Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2017ND325B

Crop Evapotranspiration Measurement by Eddy Covariance, Bowen Ratio, and Soil Water Balance for a Control Drained and Subirrigated Field

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2017 Start Date: 2017-03-01 End Date: 2018-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $6,500 Total Non-Federal Funds: $13,000

Principal Investigators: Xinhua Jia

Project Summary: Estimation of crop evapotranspiration (ET) is very important in crop water management and irrigation scheduling. ET can be measured using water mass balance or energy balance methods. As a result of progress in precision instruments that can measure near-surface metrological variables, the energy balance method is superior to other approaches, especially for field with shallow water tables. This project will involve measuring the ET with energy balance (Eddy Covariance and Bowen Ratio Energy Balance Systems) and soil water balance approaches in a control drained and subirrigated field. The performance of three ET methods will be compared and crop coefficient for the planted crop (corn) will be developed as a ratio of estimated crop ET to a reference ET. This study will suggest the accurate ET method be used for crop coefficient development and crop ET estimation.