Faculty Publications
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Item Performance evaluation of reference evapotranspiration equations across a range of Indian climates(2006) Nandagiri, L.; Kovoor, G.M.Reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) is a key variable in procedures established for estimation of evapotranspiration rates of agricultural crops. In recent years, there is growing evidence to show that the more physically based FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (PM) combination method yields consistently more accurate ET0 estimates across a wide range of climates and is being proposed as the sole method for ET0 computations. However, other methods continue to remain popular among Indian practitioners either because of traditional usage or because of their simpler input data requirements. In this study, we evaluated the performances of several ET0 methods in the major climate regimes of India with a view to quantify differences in ET0 estimates as influenced by climatic conditions and also to identify methods that yield results closest to the FAO-56 PM method. Performances of seven ET0 methods, representing temperature-based, radiation-based, pan evaporation-based, and combination-type equations, were compared with the FAO-56 PM method using historical climate data from four stations located one each in arid (Jodhpur), semiarid (Hyderabad), subhumid (Bangalore), and humid (Pattambi) climates of India. For each location, ET0 estimates by all the methods for assumed hypothetical grass reference crop were statistically compared using daily climate records extending over periods of 3-4 years. Comparisons were performed for daily and monthly computational time steps. Overall results while providing information on variations in FAO-56 PM ET0 values across climates also indicated climate-specific differences in ET0 estimates obtained by the various methods. Among the ET0 methods evaluated, the FAO-56 Hargreaves (temperature-based) method yielded ET0 estimates closest to the FAO-56 PM method both for daily and monthly time steps, in all climates except the humid one where the Turc (radiation-based) was best. Considering daily comparisons, the associated minimum standard errors of estimate (SEE) were 1.35, 0.78, 0.67, and 0.31 mm/day, for the arid, semiarid, subhumid, and humid locations, respectively. For monthly comparisons, minimum SEE values were smaller at 0.95, 0.59, 0.38, and 0.20 mm/day for arid, semiarid, subhumid, and humid locations, respectively. These results indicate that the choice of an alternative simpler equation in a particular climate on the basis of SEE is dictated by the time step adopted and also it appears that the simpler equations yield much smaller errors when monthly computations are made. In order to provide simple ET0 estimation tools for practitioners, linear regression equations for preferred FAO-56 PM ET0 estimates in terms of ET0 estimates by the simpler methods were developed and validated for each climate. A novel attempt was made to investigate the reasons for the climate-dependent success of the simpler alternative ET0 equations using multivariate factor analysis techniques. For each climate, datasets comprising FAO-56 PM ET0 estimates and the climatic variables were subject to factor analysis and the resulting rotated factor loadings were used to interpret the relative importance of climatic variables in explaining the observed variabilities in ET0 estimates. Results of factor analysis more or less conformed the results of the statistical comparisons and provided a statistical justification for the ranking of alternative methods based on performance indices. Factor analysis also indicated that windspeed appears to be an important variable in the arid climate, whereas sunshine hours appear to be more dominant in subhumid and humid climates. Temperature related variables appear to be the most crucial inputs required to obtain ET0 estimates comparable to those from the FAO-56 PM method across all the climates considered. © 2006 ASCE.Item Developing regression models for predicting pan evaporation from climatic data - A comparison of multiple least-squares, principal components, and partial least-squares approaches(2007) Kovoor, G.M.; Nandagiri, L.Regression models for predicting daily pan evaporation depths from climatic data were developed using three multivariate approaches: multiple least-squares regression (MLR), principal components regression (PCR), and partial least-squares (PLS) regression. The objective was to compare the prediction accuracies of regression models developed by these three approaches using historical climatic datasets of four Indian sites that are located in distinctly different climatic regimes. In all cases (three approaches applied to four climatic datasets), regression models were developed using a part of the data and subsequently validated with the remaining data. Results indicated that although performances of the regression models varied from one climate to another, more or less similar prediction accuracies were obtained by all three approaches, and it was difficult to identify the best approach based on performance statistics. However, the final forms of the regression models developed by the three approaches differed substantially from one another. In all cases, the models derived using PLS contained the smallest number of predictor variables; between two to three out of a possible maximum of six predictor variables. The MLR approach yielded models with three to six predictor variables, and PCR models included all six predictor variables. This implies that the PLS regression models are the most parsimonious in terms of input data required for estimating epan from climate variables, and yet yield predictions that are almost as accurate as the more data-intensive MLR and PCR models. © 2007 ASCE.Item Climate analysis for regional irrigation planning(2010) Nandagiri, L.; Nayali, S.Rainfall characteristics and potential evapotranspiration together determine the agro meteorological regime of a region and influence decisions concerning the magnitudes and timing of irrigation applications. In addition to rainfall input, an important aspect of the water balance model is the crop evapotranspiration (ETcrop), which is a main factor in determining irrigation schedule. The procedure for estimation of ET rates from agricultural crops is well established and involves as a first step, computation of reference crop evapotranspiration (ETcrop) using regular climatologically recorded data. ETcrop could be estimated by reference evapotranspiration (ET) and crop coefficient. ‘Moisture Availability Index’ (MAI), which is computed as the ratio of 75% dependable rainfall and potential evapotranspiration is used as an index to indicate dry and wet periods. An MAI value of 1.00 indicates that dependable precipitation equals potential evapotranspiration. A value of MAI of 0.33 or less for one month during the crop-growing season is considered to be a signal of water deficit, causing crop production to fall below an economic level. Obtained information on MAI is used to decide the selection of sowing period of crops so as to avoid water stress during crucial harvesting period. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.Item An extreme learning machine approach for modeling evapotranspiration using extrinsic inputs(Elsevier B.V., 2016) Patil, A.P.; Deka, P.C.Precise estimation of evapotranspiration is crucial for accurate crop-water estimation. Recently machine learning (ML) techniques like artificial neural network (ANN) are being widely used for modeling the process of evapotranspiration. However, ANN faces issues like trapping in local minima, slow learning and tuning of meta-parameters. In this study an improved extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm was used to estimate weekly reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo). The study was carried out for Jodhpur and Pali meteorological weather stations located in the Thar Desert, India. The study evaluated the performance of three different input combinations. The first input combination used locally available maximum and minimum air temperature data while the second and third combination used ETo values from another station (extrinsic inputs) along with the locally available temperature data as inputs. The performance of ELM models was compared with the empirical Hargreaves equation, ANN and least-square support vector machine (LS-SVM) models. Root mean squared error (RMSE), Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE) and threshold statistics (TS) were used for comparing the performance of the models. The performance of ELM model was found to be better than the Hargreaves and ANN model. The LS-SVM and ELM displayed similar performance. ELM3 models, with 36 and 33 neurons in hidden layer were found to be the best models (RMSE of 0.43 for Jodhpur and 0.33 for Pali station) for estimating weekly ETo at Jodhpur and Pali stations respectively. The results showed that ELM is a simple yet efficient algorithm which exhibited good performance; hence, can be recommended for estimating weekly ETo. Furthermore, it was also found that use of ETo values from another station can help in improving the efficiency of ML models in limited data scenario. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.Item Performance evaluation of hybrid Wavelet-ANN and Wavelet-ANFIS models for estimating evapotranspiration in arid regions of India(Springer London, 2017) Patil, A.P.; Deka, P.C.This paper evaluates the ability of wavelet transform in improving the accuracy of artificial neural network (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy interface systems (ANFIS) models. In this study, the performance of hybrid Wavelet-ANN and Wavelet-ANFIS models for estimating daily evapotranspiration in arid regions was evaluated. Prior to the development of models, gamma test was used to identify the best input combinations that could be used under limited data scenario. Performance of the proposed hybrid models was compared to ANN, ANFIS, and conventionally used Hargreaves equation. The results revealed that use of wavelet transform as data preprocessing technique enhanced the efficiency of ANN and ANFIS models. Wavelet-ANN and Wavelet-ANFIS performed reasonably better than other models. Better handling of wavelet-decomposed input variables enabled Wavelet-ANN models to perform slightly better than the Wavelet-ANFIS models. W-ANN2 (RMSE = 0.632 mm/day and R = 0.96) was found to be the best model for estimating daily evapotranspiration in arid regions. The proposed W-ANN2 model used second-level db3 wavelet-decomposed subseries of temperature and previous day evapotranspiration values as inputs. The study concludes that hybrid Wavelet-ANN and Wavelet-ANFIS models can be effectively used for modeling evapotranspiration. © 2015, The Natural Computing Applications Forum.Item Improved vegetation parameterization for hydrological model and assessment of land cover change impacts on flow regime of the Upper Bhima basin, India(Springer International Publishing kasia@cesj.com, 2018) Mohaideen, M.M.D.; Varija, K.This study investigates the potential and applicability of variable infiltration capacity (VIC) hydrological model to simulate different hydrological components of the Upper Bhima basin under two different Land Use Land Cover (LULC) (the year 2000 and 2010) conditions. The total drainage area of the basin was discretized into 1694 grids of about 5.5 km by 5.5 km: accordingly the model parameters were calibrated at each grid level. Vegetation parameters for the model were prepared using temporal profile of Leaf Area Index (LAI) from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and LULC. This practice provides a methodological framework for the improved vegetation parameterization along with region-specific condition for the model simulation. The calibrated and validated model was run using the two LULC conditions separately with the same observed meteorological forcing (1996–2001) and soil data. The change in LULC has resulted to an increase in the average annual evapotranspiration over the basin by 7.8%, while the average annual surface runoff and baseflow decreased by 18.86 and 5.83%, respectively. The variability in hydrological components and the spatial variation of each component attributed to LULC were assessed at the basin grid level. It was observed that 80% of the basin grids showed an increase in evapotranspiration (ET) (maximum of 292 mm). While the majority of the grids showed a decrease in surface runoff and baseflow, some of the grids showed an increase (i.e. 21 and 15% of total grids—surface runoff and baseflow, respectively). © 2018, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences & Polish Academy of Sciences.Item Estimation of daily actual evapotranspiration using vegetation coefficient method for clear and cloudy sky conditions(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2020) Shwetha, H.R.; Nagesh Kumar, D.N.Actual evapotranspiration (AET) can be studied and estimated using remote-sensing-based methods at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Reflectance and Land surface temperature are essential in these methods. However optical and thermal sensors fail to provide these data under overcast conditions and this creates gap in the AET product. Besides, there is a necessity of the AET method that requires less data and estimates AET with better accuracy. In this regard, AET was estimated for all-sky conditions using the vegetation coefficient (VI-Kv) method utilizing microwave, thermal, and optical data. Essential reference evapotranspiration (ET0) under cloudy conditions was estimated using LST-based Penman-Monteith temperature (PMT) and Hargreaves-Samani equations. Furthermore, LST predicted using the microwave polarization difference index (PLST) and LST of moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud product (MLST) were evaluated with in-situ air temperature (Ta) under cloudy sky conditions. Results revealed that the PLST correlated better with Ta than MLST with correlation coefficient (r) values of 0.71 and 0.81 for day and night times, respectively. Hence, PLST-based solar radiation (Rs) estimation yielded better accuracy with observed Rs with r and root mean square error values of 0.864 and 0.07 for Berambadi station under cloudy conditions, respectively. PMT-based ET0 values corresponded well with the observed ET0 under cloudy sky condition during this study. In addition, AET estimated using the VI-Kv method was compared with the simple two-source energy balance (TSEB) method under clear sky conditions. It was found that the improved VI-Kv method performed better than the TSEB method and could also fairly estimate AET even under cloudy sky conditions. © 2008-2012 IEEE.Item Characterization of climatic parameters in the perspective of irrigated agriculture in Uttar Kannada district of Karnataka, India(India Meteorological Department mausamps@gmail.com, 2020) Yallurkar, S.; Nayak, S.; Nandagiri, L.A rainfall and potential evapotranspiration characteristics together determine the agro-meteorological regime of a region and influences decision concerning the magnitudes and timing of irrigation application. In the present study, historical rainfall and climate data pertaining to the study area, Uttar Kannada district, Karnataka, was analyzed with a view to characterizing irrigation water requirements. In addition to rainfall input, an important aspect of the water balance model is the crop evapotranspiration (ETcrop), which is the main factor in determining the irrigation schedule. ETcrop could be estimated by reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and crop coefficient. Atmospheric demand for water is represented by ‘potential evapotranspiration’ (PET) and calculated from climatic variables which is crucial for irrigation planning. It has been reported that the Penman-Monteith method gives more consistently correct ET0 estimates to other ET0 methods. While recognizing the importance of both rainfall and PET, an effective measure is known as the ‘Moisture Availability Index’ (MAI), which is computed as the ratio of 75% dependable rainfall and potential evapotranspiration. An MAI value of 1.00 indicates that dependable precipitation is equal to potential evapotranspiration. An MAI value of 0.33 or less for one month during the crop growing season is considered to be a signal of water deficit resulting reduction in crop yield. The findings of this study on MAI are used to decide the selection of the sowing period of crops so as to avoid water stress during the critical harvesting period. © 2020, India Meteorological Department. All rights reserved.