1. New alternatives for reference evapotranspiration estimation in West Africa using limited weather data and ancillary data supply strategies.
- Author
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Landeras, Gorka, Bekoe, Emmanuel, Ampofo, Joseph, Logah, Frederick, Diop, Mbaye, Cisse, Madiama, and Shiri, Jalal
- Subjects
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EVAPOTRANSPIRATION measurement , *ARTIFICIAL neural networks , *GENE expression , *IRRIGATION - Abstract
Accurate estimation of reference evapotranspiration (
ET 0 ) is essential for the computation of crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling, and water resources management. In this context, having a battery of alternative local calibratedET 0 estimation methods is of great interest for any irrigation advisory service. The development of irrigation advisory services will be a major breakthrough for West African agriculture. In the case of many West African countries, the high number of meteorological inputs required by the Penman-Monteith equation has been indicated as constraining. The present paper investigates for the first time in Ghana, the estimation ability of artificial intelligence-based models (Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Gene Expression Programing (GEPs)), and ancillary/external approaches for modeling reference evapotranspiration (ET 0 ) using limited weather data. According to the results of this study, GEPs have emerged as a very interesting alternative forET 0 estimation at all the locations of Ghana which have been evaluated in this study under different scenarios of meteorological data availability. The adoption of ancillary/external approaches has been also successful, moreover in the southern locations. The interesting results obtained in this study using GEPs and some ancillary approaches could be a reference for future studies aboutET 0 estimation in West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2018
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