Abstract
Reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) is an important component of the hydrological cycle that is used for water resource planning, irrigation, and agricultural management, as well as in other hydrological processes. The aim of this study was to estimate the ETo based on limited meteorological data using an artificial neural network (ANN) method. The daily data of minimum temperature (Tmin), maximum temperature (Tmax), mean temperature (Tmean), solar radiation (SR), humidity (H), wind speed (WS), sunshine hours (Ssh), maximum global radiation (gradmax), minimum global radiation (gradmin), day length, and ETo data were obtained over the long-term period from 1969 to 2019. The analysed data were divided into two parts from 1969 to 2007 and from 2008 to 2019 for model training and testing, respectively. The optimal ANN for forecasting ETo included Tmax, Tmin, H, and SR at hidden layers (4, 3); gradmin, SR, and WS at (6, 4); SR, day length, Ssh, and Tmean at (3, 2); all collected parameters at hidden layer (5, 4). The results showed different alternative methods for estimation of ETo in case of a lack of climate data with high performance. Models using ANN can help promote the decision-making for water managers, designers, and development planners.
Highlights
Increased water consumption due to rapid population growth has necessitated expanding food production through irrigation and industrial output to meet basic human needs [1]
The accurate determination of ETo is of great importance for water and water resources management, its estimation is a challenge
The experimental objectives of this study were achieved by estimating ETo based on limited meteorological data using an artificial neural network method for a particular area
Summary
Increased water consumption due to rapid population growth has necessitated expanding food production through irrigation and industrial output to meet basic human needs [1]. Evapotranspiration (ET) is a connection between the energy and water cycles, and climate is the primary source of water vapor in the atmosphere [4,5,6,7] It regulates the quantity of water needed for vegetation development, surface runoff, water loss from water bodies, and water requirements for ecological sustainability. As a result, it is one of the most important hydro-meteorological factors for irrigation and water resource management, as well as ecological monitoring [8,9,10,11]. Evapotranspiration is one of the most essential components of hydrological and climatological processes, accounting for roughly 70% of precipitation falling on land and consuming more than 50%
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