Use of Alternative Temperature Expressions with Blaney-Criddle
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 9
Abstract
The widely used Penman-Monteith equation to estimate crop evapotranspiration (ET) has limited utility in many areas of the world because of its requirement for full meteorological data. Legal and engineering water agencies commonly use the original Blaney-Criddle method in their efforts to manage competing water demands in mountain basins, both for its longtime familiarity and minimal data requirements. The original Blaney-Criddle equation predicts crop ET based solely on readily available mean monthly air temperature, , and percentage of daylight hours. However, in semiarid, high-elevation environments, Blaney-Criddle underestimates crop ET. Subsequent modifications have not fully corrected this underestimation. Low nighttime temperatures at high elevations incorrectly weight the estimate, resulting in significant variation between computed crop ET and lysimeter measurements. Our objective was to evaluate three modifications of the Blaney-Criddle temperature expression against the original equation with mean , and another temperature method, Hargreaves, using lysimeter measurements from nine irrigated grass meadow sites in the upper Gunnison River basin of Colorado (1999–2003). Two of the modified temperature expressions resulted in improved correlation of Blaney-Criddle estimated crop ET with lysimeter ET. Similar improvements were observed when estimating with Hargreaves, which incorporates an additional term, , the difference between maximum and minimum daily temperature. Correlations of solar radiation (, the primary energy input to ET) with alternative temperature expressions and were improved over correlations of with mean , supporting the improved prediction performance of alternative temperature expressions. These modifications to the original Blaney-Criddle can be applied successfully throughout Colorado mountain basins and may be globally applicable to high-elevation areas.
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Acknowledgments
This research was partly funded by the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District and the Colorado State University Agricultural Experiment Station. The writers express their appreciation to Don Rill, Molly Blankinship, Mike Green, James Brummer, and Robert Finck, technicians at the Mountain Meadow Research Center, Gunnison, Colorado, for lysimeter maintenance and data collection. Cooperating Gunnison Valley landowners Ken Spann, Bill Trampe, Harry Miller, Stan Irby, Gary Hausler, and Dave McClain granted access to meadows for lysimeter installations.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 9 • September 2011
Pages: 573 - 584
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 13, 2010
Accepted: Jan 26, 2011
Published online: Jan 28, 2011
Published in print: Sep 1, 2011
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