JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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Prediction of watershed responses and simulation of runoff rate and volume are required for design purposes in most water resources projects. For this purpose, different hydrologic methods and events based on continuous hydrologic mathematical models are applied. In this research, a continuous hydrologic model, Stanford Watershed Model-IV (SWM-IV) is used for simulation of annual and monthly volumes and mean daily runoff flow produced in Roodzard representative basin with an area of 896 km2 located in southwest of Iran. The accuracy of the simulation outputs were checked using the sensitivity analysis over reasonable ranges of input sata related to Roodzard watershed. Calibration and verification of the Stanford model were performed using the data of 1976-1977 and those of the four consecutive years (1978- 1981). The output of the SWM-IV model showed that the values of annual and monthly runoff, groundwater, and monthly interflow can be simulated in close agreement and acceptable precision corresponding to the observed data. The model is also capable of combining the hydrologic components of the basin to determine the dominant flow of the study watershed. Actual evapotranspiration and annual runoff coefficients, are two other parameters that have been estimated successfully by the model. However, the coefficient of determination (R²) for the observed and predicted daily flow values ranged from 0.44 to 0.81 for the available data. Therefore, application of the model is recommended for predicting the hydrologic responses of various sizes of watershed in Iran.

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Limitation of suitable water resources is the most important problem of agriculture in Iran. Considering the condition of shallow and saline groundwater in many parts of Iran, and relative resistance of safflower to salinity, it is necessary to study the contribution of groundwater to water consumption of safflower. In this research, the effects of different water table depths and salinity of groundwater on contribution of groundwater to evapotranspiration of safflower were studied. The treatments were four levels of water table depth (50, 70, 90, and 120 cm), two levels of groundwater salinity (EC of 0.6, and 10 dSm^-1 ), and two irrigation regimes (irrigation with a depth of water equal to 75 percent of evaporation from water surface and frequency of 5 days, and no irrigation). The experiment was performed in a randomized complete block design with treatment combinations arranged in factorial manner and three replications. For fixing the water table in the pots (PVC pipe 200 mm in diameter and 120 cm high), a special equipment was built on the principle of Marriot bottle that was able to measure the contribution of groundwater to evapotranspiration of the plants. Results showed that salinity of groundwater, irrigation regime, and their interactions have significant effects on evapotranspiration of safflower. In addition, effects of water table depth, salinity of groundwater, irrigation regime, interaction of salinity and water table depth, interaction of water table depth and irrigation regime, and interaction of water table depth, salinity, and irrigation regime on evaporation from soil surface were significant. The ratio of contribution of groundwater to plant water consumption and evapotranspiration was in the range of 52.5 and 54.9% for saline groundwater and 81.7 to 82.7% for fresh groundwater. The ratio of evaporation from soil surface and evapotranspiration was in the range of 4.5 to 53.6% for different treatments. In all treatments of groundwater depths, irrigation treatment significantly decreased evapotranspiration, but no significant change in evapotranspiration was observed in irrigated and no irrigated treatments. Maximum amount of evapotranspiration (251 cm) occurred in the 50 cm depth of groundwater with salinity of 0.6 dS/m under irrigated condition, and minimum amount (43.9 cm) occurred in the 90 cm depth to groundwater with salinity of 10 dS/m under no irrigation condition. Generally, salinity of groundwater caused significant decrease in evapotranspiration, evaporation from soil surface, transpiration, and contribution of groundwater to evapotranspiration.

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Optimal crop water requirement is needed for precise irrigation scheduling. Prediction of crop water requirements is a basic factor to achieve this goal. In this study, maize potential evapotranspiration (ET_p) was prediced by maize simulation model (MSM). Then, it was evaluated and validated using experimental field data obtained in Agricultural Research Station of Shiraz University (Bajghah, Fars province) during 2003 and 2004. Comparison of measured volumetric soil water content with predicted values by MSM model in 2003 and 2004 indicated that this subroutine (prediction of maize evapotranspiration) did not need modification. Also, daily potential evapotranspiration of maize was estimated by using Penman-Monteith equation considering single and dual crop coefficients. Comparison between the results of predicted ET_p by MSM model, calculated ET_p by Penman-Monteith, and measured irrigation water and soil water content indicated that the prediction of ET_p by MSM model was satisfactory. Model prediction of seasonal ET_p, potential transpiration (T_p) and soil evaporation (E) were 831, 536 and 329 mm, respectively, in 2003, and 832, 518 and 314 mm, respectively, in 2004. The values of ET_p, T_p and E calculated by Penman-Monteith method using dual crop coefficients were 693, 489 and 205 mm, respectively, in 2003, and 700, 487 and 213, respectively in 2004. Maximum rate of predicted potential ET_p, Tp and E were 11.1, 8.2 and 5.1 mm d^-1, respectively in 2003 and 13.0, 9.0 and 4.0 mm d^-1, respectively in 2004. The values of calculated seasonal ET_p by Penman-Monteith method using single crop coefficient were 615 and 632 mm in 2003, and 2004, respectively. Comparison between the results of predicted ET_p by MSM model, calculated ET_p by Penman-Monteith equation with single and dual crop coefficients (FAO-56) and measured values of irrigation water and soil water contents of root depth indicated that FAO-56 methods underestimated the ET_p.

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Under different climatic conditions of Iran, the evaluation of evapotranspiration (ETo) models sensitivity to meteorological parameters, prior to introducing the superior performance model, seems quite necessary. Using a 35-year (1971-2005) climatological observations in Hamedan, this study compares the sensitivity of different commonly used evapotranspiration models to different meteorological parameters within the IPCC recommended variability range of 10 to 20% during the growing season (April-October). The radiation and temperature-based ETo models include: Penman-Monteith -FAO56 [PMF56], Jensen-Haise [JH1,2], Humid Turc [TH], Arid (semi) arid Turc [TA], Makkink [MK], Hansen [HN], and Hargreaves-Samani [HS]. Results indicate that all the above-mentioned ETo models show the highest sensitivity to radiation and temperature parameters. This implies that special care is required when we apply model-generated radiation and albedo parameters in such ETo models. It is predicted that by 2050, as a result of global warming, the cold semi-arid climates of Iran will cause an average evapotranspiration rise of about 8.5% in crop reference during the growing season.

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Optimum management of water use in agriculture results in higher cultivated areas or enhances the share of water for municipal and industrial uses leading to economic development of a country. One of the effective methods in optimum water management is irrigation scheduling by using models which simulate water content in soils. In this study, a previously prepared model for irrigation water scheduling was modified to calculate daily effective rain, soil water content and deficiency. The model was applied for winter wheat field in Bajgah area using 13 years of local meteorological data. Furthermore, the effect of water storage in the soil profile on the amount and frequency of irrigation was examined. This model was written in Visual Basic.Net programming software. The model was run under two assumptions: 1) the effective rain compensates water deficiency of soil down to daily root depth and the excess water is assumed as deep percolation (case I) 2) the effective rain compensates water deficiency of soil down to maximum root depth and the excess water is assumed as deep percolation (case II). The results show that the amount and the frequency of irrigation in case 2 is less than case 1. Average amount and number of irrigation events decreased from 706.8 (mm) and 8 in case I to 569.2 and 6.4 in case II. The average relative percentage of effective rain increased from 45.2 % in case I to 76.9% in case II. The effective rain is 108.9 mm and the amount and number of irrigation events is 9 and 757.7 mm, respectively in case I (at probability level of 80%). The effective rain is 236.7 mm and the amount and number of irrigation events is 636.9 mm and 7.2, respectively in case II (at probability level of 50%). The effective rain is 165.6 mm and the amount and number of irrigation events is 712.6 mm 8, respectively in case I. The effective rain is 292.1 mm and the amount and number of irrigation events is 545.1 and 6, respectively in case II.

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In this study, the Penman-Monteith methods proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO-56) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) were used for hourly ETo estimation under the semiarid climate of Kerman, Iran. Hourly ETo estimations obtained from the proposed methods were compared with measured ETo values by using a large weighing electronic lysimeter during April to September 2005 (totally 3352 hourly ETo data cases). Simple linear regression and statistical factors such as root mean square error and index of agreement were used for estimated and observed value comparison. The average of measured and estimated hourly ETo values using these methods for integrated data were 0.28 and 0.23 mm hr-1, respectively, which means that average estimated ETo values were approximately 21 percent less than the measured ETo values. This analysis was also performed for hourly data of each month during the study period. The results showed that FAO-56 Penman-Monteith underestimated ETo values by 18.4, 19.3, 26.3, 20.4, 21.4 and 22.1 percent for April to September, respectively, when compared with the measured values. Similarly, the ASCE Penman-Monteith underestimated ETo values by 17, 19.6, 18.4, 18.2, 19.7 and 20.9 percent for the same period, respectively, when compared with the lysimetric data. Finally, a set of regression equation for transformation of the estimated hourly data into the measured hourly ETo values has been presented for each month.

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Reference evapotranspiration (ET0) is a necessary parameter for calculating crop water requirements and irrigation scheduling. In this study, a method was presented as ET0 is estimated with NOAA satellite imagery in the irrigation network. In this method, a pixel from a set of pixels within the irrigation network was chosen with the highest vegetation index, and its surface temperature (Ts) with extraterrestrial radiation parameter (Ra) was used as inputs of the model. The M5 model tree for converting Ta and Ra to ET0 was used as input variables. In this research, Gazvin irrigated area was selected as a case study. A total of 231 images of NOAA satellite related to irrigation season of the study area were used. The results obtained by the M5 model were compared with the Penman–Monteith results, and error values were found within acceptable limits. The coefficient of determination (R2), percentage root mean square error (PRMSE) and the percentage mean bias error (PMBE) were found to be 0.81, 8.5% and 2.5%, respectively, for the testing data set.

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Different root water uptake models have recently been used. In this article, we use evapotranspiration data and soil water content data obtained from lysimeter measurements and root distribution in soil data obtained from olive tree to evaluate the accuracy of root water uptake models in predicting the soil water content profiles. Depth of lysimeter was 120 cm which was filled with clay-loam. Lysimeter recorded values of input and output of water and accurate value of evapotranspiration was also calculated. Soil water content distribution was measured using a TDR probe in lysimeter during the experiment. Feddes model with the root length density was used to account for the role of root distribution in soil. The flow equations were solved numerically with the measured evapotranspiration data as input, and the predicted soil water content profiles were compared with the measured profiles to evaluate the validity of the root water uptake models. The comparison showed that the average of relative error index for Feddes model was 10 %. Based on the results, about 90% of root uptake in olive tree happened at the depth of 40 centimeter

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It is necessary that ETr (Alfalfa-reference evapotranspiration) values be converted to ETo (Grass-reference evapotranspiration) or vice versa. The main objective of this study was to develop ETr to ETo ratios (Kr values) for a growing season in Shahrekord plain, Shahrekord, Iran. Mean monthly and total (growing season) values of Kr were calculated based on 185 daily ET data set in Chaharthakhteh Agricultural Resaerch Station of Shahrekord. The ETr and ETo values were calculated using six models for developing Kr values. The models included the Standardized American Society of civil Engineers Penman-Monteith (ASCE-stPM), American Society of Civil Engineers Penman-Monteith (ASCE-PM), 1982 Kimberly-Penman (KP), and modified Jensen-Haise (JH). Kr values as a function of some of the climatic variables in FAO56 Irrigation and Drainage Paper were compared with lysimeter ETr values. For the growing season, Kr values based on lysimeter study was 1.12, which was comparable to 1.12, and 1.16 for ASCE-PM, and JH, respectively, but was far from 1.27 for 1982 KP models. ETr values in each method compared to ASCE-stPM-ETo were not comparable to 1.40 derived from Kr value based on FAO56 method.

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Since more than 75% of the rice fields in Iran are located in the Northern provinces i.e. Mazandaran, Guilan, and Golestan identifying the crop water requirement of rice fields is essential for water resources planning in the Northern provinces. The objective of this research was to ascertain the crop water requirement of two rice cultivars namely Hashemi and Khazar in Guilan province during 1389 growing season. Four iron barrels with diameter of 56 cm were used as lysimeters to grow the cultivars mentioned. According to a simple volume balance approach the crop water use of the four lysimeters were determined during the growing season. The elements of volume balance approach such as the depths of drainage, precipitation, and irrigation were recorded daily and the average of 5-day and 10-day periods were reported. The daily rice crop water use during the growing season was found to range from 2.4 to 6.3 mm/day with a seasonal crop water use ranging from 430 to 470 mm for Hashemi and Khazar cultivars, respectively. Daily reference evapotranspiration was computed by the FAO-Penman-Montith equation and accordingly rice crop coefficients were computed. The crop coefficient of Hashemi variety was found to be 1.1, 1.3, and 1.1 during the initial, mid, and end growth stages, respectively. In addition, the aforementioned parameters for Khazar variety were 1.2, 1.3, and 1.1.

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The purpose of this study was to measure daily and seasonal evapotranspiration and daily crop coefficient of two common varieties of sunflower (Sirna and Euroflor) via drip-tape irrigation system. For this purpose, the sunflower water use was determined by daily monitoring of soil moisture at the depths of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 60 cm, and the crop evapotranspiration (ETC) was measured using volume balance method. According to the equation recommended by FAO, the obtained value of KC for Euroflor and Sirna varieties at the initial stage was 0.32. According to volume balance method, the Euroflor KC value for development, middle, and late stages were found to be 0.75, 1.18 and 0.9 and for Sirna were found to be 0.72, 1.15 and 0.84 respectively. Seasonal amount of evapotranspiration for Euroflor and Sirna varieties was equal to 601 and 575 mm, which was 26 and 30 percent less than seasonal ET0 in Isfahan. The average value of during the sunflower growing season was 0.77, which was greater than that offered by Doorenbose and Pruitt (0.55). As the crop coefficients of two varieties were different during the growing season and they were also different from FAO KC, measuring the actual amount of KC as a function of growing degree days can increase the accuracy of the estimated ETc and help develop the crop models in order to improve the irrigation management.

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Spatial estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) rates is essential for agriculture and water resources management. This study aimed to estimate ET v an ET estimation algorithm called Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land (SEBAL) and also by using TM June 2009 satellite data in Damaneh region of Isfahan province. To calculate the ET, all the energy balance components and related parameters including net radiation, surface albedo, incoming and emitting shortwave and longwave radiation, surface emissivity, soil heat flux, sensible heat flux, NDVI vegetation index, Leaf Area Index(LAI),  and surface temperature were extracted from the geometrically and radiometrically corrected TM images. Results showed that ET rate was about 7.2 mm day^-1 in agricultural areas, which was almost equal to 6.99 mm day^-1 extracted from the FAO Penman-Monteith method in the synoptic weather station of Daran. Results here indicate that the extraction of ET rate which is almost equal to plant water requirements from remote sensing data can be used in selecting appropriate plants for agriculture and rehabilitation purposes in extensive arid and semi-arid regions of Isfahan province where severe droughts and water shortage are major problems.

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This study investigated the effects of climate change on the evapotranspiration amount and water balance in the Zayandeh-Rud river basin. Two important weather stations; Isfahan and Chelgerd stations, located in the East and West of the basin respectively, were selected for investigation in this study. The combination of 15 GCM models were created based on the weighting method and three patterns of climate change including the ideal, medium and critical were defined. Using the proposed patterns, the effects of climate change on temperature and evapotranspiration in Isfahan station and precipitation in Chelgerd station were estimated under the A2 and B1 emissions scenarios. Two indices were considered to determine the sustainability of agricultural water consumption in the study area. Ratio of evapotranspiration in the East part of the basin to precipitation in the West part was defined as EPR index (Evapotranspiration-Precipitation Ratio), and the ratio of maximum agricultural water deficit to the amount of agriculture water need, was considered as maximum deficit index (MD). Results showed that the annual temperature would increase between 0.63-1.13°C in the eastern part of the basin. The west precipitation in the basin would reduce between 6.5-30% in the ideal to critical patterns. Summer season, showed the most amount of increase in the temperature, and winter season, showed the most amount of decrease in precipitation. The A2 emission scenario showed more temperature increase and more precipitation decrease in comparison with the B1 emission scenario and also indicated that the potential evapotranspiration would increase by 3.1 to 4.8% in the basin. The EPR index will increase between 13-52% and MD index will increase between 9-35% in Zayandeh-Rud river basin under different climate change patterns. The results revealed the imbalance between agricultural water use in eastern part and the precipitation in the western part of the basin. In other words, in these conditions, appropriate management strategies and planning should be implemented to ensure the sustainability of water resources in Zayandeh-Rud River Basin.

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In agricultural development many factors such as weather conditions, soil, fertilizer, irrigation timing and amount are involved that are necessary to be considered by the plant growth simulation models. Therefore, in this study, the values of soil water content at different depths of soil profile, dry matter production and grain yield of winter wheat were simulated using AquaCrop and WSM models. The irrigation treatments were rain-fed, 0/5, 0/8, 1 and 1/2 times of full irrigation conducted in Agricultral College of Shiraz University during 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. The models were calibrated using measured data in the first year of experiment and validated by the second year data. The accuracy of soil water simulation was used to refer to the accuracy of simulated evapotranspiration. The accuracy of soil water content at different layers of root depth in the validation period was good for the WSM model (Normalized Root Mean Squer Error, NRMSE= 0/14). But the AquaCrop model showed less accuracy for soil water content (NRMSE=0/26). However, the values of predicted and measured crop evapotranspiration were close together at full irrigation treatment, the accuracy of AquaCop predictions was decreased with inceasing water stress. WSM model has had a good estimation of the dry matter and grain yield simulation with NRMSE of 0/15 and 0/18, respectively. However, they were simulated with less accuracy in the AquaCrop model with NRMSE of 0/19 and 0/39.

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Accurate estimation of ET₀ in any region is very important. The aim of this study is to compare and calibrate the 20 empirical methods of estimating evapotranspiration (ET₀) based on three categories in monthly timescale at the Urmia Lake watershed. These categories are: 1) temperature-based models (Hargreaves (HG), Thornthwaite (TW), Blaney-Criddle (BC), Linacre (Lin)), 2) radiation-based model (the Doorenbos-Pruitt (DP), Priestly-Taylor (PT), Makkink (Mak), Jensen-Haise (JH), Turc (T), Abtew (A), McGuinness-Bordne (MB)) and 3) mass transfer-based model (Meyer (M), Dalton (D), Rohwer (R), Penman (P), Brockamp-Wenner (BW), Mahringer (Ma), Trabert (Tr), WMO and Albrecht (AL)). For this purpose, the information of 10 synoptic meteorological stations during the period of 1986-2010 was used. Results from the above mentioned methods were compared with the output of the FAO Penman-Monteith (PMF-56) method. Performance of the methods evaluated using the R², RMSE, MBE and MAE statistics. The best and worst methods of each category were determined for the study area. The best methods of each category were calibrated for the area under study. Results indicated that there is a significant difference between the results of selected methods of each category and the PMF-56 method. Performance of the selected methods remarkably increased after calibration. Among the temperature-based group, the HG method having the median R² value of 0.9597 was recognized as the best method. After calibration the medians of RMSE, MBE, and MAE were 72.09, 3.14 and 10.70 mm/ month, respectively. After HG, the Lin and BC found to be the best second and third methods in the study area. The TW showed Large error, therefore, it was not a suitable method for ET₀ estimation in study area. Among the radiation-based group, the DP model was selected as the best method in the study area. Furthermore, the median of R² values was 0.982. In this method, the medians of RMSE, MBE and MAE after calibration were 7.89. -0.62 and 6.03 mm/month, respectively. Following DP, the PT method was recognized as the 2^nd best one. The methods namely M, JH, T, A and MB were put in the 3^rd to seventh rank of the radiation category. Finally, among the mass transfer-based group, having R²=0.8945, the Meyer method was selected as the best method of this group for the study area. In the mentioned method (after calibration) the medians of RMSE, MBE, and MAE were 21.8, -8.7 and 17.3 mm per month, respectively. From mass transfer based group, the D method was found as the second best method in the study area. The methods namely R, P, BW, Ma, Tr, WMO and A were ranked 3^rd to 7^th, respectively. In general, the performance of radiation based methods was superior than others in Urmia Lake basin. Temperature based methods and mass transfer based methods were ranked second and third, respectively. Further examination of the performance resulted in the following rank of accuracy as compared with the PMF-56: DP (Radiation based), HG (Temperature based) and Meyer (Mass transfer). In general, it can be concluded that after calibration the DP method is suitable to estimate reference crop evapotranspiration among 20 selected methods in the Urmia Lake basin.

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This study was designed to investigate the possibility of using the surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL) and mapping evapotranspiration at high resolution with internalized calibration (METRIC) models to estimate evapotranspiration (ET) in Shahrekord  plain (Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province, Iran). Two sets of Landsat ETM+ data dated June 30^th and August 21^st, 1999 were provided to estimate and compare reference evapotranspiration (alfalfa) at regional scale using Landsat ETM+ data to ET estimations by five mathematical methods (experimental and combined) known as standardized Penman-Monteith by American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE-stPM), Penman-Monteith (F56PM), Blaney-Cridle (F24BC), Hargreaves-Samani (HS) and evaporation pan (F24P). Results showed that ET at cold anchor pixel for SEBAL were 6.97 and 6.77 millimeters per day and for METRIC were 10.27 and 9.31 millimeters per day, on days when the satellite passed over. Hargreaves-Samani ET values, as the suitable mathematical model for the studied area, were 8.0 and 7.5 millimeters per day, respectively, on two satellite passes. Results showed that, in the first pass all statistical indices for SEBAL were less than the second pass, maybe due to higher air temperature and wind speed. On the other way, statistical indices in METRIC on the alternate pass, however, showed higher values over the corresponding values in SEBAL. ET values on two satellite passes for anchor pixels were 5.65 and 5.93 mm/day in SEBAL, and 5.22 and 6.65 mm/day in METRIC, respectively. ET values on the same days of satellite overpass for Hargreaves – Samani (HS) were 8.0 and 7.5 mm/day. Consequently, based on the results, both RS-ET models were comparable to empirical models such as (HS). Generally, the results showed that SEBAL had higher accuracy than METRIC, presumably due to lack of accurate weather data (hourly data), so SEBAL is recommended in similar conditions. Generally, the results showed that SEBAL had higher accuracy in comparison to HS and lysimeters data than METRIC, so SEBAL is recommended in similar conditions.
 
 
 

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