Comparison of Different Evapotranspiration Estimation Techniques for Mohanpur, Nadia District, West Bengal

The accurate estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ETo) plays a pivotal role in water resources planning and management studies. The present study was attempted to estimate the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) using three temperature based methods namely, Blaney-Criddle method, Thornthwaite method and Hargreaves-Samani model and three radiation based methods namely, Turc method, Priestly-Taylor model, and FAO - 24 Radiation Model for Mohanpur area, Nadia district, West Bengal. ET estimates of the above mentioned methods were then compared with FAO Penman - Monteith (FAO-56 PM) method, which was considered as the standard method of ETo estimation, to check the capabilities of different models to predict ETo for the study area. The present analysis was carried out using 10-years daily weather data of Mohanpur weather station. The results of the study revealed that, the ETo values at Mohanpur, Nadia district, West Bengal, India were in the range of 3.5 mm/day to 5.0 mm/day. A rank was assigned to different methods based on the comparative analysis of different ETo estimation methods with FAO-56 PM method and it could be inferred that Turc method as the closest method and Thornthwaite method as the least-matched method to FAO 56 Penman-Monteith for the study area