Estimating Crop Water Requirements in Arizona and New Mexico

Abstract

Relevant methods for estimating reference crop evaporation and crop evaporation for selected, pertinent crops growing in the semiarid environments of Arizona and New Mexico are investigated. Daily evaporation estimates over the period 2000-2010 are calculated using standard meteorological data from 35 weather stations. Compared to the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith reference evapotranspiration estimate, the Hargreaves and Priestley-Taylor equations overestimate by 5-15% while the temperature-based Blaney-Criddle method currently used in New Mexico underestimates by 8-13%, on average, the discrepancy being most severe in highly advective regions. Crop evaporation estimates are compared to the one-step Matt-Shuttleworth approach. The Blaney-Criddle method systematically underestimates crop evaporation by 7-30%, while underestimation using the climatically adjusted FAO-56 crop coefficient approach is 1-8% for short crops but ~20% for tall pecan and citrus orchards grown at atmospherically arid locations. Crop surface resistances derived using the Matt-Shuttleworth approach at Fabian Garcia in southern New Mexico compare favorably to literature values.