New alternatives for reference evapotranspiration estimation in West Africa using limited weather data and ancillary data supply strategies.     

Gorka?Landeras  Emmanuel?Bekoe  Joseph?Ampofo  Frederick?Logah  Mbaye?Diop  Madiama?Cisse  Jalal?ShiriEmail authorView author&#;s OrcID profile 《Theoretical and Applied Climatology》2018,132(3-4):701-716

Accurate estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ET ₀ ) is essential for the computation of crop water requirements, irrigation scheduling, and water resources management. In this context, having a battery of alternative local calibrated ET ₀ estimation methods is of great interest for any irrigation advisory service. The development of irrigation advisory services will be a major breakthrough for West African agriculture. In the case of many West African countries, the high number of meteorological inputs required by the Penman-Monteith equation has been indicated as constraining. The present paper investigates for the first time in Ghana, the estimation ability of artificial intelligence-based models (Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Gene Expression Programing (GEPs)), and ancillary/external approaches for modeling reference evapotranspiration (ET ₀ ) using limited weather data. According to the results of this study, GEPs have emerged as a very interesting alternative for ET ₀ estimation at all the locations of Ghana which have been evaluated in this study under different scenarios of meteorological data availability. The adoption of ancillary/external approaches has been also successful, moreover in the southern locations. The interesting results obtained in this study using GEPs and some ancillary approaches could be a reference for future studies about ET ₀ estimation in West Africa.  相似文献   

Inter-Relationships Between Groundnut Yield in Senegal, Interannual Rainfall Variability and Sea-Surface Temperatures     

P. Camberlin  M. Diop 《Theoretical and Applied Climatology》1999,63(3-4):163-181

Summary Groundnut production strongly contributes to Senegal’s economy. Interannual variations of groundnut yield for the country as a whole, and their relationship with rainfall amounts, are examined for the 31-yr period 1960–1990. It is shown that on that scale, and after removing decadal trends, almost half of the variance is explained by rainfall variability, especially that of the early part of the rainy season (July–August). Given the high spatial coherence of seasonal rainfall in the region, teleconnections with global- and regional-scale climate dynamics, including sea-surface temperatures, are assessed. Though some features are similar to the rest of the Sahel, others are more specific, such as the higher sensitivity to ENSO (El-Ni?o Southern Oscillation) and to coupled ocean-atmosphere climate anomalies over the nearby Tropical North Atlantic Ocean, which are associated to the latitudinal location of the ITCZ over the ocean. Lag-correlations with pre-season SST are also discussed. Some of these teleconnections are used to define preliminary empirical models for rainfall and groundnut yield prediction for Senegal. Received March 23, 1998 Revised January 11, 1999  相似文献