Martin Smith’s research while affiliated with Technical University of Lisbon and other places

Continued development of networks of electronic weather stations worldwide has increased the availability of weather data for calculating ETo on an hourly basis. There has been question and debate as well as studies on the appropriate expression and parameterization for the surface resistance (rs) parameter of the Penman-Monteith (PM) equation and the associated coefficient for the reduced form FAO-PM equation when applied hourly. This paper reviews the performance of the FAO-PM method using rs = 70 s m−1 for hourly periods and using a lower rs = 50 s m−1 value during daytime and rs = 200 s m−1 during nighttime. Variability in hour to hour trends in rs among locations and dates makes it difficult, if not impossible, to establish a consistent algorithm for rs. However, the relatively good and consistent accuracy in ETo when using a constant rs = 50 s m−1 during daytime gives good reason to recommend this value as a standardized parameter and coefficient for calculating ETo. Based on a national study in the U.S. and studies by European and American researchers, the authors recommend that the FAO-PM ETo method from FAO56, when applied on an hourly or shorter basis, use rs = 50 s m−1 for daytime and rs = 200 s m−1 for nighttime periods. This use will provide, on average, good agreement with computations made on a 24-h time step basis. No changes are suggested for the FAO-PM method for daily (24-h) time steps, where use of rs = 70 s m−1 should continue.

Crop coefficient curves provide simple, reproducible means to estimate crop evapotranspiration (ET) from weather-based reference ET values. The dual crop coefficient sKcd method of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United States (FAO) Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56 (FAO-56) is intended to improve daily simulation of crop ET by considering separately the contribution of evaporation from soil. The dual method utilizes "basal" crop coefficients representing ET from crops having a dry soil surface and separately predicts evaporation from bare soil based on a water balance of the soil surface layer. Three extensions to the evaporation calculation procedure are described here that are intended to improve accuracy when applications warrant the extra complexity. The first extension uses parallel water balances representing the portion of the soil surface wetted by irrigation and precipitation together and the portion wetted by precipitation alone. The second extension uses three "stages" for surface drying and provides for application to deep cracking soils. The third extension predicts the extraction of the transpiration component from the soil surface layer. Sensitivity and analyses and illustrations indicate moderate sensitivity of daily calculated ET to application of the extensions. The dual Kc procedure, although relatively simple computationally and structurally, estimates daily ET as measured by lysimeter relatively well for periods of bare soil and partial and full vegetation cover.

The crop coefficient during the initial period K c ini varies with wetting frequency, evaporative demand, and water-holding capacity of the upper soil layer. It is possible to develop a semitheoretical integrated function to predict the average K c ini representing the initial period of a growing season when the soil is mostly bare and that incorporates these three factors. The function is based on a two-stage evaporation function as used in the Food and Agriculture Organization Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56 (FAO-56) dual crop coefficient method. Parameters in the integrated equation are soil based and can be calculated a priori without field measurements. The procedure can be used to produce graphical figures similar to that introduced in FAO-24 for K c ini . Similar to FAO-24, the function utilizes the mean time between wetting events and reference evapotranspiration. In this paper, the development of the procedure and figures for K c ini are described. Comparisons with measured evaporation and K c ini in southern California indicate relatively good perfor-mance by the function without calibration.

In 1998, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56, a revision of the earlier and widely used Paper No. 24 for calculating evapotranspiration (ET) and crop water requirements. The revision uses a single method, the FAO Penman-Monteith equation, for calculating reference evapotranspiration (ETo). In addition to the "mean" crop coefficient (Kc) values of FAO-24, FAO-56 provides tables of "basal" crop coefficients that represent ET under conditions having a dry soil surface. Associated equations for predicting evaporation from bare soil associated with crop transpiration are based on a water balance of the soil surface layer. Comparisons of daily ET from three agricultural crops are made between lysimeter measured ET and the basal Kc method of FAO-56 and the time-based basal Kc procedure of Wright (1982). Standard errors of estimate and accuracies were similar between the two methods and averaged about 0.77 mm/day or 15%.