Skip to main content

Crop Water Requirements: Evapotranspiration Meets Precision Agriculture

A massive part of irrigation engineering is figuring out exactly how much water a crop needs to survive without wasting a drop. This is calculated using the concept of Consumptive Use or Evapotranspiration (ET). The baseline formula is:

ETc = Kc * ET0

​Where ETc is the crop evapotranspiration, Kc is the crop coefficient (which changes depending on the growth stage), and ET0 is the reference evapotranspiration (often calculated using weather data via the Penman-Monteith method). Engineers use these formulas to design the capacity of irrigation canals and reservoirs.

​The Recent Advancement 

​Applying fixed formulas across thousands of acres assumes the entire field behaves exactly the same. The modern revolution in this space is Precision Agriculture driven by IoT (Internet of Things).

​Instead of calculating average evaporation rates on paper, modern irrigation networks use deep-soil moisture sensors, thermal drone imaging, and AI. These systems detect the exact water stress of individual plant zones in real-time. Automated drip-irrigation networks then deliver precise amounts of water—down to the milliliter—only to the specific patches of soil that need it. This method is saving millions of gallons of water globally in drought-prone regions.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RIVER INTAKE STRUCTURE

  RIVER INTAKE As we know intake should be located at the upstream side of the city so pollution is minimum and this river intake should be sufficiently inside the river water so need of water can be supplied at every seasons of the year. Some river intakes are constructed near the bank of river when sufficient depth is available, some are created away from the bank of river when river bed is soft or unstable near bank, sometimes water level raised by constructing weir on the river and sometimes channel created and water led to the intake tower. This all situations divides river intake into two major types: (1) Single well type intake and (2) Twin well type intake. Parts of river intake are Intake well, Intake pipe and Jack well. River intake well has two parts, lower part is Jack well and upper part is surves pump house. SINGLE WELL TYPE RIVER INTAKE In single well type intakes water is directly enter into jack well through the penstockes (openings) created at different level. As ...
Post a Comment
Read more

CANAL INTAKE STRUCTURE

  CANAL INTAKE Canal intake structure An irrigation canal used as the source of water when other source are far from the city. Intake structure constructed near the bank of canal. An intake chamber created inside the canal using concrete or masonry having one bell mouth entry pipe inside it. Intake chamber has opening guarded with coarse screen and bell mouth entry protected with fine screen or mesh. Bell mouth entry located at expected low water level of the canal. Water enters from this bell mouth entry and conveyed through withdrawal conduits to sump well or city.
Post a Comment
Read more

RESERVOIR INTAKE STRUCTURE

  RESERVOIR INTAKE All rivers has not sufficient depth of flow throughout the year and hence dam constructed across the river to form a reservoir having sufficient depth for intake. This intake structure built upstream side near the dam and it is similar to the river intake. A typical reservoir intake well consists number of water entry ports located at various elevations so that relatively clear top water is only drawn at all seasons. All control on this entry ports is at topnof the well. Dry intakes and wet intakes formed according to the position of entry valves outer and inner of the well respectively.
Post a Comment
Read more