USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
A comparison of SWAT model-predicted potential evapotranspiration: Using real and modeled meteorological data.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2008
ISSN
1539-1663
Abstract
Adequate characterization of potential evapotranspiration (PET) plays a critical role in hydrologic budgets, rainfall-runoff models, infiltration calculations, and drought prediction models (to name a few applications). The availability of reliable and continuous meteorological data remains a challenge; therefore, it is common to use modeled (simulated) meteorological data. This research used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to estimate PET using different meteorological input data (simulated vs. real data) and the three commonly used PET calculation methods (viz. Penman-Monteith, Hargreaves, and Priestley-Taylor). The overall goal of this research was to determine the accuracy of prediction using simulated and real meteorological data when used with three PET calculation methods. Initial input layers to SWAT were: digital elevation models, soils, and land use. Real meteorological data were obtained from three local meteorological stations, whereas simulated meteorological data were generated by SWAT using one nearby national meteorological site. The model-predicted PET results were validated using independent PET measurements from Florida Automated Weather Network sites. The results of the study indicate that the difference in predicted PET between simulated (modeled) and real meteorology for a given PET calculation method is not significant; however, it is significant across the methods of PET calculation.
Language
en_US
Publisher
Soil Science Society of America
Recommended Citation
Earls, J. & Dixon B. (2008). A comparison of SWAT model-predicted potential evapotranspiration: Using real and modeled meteorological data. Vadose Zone Journal (Special section: Multiscale Mapping), 7(2), 570–580. DOI: 10.2136/vzj2007.0012
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Vadose Zone Journal (Special section: Multiscale Mapping), 7(2), 570-580. DOI: 10.2136/vzj2007.0012 Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.