Spatiotemporal Estimation of Reference Evapotranspiration for Agricultural Applications in Punjab, Pakistan

Hadeed Ashraf, Saliha Qamar, Nadia Riaz, Redmond R. Shamshiri (), Muhammad Sultan (), Bareerah Khalid, Sobhy M. Ibrahim, Muhammad Imran and Muhammad Usman Khan
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Hadeed Ashraf: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Saliha Qamar: Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, PMAS Arid Agricultural University, Rawalpindi 46000, Pakistan
Nadia Riaz: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Redmond R. Shamshiri: Department of Engineering for Crop Production, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
Muhammad Sultan: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Bareerah Khalid: Agricultural Systems and Engineering, Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand
Sobhy M. Ibrahim: Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Muhammad Imran: Department of Mechanical, Biomedical and Design Engineering, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
Muhammad Usman Khan: Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: Estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ET o ) is a key element in water resources management and crop water requirement which, in turn, affects irrigation scheduling. ET o is subject to the influence of various climatic parameters including minimum temperature (T min ), maximum temperature (T max ), relative humidity (RH), windspeed (WS), and sunshine hours (SH). Usually, the influence of the climatic parameters and a dominating climatic factor influencing ET o is estimated on yearly basis. However, in diverse climatic regions, ET o varies with the varying climate. Therefore, this study aims to estimate the spatiotemporal variation in the influence of the climatic parameters on ET o in Punjab, Pakistan, for the period 1950–2021, specifically focusing on decennial, annual, and monthly patterns. The study area was divided into five agroclimatic zones. The Penman–Monteith model was used to estimate ET o . The influence was assessed using geographic weighted regression (GWR) and multiscale geographic weighted regression (MGWR) as the primary methods. As per results from MGWR, ET o in Punjab was highly influenced by the T min , T max , and WS. Additionally, annual ET o exhibited a higher value in southern Punjab in comparison to northern Punjab, with a range of 2975 mm/year in the cotton–wheat zone to 1596 mm/year in the rain-fed zone. Over the course of the past seventy years, Punjab experienced an average increasing slope of 5.18 mm/year in ET o . T min was the highest monthly dominant factor throughout the year, whereas WS and SH were recorded to be the dominant factor in the winters, specifically. All in all, accurate estimation of ET o , which serves as an essential component for crop water requirement, could potentially help improve the irrigation scheduling of crops in the agroclimatic zones.

Keywords: reference evapotranspiration; geographic weighted regression; multiscale geographic weighted regression; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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