Mapping irrigated surfaces and the crops growing on these surfaces by using Remote Sensing is a well known first relevant step to contribute to water governance at different scales ranging from farm, irrigation scheme and, by scaling-up, to the whole river basin. These maps provide a first estimation of the spatially distributed water flows about evapotranspiration and irrigation water requirements based on the cropping agronomic knowledge. During the last 20 years, annual maps of crops and irrigated surfaces elaborated by using time series of multispectral satellite imagery have been in the basis of a successful water management of a big groundwater body placed in the Southern Spain. Threatened by over-exploitation, this aquifer extends over around 10,000 km 2 of land surface, in the middle Júcar river basin, supporting around 100,000 ha of irrigated crops, and providing drinking water for 150,000 inhabitants, with competing uses from downstream users. This paper describes the main learned lessons. In addition, the paper tackles a necessary further step in the context of the current requirements for water governance of this aquifer: the direct remote sensing-based water accounting, by quantifying agricultural water flows (e.g. rainfall, irrigation, evapotranspiration, drainage and recharge, at practical spatial and temporal scales for water governance purposes). This RS-based WA approach relies on dense time series of multispectral imagery acquired by the multisensor constellation formed by Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2, jointly with meteorological data. By this, we discuss the technical and non-technical feasibility to rely monitoring water abstraction on this RS-based WA approach, providing the basis for a hybrid system.

The Water Framework Directive in Europe requires extending metering and water abstraction controls to accurately satisfy the necessary water resource requirements. However, in situ measurement instruments are inappropriate for large irrigation surface areas, considering the high investment and maintenance service costs. In this study, Remote Sensing-based Irrigation Water Accounting (RS-IWA) (previously evaluated for commercial plots, water user associations, and groundwater water management scales) was applied to over 11 Spanish river basin districts during the period of 2014–2018. Using the FAO56 methodology and incorporating remote sensing basal crop coefficient time series to simulate the Remote Sensing-based Soil Water Balance (RS-SWB), we were able to provide spatially and temporally distributed net irrigation requirements. The results were evaluated against the irrigation water demands estimated by the Hydrological Planning Offices and published in the River Basin Management Plans applying the same spatial (Agricultural Demand Units and Exploitation Systems) and temporal (annual and monthly) water management scales used by these public water managers, ultimately returning ranges of agreement (r2 and dr) (Willmott refined index) of 0.79 and 0.99, respectively. Thus, this paper presents an operational tool for providing updated spatio-temporal maps of RS-IWA over large and diverse irrigation surface areas, which is ready to serve as a complementary irrigation water monitoring and management tool.

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Background: The aim of our study is to evaluate the prevalence and predictive factors of short- (30 d) and mid-term continence in a contemporary cohort of patients treated with robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) without any posterior or anterior reconstruction at our referral academic center. Methods: Data from patients undergoing RALP between January 2017 and March 2021 were prospectively collected. RALP was performed by three highly experienced surgeons following the principles of the Montsouris technique, with a bladder-neck-sparing intent and maximal preservation of the membranous urethra (if oncologically safe) without any anterior/posterior reconstruction. (Self-assessed urinary incontinence (UI) was defined as the need of one or more pads per die (excluding the need for a safety pad/die. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to assess the independent predictors of early incontinence among routinely collected patient- and tumor-related variables). Results: A total of 925 patients were included; of these, 353 underwent RALP (38.2%) without nerve-sparing intent. The median patient age and BMI were 68 years (IQR 63–72) and 26 (IQR 24.0–28.0), respectively. Overall, 159 patients (17.2%) reported early (30 d) incontinence. In multivariable analysis adjusting for patient- and tumor-related features, a non-nerve-sparing procedure (OR: 1.57 [95% CI: 1.03–2.59], p = 0.035) was independently associated with the risk of urinary incontinence in the short-term period, while the absence of cardiovascular diseases before surgery (OR: 0.46 [95% CI: 0.320.67], p ≤ 0.01) was a protective factor for this outcome. At a median follow-up of 17 months (IQR 10–24), 94.5% of patients reported to be continent. Conclusions: In experienced hands, most patients fully recover urinary continence after RALP at mid-term follow-up. On the contrary, the proportion of patients who reported early incontinence in our series was modest but not negligible. The implementation of surgical techniques advocating anterior and/or posterior fascial reconstruction might improve the early continence rate in candidates for RALP.

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