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The SUD-MED project aims at monitoring water resources over Mediterranean regions. As part of the project, this paper presents a method we developed for estimating cereal water requirement. The method consists in driving the simple model developed by the FAO with remotely-sensed data. It was tested on an little area cultivated with wheat in the semi-arid Marrakech plain (Morocco). We use a time series of high spatial resolution images acquired by SPOT-4/HRVIR during the 2001/2002 agricultural season. The method outlines the spatiotemporal patterns of crop cycles. The associated maps of phenological variables and seasonal evapotranspiration appear consistent with regional rainfall and irrigation features. Perspectives of improvement are finally discussed.