Evaluating the Precision of Wheat Actual Evapotranspiration with the Vegetation Index Method in Comparison to the Metric Model

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-666-1_16How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Actual evapotranspiration; remote sensing; NDVI; Crop coefficient; Akarsu Irrigation District

Abstract

Accurate estimation of actual evapotranspiration (ETa) is crucial for sustainable water resource management, particularly in large-scale irrigation districts. This study presents a comparative evaluation of the METRIC and Kc-NDVI models for estimating ETa of wheat during two consecutive hydrological years (2020 and 2021) in the Akarsu Irrigation District (9,495 ha), located in the Lower Seyhan Plain, southern Türkiye. The METRIC model integrates multiple remote sensing and meteorological inputs, whereas the Kc-NDVI method relies on fewer data sources, making it suitable for data-scarce regions. Fourteen clear-sky Landsat 7 and 8 images, together with climate data from two local meteorological stations, were used to estimate seasonal ETa of wheat. Results showed that the Kc-NDVI method consistently underestimated ETa for wheat compared with the METRIC model, particularly at the beginning and end of the winter growing season. The Mean Bias Errors (MBE) were 0.61 mm/day and 0.78 mm/day, while the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) were 0.86 mm/day and 0.97 mm/day for 2020 and 2021, respectively. Despite its simplified input requirements, the Kc-NDVI method demonstrated satisfactory performance during the mid-season period. These findings highlight the potential of the Kc-NDVI approach as a cost-effective and operationally feasible alternative for field-scale ETa estimation and irrigation management in data-limited environments.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Omar Alsenjar
AU  - Mahmut Cetin
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/07
TI  - Evaluating the Precision of Wheat Actual Evapotranspiration with the Vegetation Index Method in Comparison to the Metric Model
BT  - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Research of Agricultural and Food Technologies (I-CRAFT 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 164
EP  - 179
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-666-1_16
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-666-1_16
ID  - Alsenjar2026
ER  -