Technical Papers
May 31, 2020

Evaporation Losses and Evapotranspiration Dynamics in Overhead Sprinkler Irrigation

Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 8

Abstract

A comprehensive review of evaporation losses and evapotranspiration (ET) dynamics in sprinkler irrigation revealed substantial differences in the magnitudes of the different components of evaporation. Field studies reported that droplet evaporation losses ranged from 0.5%–45%, whereas theoretical studies indicated losses of less than 1%. A recent experimental study using advanced instruments and methodologies estimated that canopy evaporation is the major evaporation loss and droplet evaporation could be assumed to be negligible. Other studies showed that evaporation increased and transpiration decreased in evapotranspiration dynamics during wet canopy conditions. Sensible and latent heat fluxes in sprinkler irrigated crops act in opposite ways, but both positively contribute to the available energy and total ET.

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Data Availability Statement

All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.

Acknowledgments

We thank professor Nigel Hancock (University of Southern Queensland) and Dr. Amanda Warren-Smith (New South Wales Department of Primary Industries) for editing and making comments on draft manuscript. We greatly acknowledge the valuable remarks made by the reviewers.

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Go to Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 146Issue 8August 2020

History

Received: Aug 7, 2019
Accepted: Dec 20, 2019
Published online: May 31, 2020
Published in print: Aug 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Oct 31, 2020

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Authors

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Research Officer, New South Wales Dept. of Primary Industries, Trangie Agricultural Research Centre, 7878 Mitchell Hwy., Trangie, NSW 2823, Australia (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4230-1122. Email: [email protected]
S. R. Murphy
Senior Research Scientist, New South Wales Dept. of Primary Industries, Tamworth Agricultural Institute, 4 Marsden Park Rd., Calala, NSW 2340, Australia.

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