Title: Evapotranspiration for cotton in plain and hilly areas in Chuadanga and Rangamati districts in Bangladesh using Penman method

Authors: Mahbub Hasan; Aschalew Kassu

Addresses: Department of Mechanical, Civil Engineering and Construction Management, College of Engineering, Technology and Physical Sciences, Alabama A&M University, Normal, AL 35762, USA ' Department of Mechanical, Civil Engineering and Construction Management, College of Engineering, Technology and Physical Sciences, Alabama A&M University, Normal, AL 35762, USA

Abstract: Water management and its appropriate application for cultivating cotton have been a promising issue to ensure the best quality and quantity of production. Rainfall intensity and pattern, differences in temperature and cloudiness and non-cloudiness during the growing season, will affect crop water requirement. Different studies showed that excess or less water uses result into a lower yield. Evapotranspiration of any crop is predominantly dependent on environmental factors and crop factors. The environmental factors are further critical for energy requirement for crop development where sunshine hours, intensity of sunshine, duration of sunshine, temperature and relative humidity play the vital role. Due to the change in geographical location, the energy availability for contributing in the evapotranspiration is also different. Hence, the water requirement for the same cotton crop may vary for two different locations. A dependable and reliable scheduling system for irrigating is desirable for timeliness and quantity of water to irrigate for potential yield of cotton. In this article, a reliable approach to determine crop water requirement for cotton cultivation is proposed using the Penman method for Chuadanga, representing the flat land and Rangamati, representing hilly areas of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Penman method; reference crop coefficient; K_c; cotton irrigation; evapotranspiration; ET_c; net radiation; R_n; energy balance; Bangladesh.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2019.099990

International Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2019 Vol.10 No.1, pp.17 - 32

Received: 15 Apr 2018
Accepted: 16 Sep 2018
Published online: 03 Jun 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article