Parametric expressions for the adjusted Hargreaves coefficient in Eastern Spain

Abstract

The application of simple empirical equations for estimating reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the only alternative in many cases to robust approaches with high input requirements, especially at the local scale. In particular, temperature-based approaches present a high potential applicability, among others, because temperature might explain a high amount of ETo variability, and also because it can be measured easily and is one of the most available climatic inputs. One of the most well-known temperature-based approaches, the Hargreaves (HG) equation, requires a preliminary local calibration that is usually performed through an adjustment of the HG coefficient (AHC). Nevertheless, these calibrations are sitespecific, and cannot be extrapolated to other locations. So, they become useless in many situations, because they are derived from already available benchmarks based on more robust methods, which will be applied in practice. Therefore, the development of accurate equations for estimating AHC at local scale becomes a relevant task. This paper analyses the performance of calibrated and non-calibrated HG equations at 30 stations in Eastern Spain at daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly scales. Moreover, multiple linear regression was applied for estimating AHC based on different inputs, and the resulting equations yielded higher performance accuracy than the non-calibrated HG estimates. The approach relying on the ratio mean temperature to temperature range did not provide suitable AHC estimations, and was highly improved by splitting it into two independent predictors. Temperature-based equations were improved by incorporating geographical inputs. Finally, the model relying on temperature and geographic inputs was further improved by incorporating wind speed, even just with simple qualitative information about wind category (e.g. poorly vs. highly windy). The accuracy of the calibrated and non-calibrated HG estimates increased for longer time steps (daily < weekly < fortnightly < monthly), although with a decreasing accuracy improvement rate. The variability of goodness-of-fit between AHC models was translated into lower variability of accuracy between the corresponding HG calibrated ETo estimates, because a single AHC was applied per station. The AHC fluctuations throughout the year suggest the convenience of using monthly or, at least, seasonal models. 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.