Regional crop water use assessment using Landsat-derived evapotranspiration

Reliable information on water use and availability at basin and field scales are important to ensure the optimized constructive uses of available water resources. This study was conducted with the specific objective to estimate Landsat-based actual evapotranspiration (ETa) using the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEBop) model across the state of South Dakota (SD), USA for the 1986–2018 (33-year) period. Validated ETa estimations (r² = 0.91, PBIAS = −4%, and %RMSE = 11.8%) were further used to understand the crop water-use characteristics and existing historic mono-directional (increasing/decreasing) trends over the eastern (ESD) and western (WSD) regions of SD. The crop water-use characteristics indicated that the annual cropland water uses across the ESD and WSD were more or less met by the precipitation amounts in the area. The ample water supply and distribution have led to high rainfed and low percentage of irrigated cropland (~2.5%) in the state. The WSD faced greater crop-water use reductions than the ESD during drought periods. The landscape ETa responses across the state were found to be more sensitive than precipitation for the drought impact assessments. The Mann Kendall trend analysis revealed the absence of a significant trend (p > 0.05) in annual ETa at a regional scale due to the varying weather conditions in the state. However, about 12% and 9% cropland areas in the ESD and WSD, respectively, revealed a significant mono-directional trend at pixel scale ETa. Most of the pixels under significant trend showed an increasing trend that can be explained by the shift in agricultural practices, increased irrigated cropland area, higher productions, moisture regime shifts, and decreased risk of farming in the dry areas. The decreasing trend pixels were clustered in mid-eastern SD and could be the result of dynamic conversion of wetlands to croplands and decreased irrigation practices in the region. This study also demonstrates the tremendous potential and robustness of the SSEBop model, Landsat imagery, and remote sensing-based ETa modelling approaches in estimating consistent spatially distributed evapotranspiration.     

Estimating water balance components in irrigated agriculture using a combined approach of soil moisture and energy balance monitoring,and numerical modelling

Information on water balance components such as evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge are crucial for water management. Due to differences in physical conditions, but also due to limited budgets, there is not one universal best practice, but a wide range of different methods with specific advantages and disadvantages. In this study, we propose an approach to quantify actual evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge and water inflow, i.e. precipitation and irrigation, that considers the specific conditions of irrigated agriculture in warm, arid environments. This approach does not require direct measurements of precipitation or irrigation quantities and is therefore suitable for sites with an uncertain data basis. For this purpose, we combine soil moisture and energy balance monitoring, remote sensing data analysis and numerical modelling using Hydrus. Energy balance data and routine weather data serve to estimate ET₀. Surface reflectance data from satellite images (Sentinel-2) are used to derive leaf area indices, which help to partition ET₀ into energy limited evaporation and transpiration. Subsequently, first approximations of water inflow are derived based on observed soil moisture changes. These inflow estimates are used in a series of forward simulations that produce initial estimates of drainage and ET_act, which in turn help improve the estimate of water inflow. Finally, the improved inflow estimates are incorporated into the model and then a parameter optimization is performed using the observed soil moisture as the reference figure. Forward simulations with calibrated soil parameters result in final estimates for ET_act and groundwater recharge. The presented method is applied to an agricultural test site with a crop rotation of cotton and wheat in Punjab, Pakistan. The final model results, with an RMSE of 2.2% in volumetric water content, suggest a cumulative ET_act and groundwater recharge of 769 and 297 mm over a period of 281 days, respectively. The total estimated water inflow accounts for 946 mm, of which 77% originates from irrigation.     

Energy balance above a boreal coniferous forest: a difference in turbulent fluxes between snow‐covered and snow‐free canopies

To evaluate the interactive effects of snow and forest on turbulent fluxes between the forest surface and the atmosphere, the surface energy balance above a forest was measured by the eddy correlation method during the winter of 1995–1996. The forest was a young coniferous plantation comprised of spruce and fir. The study site, in Sapporo, northern Japan, had heavy and frequent snowfalls and the canopy was frequently covered with snow during the study period. A comparison of the observed energy balance above the forest for periods with and without a snow‐covered canopy and an analysis using a single‐source model gave the following results: during daytime when the canopy was covered with snow, the upward latent heat flux was large, about 80% of the net radiation, and the sensible heat flux was positive but small. On the other hand, during daytime when the canopy was dry and free from snow, the sensible heat flux was dominant and the latent heat flux was minor, about 10% of the net radiation. To explain this difference of energy partition between snow‐covered and snow‐free conditions, not only differences in temperature but also differences in the bulk transfer coefficients for latent heat flux were necessary in the model. Therefore, the high evaporation rate from the snow‐covered canopy can be attributed largely to the high moisture availability of the canopy surface. Evaporation from the forest during a 60‐day period in midwinter was estimated on a daily basis as net radiation minus sensible heat flux. The overall average evaporation during the 60‐day period was 0·6 mm day⁻¹, which is larger than that from open snow fields. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Observed and simulated water and energy budget components at SCAN sites in the lower Mississippi Basin

Land surface models are typically constrained by one or a few observed variables, while assuming that the internal water and energy partitioning is sensitive to those observed variables and realistic enough to simulate unobserved variables. To verify these assumptions, in situ soil climate analysis network (SCAN) observations in the Lower Mississippi Basin (2002–2008) are analysed to quantify water and energy budget components and they are compared to Community Land Model (CLM3·5) simulations. The local soil texture is identified as a major indicator for water storage characteristics and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index shows potential as a drought indicator in summer months. Both observations and simulations indicate a regime where, except in some summer months, evapotranspiration controls soil moisture. CLM simulations with different soil texture assignments show discharge sensitivity to soil moisture, but almost no impact on evapotranspiration and other energy balance components. The observed and simulated water budgets show a similar partitioning. However, the SCAN observed water balance does not close because of precipitation measurement errors, unobserved irrigation, lack of specific storage change measurements and errors in the computed actual evapotranspiration. The simulated heat flux partitioning differs from that ‘observed’, with a larger (resp. smaller) fraction of net radiation being used by latent (resp. sensible) heat flux, and unobserved freeze and thaw events. The comparison between observations and model simulations suggests that a consistent observation collection for multiple variables would be needed to constrain and improve the full set of land surface variable estimates. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intra‐annual variability in the non‐advective heat energy budget of Devon streams and rivers

The nature of intra‐annual variability in the non‐advective heat fluxes affecting streams and rivers in Devon, UK was investigated through detailed monitoring of study reaches in an upland moorland catchment, below a regulating reservoir, and flowing through deciduous woodland and coniferous forest during the period May 1995 to April 1996. A clear pattern of seasonal variation was evident, whereby net radiation provided a heat source during the summer but a heat sink in the winter, as incoming short‐wave radiation declined and outgoing long‐wave radiation increased. Sensible transfer added heat to the study reaches in the summer but removed it during the winter, and bed conduction acted as a heat sink in the summer period but as a heat source in the winter months. Friction and evaporation added and removed heat, respectively, from the study reaches throughout the year, but the magnitude of these fluxes reflected seasonal variations in discharge and in wind speed. Water temperature generally followed the net non‐advective heat energy budget, which was positive in summer but negative in winter. Although a general pattern of seasonal variability in the non‐advective heat energy budget was evident, detailed differences in the nature and extent of intra‐annual variability were apparent between the study reaches and particularly between forested and non‐forested sites. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluating the effect of land use changes on soil erosion and sediment yield using a grid‐based distributed modelling approach

Processes of soil erosion and sediment transport are strongly influenced by land use changes so the modelling of land use changes is important with respect to the simulation of soil degradation and its on‐site and off‐site consequences. The reliability of simulation results from erosion models is circumscribed by considerable spatial variation in many parameters. However, most of the currently widely used erosion models at the mesoscale are semidistributed, which leads to difficulties in incorporating a high degree of spatial information, especially land use information, so that the effects of land use changes on soil erosion have hitherto not been investigated in detail using these models. In this article, a grid‐based distributed erosion and sediment transport model is introduced, which simulates the spatial pattern of erosion and deposition rates and sediment transport processes in river channels. In this model, land use affects soil erosion through altering soil loss and influencing sediment delivery. Simulated soil erosion for events recorded in 1989 and 1996 in the Lushi basin in China was analyzed by comparing it with historical land use maps. The results indicated that even relatively minor land use changes had a significant effect on regional soil erosion rates and sediment transport to rivers. The average erosion rate increased from 1989 to 1996, after the transformation of forest to farmland. The results of the study suggest that the proposed soil erosion model can be applied in similar river basins. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of uncalibrated energy balance model (BAITSSS) for estimating evapotranspiration in a semiarid,advective climate

The backward‐averaged iterative two‐source surface temperature and energy balance solution (BAITSSS) model was developed to calculate evapotranspiration (ET) at point to regional scales. The BAITSSS model is driven by micrometeorological data and vegetation indices and simulates the water and energy balance of the soil and canopy sources separately, using the Jarvis model to calculate canopy resistance. The BAITSSS model has undergone limited testing in Idaho, United States. We conducted a blind test of the BAITSSS model without prior calibration for ET against weighing lysimeter measurements, net radiation, and surface temperature of drought‐tolerant corn (Zea mays L. cv. PIO 1151) in a semiarid, advective climate (Bushland, Texas, United States) in 2016. Later in the season (20 days), BAITSSS consistently overestimated ET by up to 3 mm d^?1. For the entire growing season (127 days), simulated versus measured ET resulted in a 7% error in cumulative ET, RMSE = 0.13 mm h^?1, and 1.70 mm d^?1; r² = 0.66 (daily) and r² = 0.84 (hourly); MAE = 0.08 mm h^?1 and 1.24 mm d^?1; and MBE = 0.02 mm h^?1 and 0.58 mm d^?1. The results were comparable with thermally driven instantaneous ET models that required some calibration. Next, the initial soil water boundary condition was reduced, and model revisions were made to resistance terms related to incomplete cover and assumption of canopy senescence. The revisions reduced discrepancies between measured and modelled ET resulting in <1% error in cumulative ET, RMSE = 0.1 mm h^?1, and 1.09 mm d^?1; r² = 0.86 (daily) and r² = 0.90 (hourly); MAE = 0.06 mm h^?1 and 0.79 mm d^?1; and MBE = 0.0 mm h^?1 and 0.17 mm d^?1 and generally mitigated the previous overestimation. The advancement in ET modelling with BAITSSS assists to minimize uncertainties in crop ET modelling in a time series.     

Intercomparison across scales between remotely-sensed land surface temperature and representative equilibrium temperature from a distributed energy water balance model

Abstract

Quantifying the reliability of distributed hydrological models is an important task in hydrology to understand their ability to estimate energy and water fluxes at the agricultural district scale as well the basin scale for water resources management in drought monitoring and flood forecasting. In this context, the paper presents an intercomparison of simulated representative equilibrium temperature (RET) derived from a distributed energy water balance model and remotely-sensed land surface temperature (LST) at spatial scales from the agricultural field to the river basin. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the use of LST retrieved from operational remote sensing data at different spatial and temporal resolutions for the internal validation of a distributed hydrological model to control its mass balance accuracy as a complementary method to traditional calibration with discharge measurements at control river cross-sections. Modelled and observed LST from different radiometric sensors located on the ground surface, on an aeroplane and a satellite are compared for a maize field in Landriano (Italy), the agricultural district of Barrax (Spain) and the Upper Po River basin (Italy). A good ability of the model in reproducing the observed LST values in terms of mean bias error, root mean square error, relative error and Nash-Sutcliffe index is shown.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor D. Gerten     

Attribution of changes in the water balance of a tropical catchment to land use change using the SWAT model

Changes in the water balance of the Samin catchment (277.9 km²) on Java, Indonesia, can be attributed to land use change using the Soil Water Assessment Tool model. A baseline‐altered method was used in which the simulation period 1990–2013 was divided into 4 equal periods to represent baseline conditions (1990–1995) and altered land use conditions (1996–2001, 2002–2007, and 2008–2013). Land use maps for 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2013 were acquired from satellite images. A Soil Water Assessment Tool model was calibrated for the baseline period and applied to the altered periods with and without land use change. Incorporating land use change resulted in a Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.7 compared to 0.6 when land use change is ignored. In addition, the model performance for simulations without land use change gradually decreased with time. Land use change appeared to be the important driver for changes in the water balance. The main land use changes during 1994–2013 are a decrease in forest area from 48.7% to 16.9%, an increase in agriculture area from 39.2% to 45.4%, and an increase in settlement area from 9.8% to 34.3%. For the catchment, this resulted in an increase of the runoff coefficient from 35.7% to 44.6% and a decrease in the ratio of evapotranspiration to rainfall from 60% to 54.8%. More pronounced changes can be observed for the ratio of surface runoff to stream flow (increase from 26.6% to 37.5%) and the ratio of base flow to stream flow (decrease from 40% to 31.1%), whereas changes in the ratio of lateral flow to stream flow were minor (decrease from 33.4% to 31.4%). At sub‐catchment level, the effect of land use changes on the water balance varied in different sub‐catchments depending on the scale of changes in forest and settlement area.     

Estimation of seasonal crop water consumption in a vineyard using Bowen ratio‐energy balance method

Information about seasonal crop water consumption is useful to develop the appropriate irrigation scheme. Measurements of energy balance components using the Bowen ratio method were made for a complete growing season at a vineyard in the arid region of northwest China. Vine in the experiment was furrow‐irrigated using a trellis system. The measured evapotranspiration was compared with estimates using the soil water balance method. It is shown that the Bowen ratio method provided accurate estimates of evapotranspiration from the vineyard and this requires that the Bowen ratio system is appropriately installed. The energy balance components showed typical diurnal pattern with peaks that occurred around the midday, except for the ground heat flux which delayed its peak by 2–3 h. The sensible heat flux was greater than the latent heat flux and followed the net radiation closely. The ratio of the latent heat flux to net radiation was low in the early growing season and increased over time. Under the limited irrigation experienced in the vineyard, the latent heat flux was controlled by available soil moisture and the total evapotranspiration in the growing season was 253 mm. The seasonal progression of the crop coefficient is similar to that reported in the literature, with the maximum occurring during the month of September. The crop coefficient can be estimated as a non‐linear function of day of year (DOY) and used to estimate evapotranspiration from vineyards in the region. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Glacier reconstruction and mass‐balance modelling as a geomorphic and palaeoclimatic tool

The reconstruction of former mountain glaciers has long been used to examine the implications of rapid climate shifts, for example at the last glacial–interglacial transition, and for evaluating asynchronous behaviour of mountain glaciers compared with mid‐latitude ice sheets during the Late Quaternary. Glacier reconstruction has also been used as a source of palaeoclimatic information, based on the recognition of empirical relationships between glaciers and climate. This paper reviews the application and implications of a recently revised method of glacier reconstruction (Carr and Coleman, 2007 ), based around glaciological principles of mass‐balance. This study examines how this approach can be used to test geomorphological interpretations of former mountain glaciation and also to infer precipitation fields at sites of former glaciation. Sites of Younger Dryas niche and icefield glaciation in the British Isles demonstrate how this method can verify interpretations of marginal glaciation and begin to understand the different behaviour of outlet glaciers within the same environmental regime. Examination of a site of former niche glaciation in Southern Africa demonstrates how glacier reconstruction may be used to infer annual and seasonal precipitation values and strongly supports the idea that winter precipitation in Lesotho and SE South Africa was substantially greater than present‐day values during the last glacial cycle. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of long‐term water balance in the source area of the Yellow River basin

To analyse the long‐term water balance of the Yellow River basin, a new hydrological model was developed and applied to the source area of the basin. The analysis involved 41 years (1960–2000) of daily observation data from 16 meteorological stations. The model is composed of the following three sub‐models: a heat balance model, a runoff formation model and a river‐routing network model. To understand the heat and water balances more precisely, the original model was modified as follows. First, the land surface was classified into five types (bare, grassland, forest, irrigation area and water surface) using a high‐resolution land‐use map. Potential evaporation was then calculated using land‐surface temperatures estimated by the heat balance model. The maximum evapotranspiration of each land surface was calculated from potential evaporation using functions of the leaf area index (LAI). Finally, actual evapotranspiration was estimated by regulating the maximum evapotranspiration using functions of soil moisture content. The river discharge estimated by the model agreed well with the observed data in most years. However, relatively large errors, which may have been caused by the overestimation of surface flow, appeared in some summer periods. The rapid decrease of river discharge in recent years in the source area of the Yellow River basin depended primarily on the decrease in precipitation. Furthermore, the results suggested that the long‐term water balance in the source area of the Yellow River basin is influenced by land‐use changes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the results of scenarios of climate and land use changes on the hydrology of an Italian catchment: modelling study

Hydrological models are recognized as valid scientific tools to study water quantity and quality and provide support for the integrated management and planning of water resources at different scales. In common with many catchments in the Mediterranean, the study catchment has many problems such as the increasing gap between water demand and supply, water quality deterioration, scarcity of available data, lack of measurements and specific information. The application of hydrological models to investigate hydrological processes in this type of catchments is of particular relevance for water planning strategies to address the possible impact of climate and land use changes on water resources. The distributed catchment scale model (DiCaSM) was selected to study the impact of climate and land use changes on the hydrological cycle and the water balance components in the Apulia region, southern Italy, specifically in the Candelaro catchment (1780 km²). The results obtained from this investigation proved the ability of DiCaSM to quantify the different components of the catchment water balance and to successfully simulate the stream flows. In addition, the model was run with the climate change scenarios for southern Italy, i.e. reduced winter rainfall by 5–10%, reduced summer rainfall by 15–20%, winter temperature rise by 1·25–1·5 °C and summer temperature rise by 1·5–1·75 °C. The results indicated that by 2050, groundwater recharge in the Candelaro catchment would decrease by 21–31% and stream flows by 16–23%. The model results also showed that the projected durum wheat yield up to 2050 is likely to decrease between 2·2% and 10·4% due to the future reduction in rainfall and increase in temperature. In the current study, the reliability of the DiCaSM was assessed when applied to the Candelaro catchment; those parameters that may cause uncertainty in model output were investigated using a generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) methodology. The results showed that DiCaSM provided a small level of uncertainty and subsequently, a higher confidence level. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of land use change on water balance in Zhangye city,China

Land use change has a significant effect on water balance, especially in arid region, such as Northwest China. In this paper, we analyze the effect of land use change on water balance in terms of the amount of water supply and demand from economic perspective. It's the first time to extend the basic 48 sectors input-output table to include water and land accounts that involved into multiple production processes for Zhangye city. We then perform the improved ORANI-G model, a single region Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, to analyze the effect of land use change on water balance under three scenarios. Subsequently, scenario-based simulation results are interpreted through selected sectors from agricultural, industrial, and service sectors respectively. Finally, the effect of land use change on water balance is analyzed through the difference between business-as-usual and land use unchanged scenarios. The results show that the extent of effect on water balance is different among sectors. Specifically, from the perspective of absolute value, service sectors are the largest, followed by industrial sectors, and the agricultural sectors are the least. Conversely, in terms of percentage change of land use, the largest extent of effect occurs in agricultural sectors. Additionally, with the rapid urbanization and the development of social economy, water balance in industrial sectors and service sectors will be stricken and reconstructed to a new high level. Simulation results also show that agricultural land shrinking will mitigate water scarcity distinctly, which indicates that balance the relationship among different stakeholders is imperative to guarantee water transformation from agricultural sectors to industrial and service sectors.     

The impact of land use change and check‐dams on catchment sediment yield

Extensive land use changes have occurred in many areas of SE Spain as a result of reforestation and the abandonment of agricultural activities. Parallel to this the Spanish Administration spends large funds on hydrological control works to reduce erosion and sediment transport. However, it remains untested how these large land use changes affect the erosion processes at the catchment scale and if the hydrological control works efficiently reduce sediment export. A combination of field work, mapping and modelling was used to test the influence of land use scenarios with and without sediment control structures (check‐dams) on sediment yield at the catchment scale. The study catchment is located in SE Spain and suffered important land use changes, increasing the forest cover 3‐fold and decreasing the agricultural land 2·5‐fold from 1956 to 1997. In addition 58 check‐dams were constructed in the catchment in the 1970s accompanying reforestation works. The erosion model WATEM‐SEDEM was applied using six land use scenarios: land use in 1956, 1981 and 1997, each with and without check‐dams. Calibration of the model provided a model efficiency of 0·84 for absolute sediment yield. Model application showed that in a scenario without check dams, the land use changes between 1956 and 1997 caused a progressive decrease in sediment yield of 54%. In a scenario without land use changes but with check‐dams, about 77% of the sediment yield was retained behind the dams. Check‐dams can be efficient sediment control measures, but with a short‐lived effect. They have important side‐effects, such as inducing channel erosion downstream. While also having side‐effects, land use changes can have important long‐term effects on sediment yield. The application of either land use changes (i.e. reforestation) or check‐dams to control sediment yield depends on the objective of the management and the specific environmental conditions of each area. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulating pan‐Arctic runoff with a macro‐scale terrestrial water balance model

A terrestrial hydrological model, developed to simulate the high‐latitude water cycle, is described, along with comparisons with observed data across the pan‐Arctic drainage basin. Gridded fields of plant rooting depth, soil characteristics (texture, organic content), vegetation, and daily time series of precipitation and air temperature provide the primary inputs used to derive simulated runoff at a grid resolution of 25 km across the pan‐Arctic. The pan‐Arctic water balance model (P/WBM) includes a simple scheme for simulating daily changes in soil frozen and liquid water amounts, with the thaw–freeze model (TFM) driven by air temperature, modelled soil moisture content, and physiographic data. Climate time series (precipitation and air temperature) are from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis project for the period 1980–2001. P/WBM‐generated maximum summer active‐layer thickness estimates differ from a set of observed data by an average of 12 cm at 27 sites in Alaska, with many of the differences within the variability (1σ) seen in field samples. Simulated long‐term annual runoffs are in the range 100 to 400 mm year^?1. The highest runoffs are found across northeastern Canada, southern Alaska, and Norway, and lower estimates are noted along the highest latitudes of the terrestrial Arctic in North America and Asia. Good agreement exists between simulated and observed long‐term seasonal (winter, spring, summer–fall) runoff to the ten Arctic sea basins (r = 0·84). Model water budgets are most sensitive to changes in precipitation and air temperature, whereas less affect is noted when other model parameters are altered. Increasing daily precipitation by 25% amplifies annual runoff by 50 to 80% for the largest Arctic drainage basins. Ignoring soil ice by eliminating the TFM sub‐model leads to runoffs that are 7 to 27% lower than the control run. The results of these model sensitivity experiments, along with other uncertainties in both observed validation data and model inputs, emphasize the need to develop improved spatial data sets of key geophysical quantities (particularly climate time series) to estimate terrestrial Arctic hydrological budgets better. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.