Developing Corn Regional Crop Coefficients Using a Satellite-Based Energy Balance Model (ReSET-Raster) in the South Platte River Basin of Colorado
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 10
Abstract
Improved irrigation management depends on accurate irrigation scheduling that should be based on estimates of daily crop water requirements. Traditional methods for estimating daily crop water requirements use a generic crop coefficient () that is based on point measurement and is developed for crops growing under optimal conditions that do not reflect actual growing conditions in regular fields. Therefore, daily water requirements based on these coefficients are not always accurate, require using stress coefficients, and obtaining crop coefficients under actual growing condition using traditional point measurement approaches, such as lysimeters or soil moisture monitoring, is impractical. Surface energy balance models can be used to directly estimate actual evapotranspiration (ET) in many fields, and these estimates can be used to develop regional crop coefficients that reflect the actual growing conditions. The objective of this study is to develop regional remote sensing–based corn s for the South Platte River basin in Colorado. The ReSET-Raster surface energy balance model is used to estimate the actual ET for irrigated grain corn in the South Platte River basin of Colorado. The study covered five growing seasons (2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007) and a total of 104 Landsat 5 and 7 images were used. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) computed from Landsat reflectance bands was used to separate the fields into two sets based on the crop planting date: (1) on-time planting, and (2) late planting. For each of these two sets of fields, a curve was developed using remote sensing data, and a third curve was developed using all fields. Growers can select the curve to use based on their knowledge of their planting date. The three sets of crop coefficients were compared to traditional curves. The differences between the comparison curves and the remote sensing–based highlight the importance of developing regional and planting date–based crop curves using crops under actual growing conditions.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
AgriMet. (2006). “AgriMet Crop Coefficients.” U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Region, 〈http://www.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet/cropcurves/crop_curves.html〉 (Apr. 19, 2006).
Allen, R. G., et al. (2007a). “Satellite-based energy balance for mapping evapotranspiration with internalized calibration (METRIC)–Applications.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 133(4), 395–406.
Allen, R. G., Pereira, L. S., Raes, D., and Smith, M. (1998). “Crop evapotranspiration.”, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
Allen, R. G., Tasumi, M., and Trezza, R. (2007b). “Satellite-based energy balance for mapping evapotranspiration with internalized calibration (METRIC)–Model.” J. Irrigat. Drain. Eng., 133(4), 380–394.
Allen, R. G., and Wright, J. L. (2002). “Conversion of Wright (1981) and Wright (1982) alfalfa-based crop coefficients for use with the ASCE standardized Penman-Monteith reference evapotranspiration equation.” Technical note, USDA-ARS, Kimberly, ID.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M. (2000). “SEBAL based sensible and latent heat fluxes in the irrigated Gedez Basin, Turkey.” J. Hydrol., 229(1–2), 87–100.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., et al. (1998a). “Remote sensing surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL): Part 1. Formulation.” J. Hydrol., 212–213, 198–212.
Bastiaanssen, W. G. M., Menenti, M., Feddes, R. A., Holtslag, A. A. M. (1998b). “Remote sensing surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL): 2. Validation.” J. Hydrol., 212–213, 213–229.
Doorenbos, J., and Pruitt, W. O. (1977). “Crop water requirements.”, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
Elhaddad, A., and Garcia, L. A. (2008). “Surface energy balance-based model for estimating evapotranspiration taking into account spatial variability in weather.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 134(6), 681–689.
Elhaddad, A., and Garcia, L. A. (2011). “Surface energy balance model for calculating evapotranspiration using a raster approach.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 137(4), 203–210.
Elhaddad, A., Garcia, L. A., and Chavez, J. L. (2011). “Using a surface energy balance model to calculate spatially distributed actual evapotranspiration.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 137(1), 17–26.
Hatfield, J., and Prueger, J. (2010). “Value of using different vegetative indices to quantify agricultural crop characteristics at different growth stages under varying management practices.” Rem. Sens., 2(2), 562–578.
Kustas, W. P., and Norman, J. M. (1996). “Use of remote sensing for evapotranspiration monitoring over land surfaces.” Hydrolog. Sci. J., 41(4), 495–516.
Nagler, P. L., Scott, R. L., Westenburg, C., Cleverly, J. R., Glenn, E. P., and Huete, A. R. (2005). “Evapotranspiration on western U.S. rivers estimated using the enhanced vegetation index from MODIS and data from eddy covariance and Bowen ratio flux towers.” Remote Sens. Environ., 97(3), 337–351.
Nishida, K., Nemani, R. R., Glassy, J. M., and Running, S. W. (2003). “Development of an evapotranspiration index from Aqua/MODIS for monitoring surface moisture status.” IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 41(2), 493–501.
Tasumi, M., and Allen, R. G. (2007). “Satellite-based ET mapping to assess variation in ET with timing of crop development.” Agricult. Water Manag., 88(1–3), 54–62.
Tasumi, M., Allen, R. G., Trezza, R., and Wright, J. L. (2005). “Satellite-based energy balance to assess within-population variance of crop coefficient curves.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 131(1), 94–109.
Timmermans, W. J., Gieske, A. S. M., Kustas, W. P., Wolski, P., Arneth, A., and Parodi, G. N. (2004). “Determination of water and heat fluxes with MODIS imagery: Maun, Botswana.” Proc., SPIE Conf. 10th Int. Remote Sensing Meeting: Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology, V. M. Owe, G. D’Urso, J. F. Moreno, and A. Calera, eds., SPIE, Bellingham, WA, 444–455.
Wright, J. L. (1981). Crop coefficients for estimates of daily crop evapotranspiration. Irrigation scheduling for water and energy conservation in the 80s, ASAE, St. Joseph, MI, 18–26.
Wright, J. L. (1982). “New evapotranspiration crop coefficients.” J. Irrig. Drain. Eng., 108(1), 57–74.
Wright, J. L. (1995). “Calibrating an ET procedure and deriving ET crop coefficients.” Proc., Seminar on Evapotranspiration and Irrigation Efficiency, American Consulting Engineers Council of Colorado and Colorado Division of Water Resources, Arvada, CO.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 1, 2011
Accepted: Mar 23, 2013
Published online: Apr 1, 2013
Discussion open until: Sep 1, 2013
Published in print: Oct 1, 2013
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.