Case Study on the Accuracy and Cost/Effectiveness in Simulating Reference Evapotranspiration in West-Central Florida
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYThis article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 15, Issue 9
Abstract
The objective of this study was to conduct an accuracy and cost/effectiveness analysis of various reference evapotranspiration estimation equations that rely solely upon the collection of meteorological data. A meteorological station was established in an open grassland near Ft. Meade, Florida. The ASCE Penman-Montieth (PM) equation (full ASCE-PM equation) was set as the standard to which nine variants of five equations were compared. The number of parameters that had to be measured for each equation ranged from five (full ASCE-PM equation) to one (Hargreaves equation). was calculated on daily time steps. A variant of the ASCE-PM equation with solar radiation, wind speed, relative humidity, and temperature measured and the Simple equation with only solar radiation measured were most accurate and cost/effective. The most accurate and cost/effective alternative equations were those in which some of the less-important energy and mass-transfer terms were omitted and/or calculated from less-expensive instrumentation. The Simple equation instrumentation required only 33% of the cost of the full ASCE-PM, while only reducing the effectiveness by . With the Simple equation’s minimal data requirements and superior accuracy and cost/effectiveness, the Simple equation could be a viable tool for the estimation of in situations where funding is limited.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This project was funded by the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research (Project No. 03-03-150s). The Mosaic Company provided access to the Clay Storage Area (CSA) and emergency support while field work was conducted on the CSA. Mark Ross, Mark Stewart, Ken Trout, Jon Spencer, and Ken Nilsson provided guidance and field support.
References
Abtew, W. (1996). “Evapotranspiration measurements and modeling for three wetland systems in South Florida.” Water Resour. Bull., 32, 465–473.
Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M. (1998). “Crop evapotranspiration: Guidelines for computing crop water requirements.” FAO irrigation and drainage paper 56, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
Allen, R. G., Smith, M., Perrier, A., and Pereira, L. S. (1994a). “An update for the definition of reference evapotranspiration.” ICID Bull., 43, 1–34.
Allen, R. G., Smith, M., Perrier, A., and Pereira, L. S. (1994b). “An update for the calculation of reference evapotranspiration.” ICID Bull., 43, 35–92.
The ASCE standardized reference evapotranspiration equation. (2005). R. G. Allen, I. A. Walter, R. L. Elliott, T. A. Howell, D. Itenfisu, M. E. Jensen, and R. L. Snyder, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va.
Bidlake, W. R., Woodham, W. M., and Lopez, M. A. (1996). “Evapotranspiration from areas of native vegetation in West-Central Florida.” 2430, U.S. Geological Survey water-supply paper 2430, U.S. GPO, Washington, D.C.
Campbell Scientific, Inc. (2003). Instruction manual: HFT3 soil heat flux plate. Revision: 10/03, Campbell Scientific, Inc., Logan, Utah.
Fritschen, L. J. (1967). “Net and solar radiation relations over irrigated field crops.” Agric. Meteorol., 4, 55–62.
“Guidelines for prediction of crop water requirements.” (1977). FAO irrigation and drainage paper no. 24, J. Doorenbos and W. O. Pruitt, eds., Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
Hargreaves, G. H. (1994). “Defining and using reference evapotranspiration.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 120, 1132–1139.
Hargreaves, G. H., and Allen, R. G. (2003). “History and evaluation of Hargreaves evapotranspiration equation.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 129, 53–63.
Hargreaves, G. H., and Samani, Z. A. (1982). “Estimating potential evapotranspiration.” J. Irrig. and Drain. Div., 108, 225–230.
Hargreaves, G. H., and Samani, Z. A. (1985). “Reference crop evapotranspiration from temperature.” Appl. Eng. Agric., 1, 96–99.
Irmak, S., and Haman, D. Z. (2003). “Evapotranspiration: Potential or reference?” ABE 343, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Dept., Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
Jacobs, J. M., and Satti, S. R. (2001). “Evaluation of reference evapotranspiration methodologies and AFSIRS crop water use simulations.” Publication number SJ2001-SP8, St. Johns River Water Management District, Palatka, Fla.
Jensen, M. E., Burman, R. D., and Allen, R. G. (1990). “Evapotranspiration and irrigation requirements.” ASCE manuals and reports on engineering practice no. 70, ASCE, Reston, Va.
Lee, T. M., and Swancar, A. (1997). “Influence of evaporation, ground water, and uncertainty in the hydrologic budget of Lake Lucerne, a seepage lake in Polk County, Florida.” U.S. Geological Survey water-supply paper 2439, U.S. GPO, Washington, D.C.
Monteith, J. L. (1965). “Evaporation and environment.” Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol., 19, 205–234.
Murphy, K. E., Rains, M. C., Kittridge, M. G., Stewart, M., and Ross, M. A. (2008). “Hydrological connectivity between clay settling areas and surrounding hydrological landscapes in the phosphate mining district, peninsular Florida, USA.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 44, 980–995.
Penman, H. L. (1948). “Natural evaporation from open water, bare soil, and grass.” Proc. R. Soc. London, 193, 120–145.
Priestley, C. H. B., and Taylor, R. J. (1972). “On the assessment of surface heat flux and evaporation using large-scale parameters.” Mon. Weather Rev., 100, 81–92.
Sacks, L. A., Lee, T. M., and Radell, M. J. (1994). “Comparison of energy-budget evaporation losses from two morphometrically different Florida seepage lakes.” J. Hydrol., 156, 311–334.
Sumner, D. M., and Belaineh, G. (2005). “Evaporation, precipitation, and associated salinity changes at a humid, subtropical estuary.” Estuaries, 28, 844–855.
Sumner, D. M., and Jacobs, J. M. (2005). “Utility of Penman-Monteith, Priestley-Taylor, reference evapotranspiration, and Pan evaporation methods to estimate pasture evapotranspiration.” J. Hydrol., 308, 81–104.
Swancar, A., Lee, T. M., and O’Hare, T. M. (2000). “Hydrogeologic setting, water budget, and preliminary analysis of ground-water exchange at Lake Starr, a seepage lake in Polk County, Florida.” U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Rep. 00-4030, U.S. GPO, Washington, D.C.
Trenberth, K. E., Smith, L., Qian, T., Dai, A., and Fasullo, J. (2007). “Estimates of the global water budget and its annual cycle using observational and model data.” J Hydrometeorol., 8, 758–769.
Ventura, F., Spano, D., Duce, P., and Snyder, R. L. (1999). “An evaluation of common evapotranspiration equations.” Irrig. Sci., 18, 163–170.
Winter, T. C., and Rosenberry, D. O. (1995). “Evaluation of 11 equations for determining evaporation for a small lake in the north central United States.” Water Resour. Res., 31, 983–993.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 15 • Issue 9 • September 2010
Pages: 696 - 703
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: May 7, 2009
Accepted: Feb 27, 2010
Published online: Mar 16, 2010
Published in print: Sep 2010
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.