Surface temperature adjustment in METRIC model for monitoring crop water consumption in North China Plain

Abstract

Evapotranspiration is the real water consumption element in agricultural water management. In order to improve the efficiency of agricultural water use and maintain the sustainable development of agriculture, more and more attention has been paid to the improvement of monitoring and management of farmland evapotranspiration. In this study, MODIS data and the Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) were used in the METRIC model to estimate evapotranspiration for winter wheat and summer corn in the North China Plain. In order to decrease the error caused by the spatial heterogeneity of air temperature in the estimation of evapotranspiration, based on the characteristics of cold pixels with surface temperatures close to their air temperature, the TVDI was used to assist the selection of cold pixels and obtain the spatial variation trend of air temperature with latitude from all cold pixels in the study area. The influence of the spatial heterogeneity of air temperature on the surface temperature at the time of the satellite overpass was corrected accordingly, thereby the estimation accuracy of evapotranspiration was improved. A METRIC-TVDI model was established and the evapotranspiration of winter wheat and summer corn in Hebei Plain was estimated from 2017 to 2019. The average evapotranspiration of the winter wheat over these three years were 361 mm, 327 mm and 354 mm respectively, and that of summer corn were 394 mm, 388 mm and 405 mm respectively. Based on the farmland water balance, the irrigation water consumption (evapotranspiration minus precipitation) of winter wheat and summer corn rotation were 324 mm, 134 mm and 360 mm respectively. This kind of crop rotation pattern consumed more groundwater for irrigation, especially the winter wheat. In order to realize the balance of groundwater between exploitation and replenishment in Hebei Plain, more water-saving irrigation technologies should be adopted to reduce the evapotranspiration and improving water use efficiency.