Customizing pyfao56 for evapotranspiration estimation and irrigation scheduling at the Limited Irrigation Research Farm (LIRF), Greeley, Colorado

Authors: DeJonge, Kendall; Thorp, Kelly; Brekel, Joshua; Pokoski, Tyler; Trout, Thomas

Submitted to: Agricultural Water Management
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/18/2024
Publication Date: 5/29/2024
Citation: DeJonge, K.C., Thorp, K.R., Brekel, J.J., Pokoski, T.C., Trout, T.J. 2024. Customizing pyfao56 for evapotranspiration estimation and irrigation scheduling at the Limited Irrigation Research Farm (LIRF), Greeley, Colorado. Agricultural Water Management. 299. Article e108891. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2024.108891.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2024.108891

Interpretive Summary: In irrigated farming, it is crucial to know how much water the crops need. This can be hard to figure out with different soils or with limited water. USDA scientists in Colorado have tweaked a free water balance tool to help their research, which focuses on irrigation needs with less water. This tool is great for use in research plots and proves very helpful in making better choices about irrigation. This effort paves the way for farmers and irrigation system makers to use these tools.

Technical Abstract: Estimation of evapotranspiration (ET, the water used by soil evaporation and plant transpiration) and soil water depletion (Dr, the amount of water to bring the soil water in the root zone to field capacity) are critical in irrigation water management. The open-source Python-based crop ET and water balance modeling package named “pyfao56” was originally developed based on the dual crop coefficient approach as described in the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56 (FAO-56). The package later expanded on the seminal FAO-56 document to consider many options relevant to ET and water balance modeling, including both short (grass) and tall (alfalfa) reference crops, optional discretization of variable soil layers based on field capacity, and interpretation of readily available water (RAW) and Dr based on both a dynamic (growing) root zone and maximum root zone. The package requires two input data objects: the “Parameters” class defines variables affecting soil water balance and ET and the “Weather” class specifies relevant meteorological data. Other optional input data objects include the “Irrigation” class for irrigation events, the “Soil_Profile: class for defining stratified soil layer data, and the “Update” class for assimilation of measured data. Additional tools are available for estimating and forecasting standardized reference ET (ETref), providing seasonal water balance summaries, computing goodness-of-fit statistics between measured and modeled values, and visualizing time series plots of daily Dr, ET, and crop coefficients. The current pyfao56 release (v1.2.1) was incorporated into a customized workflow for specific use at the USDA-ARS Limited Irrigation Research Farm (LIRF) in Greeley, Colorado, and named the LIRF Implementation of Pyfao56 (LIRFIP). Field data from 2023 full and limited irrigation field trials were used to demonstrate the functionality of LIRFIP and its customizations and integration of pyfao56 into the LIRF workflow. Specific customizations included use of pyfao56 “customload” functions to input data from various sources, including weather from an on-site micrometerological station (using the application programming interface (API) developed by the maintainers of the weather station network), irrigation events (via a shared Google docs sheet), field capacity values by plot and soil layer (via an Excel spreadsheet), and measured soil water content as well as basal crop coefficient (Kcb) calculated from fractional canopy cover (fc) (via an SQLite database). To evaluate multiple research plots, LIRFIP was designed to iterate simulations from multiple instances of pyfao56 and to produce customized output summary files and interactive hypertext markup language (html) graphs as an aid for irrigation management decisions for LIRF field trials. This study demonstrated pyfao56 as a useful, flexible, customizable, and repeatable ET-based water balance model by showcasing its integration within a specific computational workflow for irrigation management field research at LIRF. The approach serves as an example for pyfao56 integration in other water management tools as conceived by water managers, researchers, and practitioners worldwide.