The estimation of evapotranspiration (ET), a key process within the Earth's surface water and energy balance, remains an important challenge for a wide range of disciplines such as surface hydrology, irrigation management and meteorology. However, notwithstanding the considerable progress recently made in our understanding of the physical and biological processes governing ET, the accurate quantification of ET is very tricky to achieve, even at a limited spatial scale. In this study, we combine field measurements with numerical experiments to tackle issues related to the quantification of ET and the associated uncertainties for a maize cropped field using two different approaches, i.e. the agro-hydrological modelling and the soil water balance approach. For the agro-hydrological modelling, we mainly focus on the estimation of field-scale soil water content and on the identification of root water uptake parameters. With regard to the field-scale soil water content, we put forward that the within-field variability is large and that the maize crop plays a non-negligible role in the development of the soil water content patterns both at the field and at the maize row scale. For deriving root water uptake parameters (RWUP), we develop and test two different approaches, i.e. the simplified soil water balance and the inverse modelling approach. Using numerical experiments, we show that the simplified soil water balance approach produces quite accurate RWUP. On the other hand, the inverse modelling approach is only successful for some soils and for some conditions due to instability and nonuniqueness issues. For the soil water balance approach, we show that the accuracy of the local ET estimate is strongly dependent on the estimation method used to derive the bottom fluxes and that the use of pedotransfer functions is of little interest. For field-scale ET estimates, we show that the variability of ET is large both at the field scale (due to the variable crop growth) and at the maize row scale (due to the maize row layout). To produce accurate field-scale ET estimates, we suggest to scale up maize row scale ET estimates using the concept of temporal stability or using a covariant such as the Leaf Area Index. The results of our study suggest that the estimation of water fluxes or associated state variables for a row cropped field requires a two-step upscaling strategy, from the local scale to the row, then from the row to the field scale.

Soil Water Balance (SWB) is a generic crop growth and irrigation-scheduling model. It improves on traditional methods of irrigation scheduling using evaporative demand by mechanistically and dynamically, quantitatively considering the soil–plant-atmosphere continuum. However, it needs specific crop growth parameters, which are not readily available for canola. The objective of this study was to determine crop growth parameters specific to canola and to identify the effect of water stress at different stages of growth on seed and oil yield. The study was conducted on the experimental farm of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, under a rain shelter during 2002 and in an open field during 2003. Weather data were recorded with an automatic weather station, phenological stages monitored frequently and growth analyses carried out every two weeks. Soil water content was measured with a neutron water meter weekly during 2002 and once every five days during 2003. Fractional interception of PAR was also measured with a sunfleck ceptometer. Specific crop parameters including specific leaf area, the leaf stem partitioning parameter, maximum rooting depth and thermal time requirements for crop development were generated from field measurements. These data form the backbone for accurate mechanistic simulations of the soil-water balance. The model was successfully calibrated and evaluated, proving its potential to be used as a generic crop irrigation-scheduling tool. Highest seed and oil yield was harvested from the unstressed treatment and lowest from the treatment stressed during the flowering stage. / Dissertation (MSc (Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Plant Production and Soil Science / unrestricted

Par le passé la Bretagne a connu des épisodes de sécheresses très intenses. Peu communs pour des régions caractérisées par un climat océanique, ils ont eu des conséquences notables à l'échelle du territoire. De nombreuses activités socio-économiques sont ainsi apparues vulnérables face à ces évènements. Durant la sécheresse de 1976, l'agriculture fut particulièrement touchée, avec des pertes de récoltes importantes. La sécheresse est donc un risque important à l'échelle du territoire breton. Or, le changement du climat observé depuis plusieurs décennies amène des doutes quant à l'évolution des sécheresses en termes de fréquence et d'intensité. Cette thèse propose ainsi une analyse des caractéristiques des épisodes secs en Bretagne selon trois scénarios SRES du GIEC : B1, A1B et A2. Les sorties climatiques désagrégées utilisées ont été comparées, dans un premier temps, aux observations, afin de s'assurer de l'adaptabilité des jeux de données pour une analyse de ce type. Pour chacun des scénarios deux types de bilans hydriques ont été calculés. Ils permettent d'obtenir des valeurs de déficit d'évaporation, paramètre illustrant l'intensité des sécheresses, ainsi que des valeurs de réserve hydrique qui mettent en évidence les périodes d'assèchement et de recharge des sols. Les premiers bilans hydriques, de résolution de 8 km et au pas de temps mensuel, proposent une vision générale sur le comportement hydrique des sols bretons. Les seconds, de résolution kilométrique et au pas de temps journalier, apportent plus de précision quant aux secteurs vulnérables et à l'intensité probable des épisodes secs. On peut ainsi voir que des sécheresses exceptionnelles, similaires à celle de 1976, seraient régulièrement observées à la fin du 21ème siècle d'après le scénario A2. La comparaison avec un indice de sécheresse utilisé par Météo-France confirme les tendances régionales attendues au 21ème siècle d'après les trois scénarios SRES. Une approche agronomique est également proposée dans cette thèse afin d'apprécier les impacts de différentes types de culture sur la réserve hydrique des sols / Several extreme droughts occurred in Brittany during the past. Although they are rare in this oceanic region, their impacts are noticeable on the territory. Several socio-economical activities thus appeared to be vulnerable to dryness. In 1976, agriculture has been highly impacted during the drought, with important harvest loss. Droughts are therefore a significant hazard in Brittany. However, the changing climate observed for several decades raises issues on the way drought events might evolve in terms of frequency and intensity. This thesis offers an analysis of drought's characteristics in Brittany according to three IPCC's SRES scenarios : B1, A1B and A2. At first, disaggregated climate outputs have been compared to observed data to make sure of their suitability for this kind of study. For each scenario, two soil water balances have been calculated in order to get values of evaporation deficit, quantifying drought intensity, and of water storage, illustrating periods of emptying and filling of soils. Soil water balances calculated at a 8-km spatial resolution and monthly timescale displayed a general view of water content in Britannic's soils. Soil water balances calculated at a higher spatial resolution (1 km) and daily timescale brought more details than previous results in terms of intensity and localization of droughts. They revealed that droughts of similar intensity than that of 1976 might occur regularly at the end of the 21st century according to the A2 scenario. These results are confirmed by another drought index used by Météo-France. An agronomic approach is also developed in this thesis in order to reveal impacts of farming on soil water content

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R.Br.] production under subsistence farmer management on the sandy soils of southwestern Niger is faced with many challenges, including declining soil fertility, highly variable and scarce rainfall and poor resource base of the peasant farmers in the region. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of management to increase yield and water use efficiency of pearl millet grown on two farmers’ fields in Niger during two growing seasons, 2003 and 2004. The management practices tested were: 1) Five manure treatments (no manure, transported manure, current corralling, a year after corralling, and two years after corralling); 2) The microdose technology (20 kg di-ammonium phosphate ha-1, and 20 kg di-ammonium phosphate ha-1 + 10 kg urea ha-1); and lastly, 3) Three different pearl millet cultivars (Heini Kirei, Zatib, and ICMV IS 89305). In both growing seasons, manure had the greatest effect on the yield and water use of pearl millet at both sites. In 2003 grain yields were 389 kg ha-1 in the NM treatment and 1495 kg ha-1 in the C0 treatment at Banizoumbou whereas at Bagoua, the NM treatment had 423 kg ha-1 vs. 995 kg ha-1 in the C0 treatment. In 2004, the NM treatment at Banizoumbou had 123 kg ha-1 grain yield and the C0 treatment had 957 kg ha-1 whereas at Bagoua the NM treatment had 506 kg ha-1 vs. 1152 kg ha-1 in the C0 treatment. Residual effects of manure led to grain yields in the C1 and C2 treatments which were more than twice as high as in the NM treatment. The improved cultivars were generally superior for grain yields, whereas the local landrace was superior for straw yields at both sites. Root zone drainage was decreased by between 50 to 100 mm, and water use increased by the same amount in the current corrals at the two sites during the two growing seasons. Increased water use under corralling and presence of residual profile moisture at the end of each of the two seasons suggested that water did not limit pearl millet production at the two sites.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / Soil moisture forms an integral part of the hydrological cycle and exerts considerable influence on hydrological processes at or near the earth’s surface. Knowledge of soil moisture is important for planning and decision-making in the agricultural sector, land and water conservation and flood warning. Point measurements of soil moisture, although highly accurate, are time consuming, costly and do not provide an accurate indication of the soil moisture variation over time and space as soil moisture has a high degree of spatial and temporal variability. The spatial variability of soil moisture is due to the heterogeneity of soil water holding properties, the influence of plants, and land uses. The downscaling of satellite microwave soil moisture estimates and soil water balance modelling was investigated at six transects in the semi-arid, Western Cape Province of South Africa, as alternatives to in situ soil measurements. It was found that microwave soil moisture estimates compared well to in situ measurements at the six transects (study sites), with coefficient of determination (r2) values greater than 0.7 and root mean square error (RMSE) values less than 1.5%. Downscaling using the universal triangle method, performed well at 4 of the 6 transects, with r2 values great than 0.65 and low to moderate RMSE values (0.5-12%). Soil water balance modelling similarly performed well in comparison with in situ measurements at 4 of the transects with regards to r2 values (>0.6) but had moderate to high RMSE (4.5-19%). Poor downscaling results were attributed to fine scale (within 1 km) surface heterogeneity while poor model performance was attributed to soil hydrological and rainfall heterogeneity within the study areas.

Increased frequency of severe drought events, coupled with rising air temperatures and vapor pressure deficits (VPD), pose a great threat to Mediterranean forests. Pinus halepensis Mill. is one of the most widespread species in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean basin. Thus, water use of this species plays a critical role in the regions water balance. Studying transpiration patterns and the mechanisms behind stomatal responses to the combined effects of changing VPD and soil moisture can help us improve estimation of forest water use in a changing climate. To improve the estimation of forest evapotranspiration in the Mediterranean basin, the objective of this thesis is to evaluate the transpiration patterns of Pinus halepensis and the role of this species in the soil-water balance under different environmental conditions. Two pine forests in the Turia river basin, eastern Spain, were monitored over a two-year period. The two locations were selected at contrasting altitudes and distances to the sea but within the same hydrological basin, to evaluate if this placement would change the relationship between environmental conditions and the water use of the pines. Sap flow measurements were obtained on a 30-minute interval together with soil moisture measurements and meteorological variables. A soil-water balance was performed on a forest plot-level using an eco-hydrological model in combination with the transpiration data, to assess the contribution of pine transpiration to actual evapotranspiration. Transpiration was dictated by changes in VPD, relative extractable water (REW) and the interaction between these two variables at both sites, indicating that the pines depended on water in the shallow soil layers, and this was restricted during large parts of the year. Except for low winter temperatures having a decreasing effect on transpiration only at the inland site, no significant differences were found in the relationship between environmental drivers and transpiration patterns between the two sites. Using a predictive model, sap flow was shown to be restricted on days of mean VPD values of 2.5 kPa, even when soil moisture levels were relatively sufficient (REW = 0.30), indicating a VPD threshold that decreases pine transpiration. This could potentially affect performance and survival of the species with predicted increases in air VPD. Transpiration levels were highly restricted throughout the first year demonstrating that physiological stresses were not limited to summer months. Using two-year old seedlings in an experiment under controlled conditions confirmed that high levels of VPD can have a decreasing effect on transpiration of P. halepensis (in response to instant changes from 1.5 kPa to 2.7 kPa), while there is an intermediate VPD range that increases transpiration (between 1.0 kPa – 1.5 kPa). This demonstrate how important it is to incorporate VPD changes when predicting forest water use under future climatic changes. Combining transpiration data with eco-hydrological modelling demonstrated that transpiration levels accounted for 62% of total ETa levels during two years of study. Interception levels where 32% of gross precipitation, representing a large water loss to the forest ecosystem. With increased frequency of drought events, soil moisture levels are predicted to become even more limited. Together with a rise in temperatures and consequently VPD, transpiration and growth are likely to be constrained.

Despite being the driest inhabited continent, Australia has one of the highest per capita water consumptions in the world. In addition, instead of having fit-for-purpose water supplies (using different qualities of water for different applications), highly treated drinking water is used for nearly all of Australia's urban water supply needs, including landscape irrigation. The water requirement of urban landscapes, particularly urban parklands, is of growing concern. The estimation of evapotranspiration (ET) and subsequently plant water requirements in urban vegetation needs to consider the heterogeneity of plants, soils, water, and climate characteristics. This research contributes to a broader effort to establish sustainable irrigation practices within the Adelaide Parklands in Adelaide, South Australia. In this paper, two practical ET estimation approaches are compared to a detailed Soil Water Balance (SWB) analysis over a one year period. One approach is the Water Use Classification of Landscape Plants (WUCOLS) method, which is based on expert opinion on the water needs of different classes of landscape plants. The other is a remote sensing approach based on the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on the Terra satellite. Both methods require knowledge of reference ET calculated from meteorological data. The SWB determined that plants consumed 1084 mmyr(-1) of water in ET with an additional 16% lost to drainage past the root zone, an amount sufficient to keep salts from accumulating in the root zone. ET by MODIS EVI was 1088 mmyr(-1), very close to the SWB estimate, while WUCOLS estimated the total water requirement at only 802 mmyr(-1), 26% lower than the SWB estimate and 37% lower than the amount actually added including the drainage fraction. Individual monthly ET by MODIS was not accurate, but these errors were cancelled out to give good agreement on an annual time step. We conclude that the MODIS EVI method can provide accurate estimates of urban water requirements in mixed landscapes large enough to be sampled by MODIS imagery with 250-m resolution such as parklands and golf courses.

The current study has been conducted in response to the growing problem of water scarcity and the need for more effective methods of irrigation water management. Remote sensing techniques have been used to match spatially and temporally distributed crop water demand to water application rates. Remote sensing approaches using Landsat imagery have been applied to estimate the components of a soil water balance model for an agricultural field by determining daily values of surface/root-zone soil moisture, evapotranspiration rates, and losses and by developing a forecasting model to generate optimal irrigation application information on a daily basis. Incompatibility of coarse resolution Landsat imagery (30m by 30m) with heterogeneities within the agricultural field and potential underestimation of field variations led the study to its main objective, which was to develop models capable of representing spatial and temporal variations within the agricultural field at a compatible resolution with farming management activities. These models support establishing real-time management of irrigation water scheduling and application. The AggieAirTM Minion autonomous aircraft is a remote sensing platform developed by the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University. It is a completely autonomous airborne platform that captures high-resolution multi-spectral images in the visual, near infrared, and thermal infrared bands at 15cm resolution. AggieAir flew over the study area on four dates in 2013 that were coincident with Landsat overflights and provided similar remotely sensed data at much finer resolution. These data, in concert with state-of-the-art supervised learning machine techniques and field measurements, have been used to model surface and root zone soil volumetric water content at 15cm resolution. The information provided by this study has the potential to give farmers greater precision in irrigation water allocation and scheduling.

Both empirical and process-simulation models are useful for evaluating the effects of management practices on environmental quality and crop yield. The use of these models is limited, however, because they need many soil property values as input. The first step towards modelling is the collection of input data. Soil properties can be highly variable spatially and temporally, and measuring them is time-consuming and expensive. Efficient methods, which consider the uncertainty and cost of measurements, for estimating soil hydraulic properties form the main thrust of this study. Hydraulic properties are affected by other soil physical, and chemical properties, therefore it is possible to develop empirical relations to predict them. This idea quantified is called a pedotransfer function. Such functions may be global or restricted to a country or region. The different classification of particle-size fractions used in Australia compared with other countries presents a problem for the immediate adoption of exotic pedotransfer functions. A database of Australian soil hydraulic properties has been compiled. Pedotransfer functions for estimating water-retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity from particle size and bulk density for Australian soil are presented. Different approaches for deriving hydraulic transfer functions have been presented and compared. Published pedotransfer functions were also evaluated, generally they provide a satisfactory estimation of water retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity depending on the spatial scale and accuracy of prediction. Several pedotransfer functions were developed in this study to predict water retention and hydraulic conductivity. The pedotransfer functions developed here may predict adequately in large areas but for site-specific applications local calibration is needed. There is much uncertainty in the input data, and consequently the transfer functions can produce varied outputs. Uncertainty analysis is therefore needed. A general approach to quantifying uncertainty is to use Monte Carlo methods. By sampling repeatedly from the assumed probability distributions of the input variables and evaluating the response of the model the statistical distribution of the outputs can be estimated. A modified Latin hypercube method is presented for sampling joint multivariate probability distributions. This method is applied to quantify the uncertainties in pedotransfer functions of soil hydraulic properties. Hydraulic properties predicted using pedotransfer functions developed in this study are also used in a field soil-water model to analyze the uncertainties in the prediction of dynamic soil-water regimes. The use of the disc permeameter in the field conventionally requires the placement of a layer of sand in order to provide good contact between the soil surface and disc supply membrane. The effect of sand on water infiltration into the soil and on the estimate of sorptivity was investigated. A numerical study and a field experiment on heavy clay were conducted. Placement of sand significantly increased the cumulative infiltration but showed small differences in the infiltration rate. Estimation of sorptivity based on the Philip's two term algebraic model using different methods was also examined. The field experiment revealed that the error in infiltration measurement was proportional to the cumulative infiltration curve. Infiltration without placement of sand was considerably smaller because of the poor contact between the disc and soil surface. An inverse method for predicting soil hydraulic parameters from disc permeameter data has been developed. A numerical study showed that the inverse method is quite robust in identifying the hydraulic parameters. However application to field data showed that the estimated water retention curve is generally smaller than the one obtained in laboratory measurements. Nevertheless the estimated near-saturated hydraulic conductivity matched the analytical solution quite well. Th author believes that the inverse method can give a reasonable estimate of soil hydraulic parameters. Some experimental and theoretical problems were identified and discussed. A formal analysis was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of the different methods in predicting water retention and hydraulic conductivity. The analysis identified the contribution of individual source of measurement errors to the overall uncertainty. For single measurements, the inverse disc-permeameter analysis is economically more efficient than using pedotransfer functions or measuring hydraulic properties in the laboratory. However, given the large amount of spatial variation of soil hydraulic properties it is perhaps not surprising that lots of cheap and imprecise measurements, e.g. by hand texturing, are more efficient than a few expensive precise ones.

Both empirical and process-simulation models are useful for evaluating the effects of management practices on environmental quality and crop yield. The use of these models is limited, however, because they need many soil property values as input. The first step towards modelling is the collection of input data. Soil properties can be highly variable spatially and temporally, and measuring them is time-consuming and expensive. Efficient methods, which consider the uncertainty and cost of measurements, for estimating soil hydraulic properties form the main thrust of this study. Hydraulic properties are affected by other soil physical, and chemical properties, therefore it is possible to develop empirical relations to predict them. This idea quantified is called a pedotransfer function. Such functions may be global or restricted to a country or region. The different classification of particle-size fractions used in Australia compared with other countries presents a problem for the immediate adoption of exotic pedotransfer functions. A database of Australian soil hydraulic properties has been compiled. Pedotransfer functions for estimating water-retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity from particle size and bulk density for Australian soil are presented. Different approaches for deriving hydraulic transfer functions have been presented and compared. Published pedotransfer functions were also evaluated, generally they provide a satisfactory estimation of water retention and saturated hydraulic conductivity depending on the spatial scale and accuracy of prediction. Several pedotransfer functions were developed in this study to predict water retention and hydraulic conductivity. The pedotransfer functions developed here may predict adequately in large areas but for site-specific applications local calibration is needed. There is much uncertainty in the input data, and consequently the transfer functions can produce varied outputs. Uncertainty analysis is therefore needed. A general approach to quantifying uncertainty is to use Monte Carlo methods. By sampling repeatedly from the assumed probability distributions of the input variables and evaluating the response of the model the statistical distribution of the outputs can be estimated. A modified Latin hypercube method is presented for sampling joint multivariate probability distributions. This method is applied to quantify the uncertainties in pedotransfer functions of soil hydraulic properties. Hydraulic properties predicted using pedotransfer functions developed in this study are also used in a field soil-water model to analyze the uncertainties in the prediction of dynamic soil-water regimes. The use of the disc permeameter in the field conventionally requires the placement of a layer of sand in order to provide good contact between the soil surface and disc supply membrane. The effect of sand on water infiltration into the soil and on the estimate of sorptivity was investigated. A numerical study and a field experiment on heavy clay were conducted. Placement of sand significantly increased the cumulative infiltration but showed small differences in the infiltration rate. Estimation of sorptivity based on the Philip's two term algebraic model using different methods was also examined. The field experiment revealed that the error in infiltration measurement was proportional to the cumulative infiltration curve. Infiltration without placement of sand was considerably smaller because of the poor contact between the disc and soil surface. An inverse method for predicting soil hydraulic parameters from disc permeameter data has been developed. A numerical study showed that the inverse method is quite robust in identifying the hydraulic parameters. However application to field data showed that the estimated water retention curve is generally smaller than the one obtained in laboratory measurements. Nevertheless the estimated near-saturated hydraulic conductivity matched the analytical solution quite well. Th author believes that the inverse method can give a reasonable estimate of soil hydraulic parameters. Some experimental and theoretical problems were identified and discussed. A formal analysis was carried out to evaluate the efficiency of the different methods in predicting water retention and hydraulic conductivity. The analysis identified the contribution of individual source of measurement errors to the overall uncertainty. For single measurements, the inverse disc-permeameter analysis is economically more efficient than using pedotransfer functions or measuring hydraulic properties in the laboratory. However, given the large amount of spatial variation of soil hydraulic properties it is perhaps not surprising that lots of cheap and imprecise measurements, e.g. by hand texturing, are more efficient than a few expensive precise ones.