Evaluation of Variable-Infiltration Capacity Model and MODIS-Terra Satellite-Derived Grid-Scale Evapotranspiration Estimates in a River Basin with Tropical Monsoon-Type Climatology
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 8
Abstract
With the limited availability of meteorological variables in many remote areas, estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) at different spatiotemporal scales for efficient irrigation water management and hydrometeorological studies is becoming a challenging task. Hence, in this study, indirect ET estimation methods, such as moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite-based remote-sensing techniques and the water-budget approach built into the semidistributed variable infiltration capacity (VIC-3L) land-surface model are evaluated using the Penman-Monteith (PM) equation approach suggested in the literature together with a crop coefficient approach. To answer the research question of whether regional or local controls of a river basin with tropical monsoon-type climatology affect the accuracy of the VIC and MODIS-based ET estimates, these methodologies are applied in the Kangsabati River Basin in eastern India at resolutions attributed with dominant paddy land uses. The results reveal that the VIC-estimated ET values are reasonably matched with the PM-based ET estimates with the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of 54.14–71.94%; however, the corresponding MODIS-ET values are highly underestimated with a periodic shift that may be attributed to the cloud cover and leaf shadowing effects. To enhance the field applicability of the satellite-based MODIS-ET products, these estimates are standardized by using a genetic-algorithm-based transformation that improves the NSE from to 99.57%. Hence, this study reveals that there is the need of a regional-scale standardization of the MODIS-ET products using the PM or lysimeter data or possible modification of the MOD16A2 algorithm built-into the MODIS for generalization. Conversely, the satisfactory grid-scale ET estimates by the VIC model show that this model could be reliably used for the world’s river basins; however, at smaller temporal scales, the estimates could be slightly inconsistent.
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Acknowledgments
This work is supported by Information Technology Research Academy (ITRA), Government of India under ITRA-Water Grant ITRA/15(69)/WATER/M2M/01.
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Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 8 • August 2017
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©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Oct 7, 2016
Accepted: Feb 8, 2017
Published online: May 30, 2017
Published in print: Aug 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Oct 30, 2017
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