Comparative evaluation of reference evapotranspiration estimation models in New Bhupania Minor Command, Jhajjar, Haryana, India

Abstract

Accurate quantification of reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) plays a significant role in determining crop water requirements in irrigated agriculture. A plethora of methods for the estimation of ETo are available. However, the regional suitability of these methods needs to be assessed given the limited availability of meteorological data. In this study, daily estimates of 11 ETo models were selected and compared with the FAO-Penman–Monteith equation (FAO-PM). The selected methods were Blaney–Criddle (BC), Jaisen–Haise (JH), Hargreaves method (HM), McGuinness–Borndne (MB), Chapman (CM), Abtew model (AM), Turc method (TM), FAO-PM equation, Penman equation (PM), Priestley–Taylor (PT) and Matt–Shuttleworth (MS). Evaluation of these models was carried out during 2016–20 in the New Bhupania Minor Command of the Dulhera distributary, Western Yamuna Canal Command (WYCC), Haryana, India. The selected models were evaluated to find a substitute for the FAO-PM equation based on different statistical indices. It was observed that the PT method performed best and was in line with the FAOPM equation with correlation coefficient, root mean square error, mean absolute error, Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient and mean bias error as 0.92, 0.74, 0.48, 0.83, 0.171 respectively. Based on this study and statistical error indices values, the models can be ranked as PT > CM > TM > JH > AM > PM > MS > HM > BC > MB. Thus, we recommend using the PT model for the estimation of ETo in the study area with available meteorological parameters for irrigation scheduling.