A Comparative Study of Crop Evapotranspiration Estimation by Three methods with Measured Crop Evapotranspiration in Konya Plain.

Özet

Evapotranspiration values are one of the basic data used in the planning,design, construction and operation of irrigation facilities. The irrigation waterneeds of several plants are calculated by using various empirical equationsbased on meteorological data and the system is designed according to themonth in which the highest irrigation water is needed. The aim of this study isto compare ETc of several crops calculated with different ETc estimationmethods as of FAO56-Penman-Monteith, Hergeaves - Samani and RadiationEquation with determined ETc values obtained from previously conductedresearches in Konya. In the study, five commonly cultivated crops in KonyaProvince such as maize, sugar beet, sunflower, potato and wheat wereconsidered. In most of the cases, it was found that radiation equation producedhigher ETc values than the measured ETc values in the researches conducted atthe region. As a result of this study, Penman-Monteith was close to most of thevalues obtained from other studies and therefore remains a highlyrecommendable method for estimating ETc for considered plants in Konya.