Evaluation of the performance of SWAP model updated with satellite data in estimating of rice evapotranspiration and its crop coefficients

Due to the upcoming climate threats, challenge of water shortage and its impact on the food security of the growing population in Iran, the optimal use of soil and water resources is very important. With the development of remote sensing technologies, free access to a variety of field data has become widely available, which can be used to reduce the uncertainty of simulation models. The aim of this study was to simulate actual evapotranspiration (ETa) and rice crop coefficients (Kc) during its growth stages using the SWAP model updated with satellite data and evaluate the accuracy of the results with/without updating. This research was conducted at the National Rice Research Institute of Iran in Rasht in the year of 2017. Based on the obtained results, total ETa measured by lysimeter and simulated by SWAP model with and without updating were 395.4, 373.2 and 363.6 mm, respectively. The average crop coefficients during the growth stages of vegetative, reproductive and ripening were estimated as 1.13, 1.49, 1.21, respectively. The crop coefficients for the proposed stages estimated by SWAP model without using satellite data were 1.02, 1.39, 1.04, respectively. After updating with satellite data, the crop coefficients were modified as 1.05, 1.43 and 1.07, respectively. Finally, the statistical analysis indicated that the SWAP model has a reasonable performance in estimation of ETa (RMSE=0.89; EF=0.98; R2=0.74) and rice crop coefficients (RMSE=0.53; EF=0.96; R2=0.63). The results indicate that the SWAP model combined with satellite data improved the accuracy of ETa estimation (RMSE=0.75; EF=0.99; R2=0.86) and rice crop coefficient (RMSE=0.40; EF=0.99; R2=0.74) at field scale.