Objectives of the service
CottonWISE addresses the growing challenge of water scarcity in cotton production by enabling objective and scalable monitoring of agricultural water use. Cotton is widely cultivated in water-stressed regions, yet water use remains weakly quantified in sustainability certification and reporting frameworks.
The service delivers Earth Observation–based water intelligence to support sustainable cotton production. It quantifies water consumption and water productivity, distinguishes irrigation from rainfall contributions, and enables transparent reporting at field, farm, and regional scales.
The activity focuses on assessing the technical, economic, and stakeholder feasibility of integrating satellite-based water indicators into existing cotton sustainability practices. Through close engagement with industry bodies, certification organisations and retailers, CottonWISE aligns monitoring outputs with real operational and reporting needs.
The study assess the implementation of a modular monitoring framework, validates its performance through a Proof-of-Concept study, and defines a roadmap toward an operational service supporting sustainable water stewardship in global cotton supply chains.
Users and their needs
CottonWISE targets established stakeholders across the cotton value chain who play a key role in sustainability governance and implementation.
User groups and needs:
-
Industry bodies: need scalable and objective water-use indicators to replace costly manual benchmarking and support sector-wide reporting.
-
Certification bodies (global): require independent and verifiable water metrics to strengthen sustainability standards and third-party audits.
-
Retailers and brands (global): need transparent and credible water-use information to support responsible sourcing and sustainability commitments.
-
Large producers and cooperatives (Australia and selected regions): require practical insights to improve irrigation efficiency and demonstrate compliance.
Key challenges addressed:
-
Lack of quantified water-use metrics
-
Reliance on self-reported or qualitative data
-
High cost and limited scalability of ground-based monitoring
-
Diverse production systems and regulatory contexts
Service/ system concept
Image: Visualisation of the Three-Tier modular approach with Tier 1 showing pixel level monitoring, Tier 2 showing field level monitoring including hydrological modelling, and Tier 3 showing the most detailed variant which includes in-situ data.
CottonWISE provides satellite-based information on water use and water productivity in cotton cultivation. The service delivers indicators such as crop water consumption, irrigation contribution and productivity per unit of water.
The system operates through a three-tier modular approach. At its core, satellite imagery is used to monitor vegetation growth and evapotranspiration. Hydrological modelling adds context on soil moisture and rainfall, while optional in-situ data improves accuracy where available.
This modular design allows the service to operate in both data-rich and data-scarce regions. Information is processed through a cloud-based platform and delivered via reporting tools or application programming interfaces that integrate with existing certification and management systems.
Users gain access to consistent and comparable water-use insights, supporting irrigation decisions, sustainability verification and benchmarking without requiring extensive field instrumentation.
Space Added Value
CottonWISE relies on Earth Observation data to enable water-use monitoring at scales that are not achievable with conventional methods. Satellite imagery provides consistent, repeatable and objective measurements across large and remote agricultural areas.
The use of multisource satellite data enables continuous assessment of crop water consumption, independent of farm self-reporting. This approach reduces costs, increases coverage and supports transparent verification across diverse production systems.
By combining satellite-derived evapotranspiration, vegetation indicators and meteorological data, CottonWISE distinguishes irrigation water use from natural rainfall contributions. This capability is essential for sustainability certification and regulatory reporting, where accurate water accounting is required.
Compared to ground-based monitoring alone, Earth Observation delivers scalable, harmonised and historical insights that support benchmarking, compliance assessment and long-term sustainability tracking across the cotton sector.
Current Status
The project is ongoing. Stakeholder engagement has been initiated with key actors from the cotton value chain, including industry bodies, certification organisations and retailers. Initial use cases and user needs have been consolidated based on structured consultations.
System and service concepts are being defined, building on existing Earth Observation processing capabilities. Technical preparation for the proof-of-concept pilot in Australia is underway, using existing sector data and partnerships.
Economic and non-economic viability assessments are progressing in parallel, focusing on adoption pathways, pricing models and integration with sustainability frameworks. Upcoming activities include validation of core indicators in the pilot area and refinement of service specifications.
Prime Contractor(s)
