 108 and 2.74 × 108 m3, respectively. These results provided a theoretical reference for creating water saving plans for irrigation areas.