Abstract
The crop coefficient during the initial period sKc inid varies with wetting frequency, evaporative demand, and water-holding capacity of the upper soil layer. It is possible to develop a semitheoretical integrated function to predict the average Kc ini representing the initial period of a growing season when the soil is mostly bare and that incorporates these three factors. The function is based on a two-stage evaporation function as used in the Food and Agriculture Organization Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56 (FAO-56) dual crop coefficient method. Parameters in the integrated equation are soil based and can be calculated a priori without field measurements. The procedure can be used to produce graphical figures similar to that introduced in FAO-24 for Kc ini. Similar to FAO-24, the function utilizes the mean time between wetting events and reference evapotranspiration. In this paper, the development of the procedure and figures for Kc ini are described. Comparisons with measured evaporation and Kc ini in southern California indicate relatively good perfor- mance by the function without calibration.
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