Sponsored by the Committee on Evapotranspiration in Irrigation and Hydrology of the Irrigation and Drainage Council of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of ASCE

Evaporation, Evapotranspiration, and Irrigation Requirements is a comprehensive reference to estimating the water quantities needed for irrigation of crops based upon the physics of evaporation and evapotranspiration (ET). This new edition of MOP 70, which updates and expands the 1990 original, provides improved and standardized methods to estimate evaporation and ET and to apply and evaluate calculations. The methods, which have both a physical and practical basis, improve clarity, accuracy, and consistency for systems design and management. They are also useful in legal applications involving water agreements, water disputes, and water rights.

As competition for water increases and water resources are depleted, this book provides the critical tools to accurately quantify amounts of water consumed by irrigated agriculture. The first part covers basic concepts and physical principles, such as evaporation and ET processes, soil-water-plant systems, energy balance, surface energy–air mass interactions, and evaporation from water surfaces. The second part on ET from land surfaces explains components of measurement and details on estimation; reference crop ET; evaporation from soil; the crop coefficient method; the Penman-Monteith and energy-balance equations; and regional estimates. A third part discusses estimation of irrigation water requirements (IWR) and streamflow depletions. Thirteen appendixes provide tables of mean and basal crop coefficients and background information on concepts and equations used throughout the manual.

MOP 70 is intended for use by consulting engineers and scientists working on water issues and by instructors of agricultural and civil engineering, hydrology, and environmental and agricultural sciences.

Reviewed by Z. Samani (Civil Engineering Department, New Mexico State University) for the Vadose Zone Journal

The book aims to provide theoretical and practical information for professionals and students who are involved in managing water, designing or analyzing irrigation systems, assessing evaporation from free water surfaces, reservoir managements, and the hydrology and soil–plant–water relationships. The readership includes students and professional in the field of agriculture, water management, soil, atmospheric science, and hydrology. A typical reader can expect to find a strong theoretical foundation that includes equations and guidelines for calculating many processes involving water and energy balance in a variety of environmental settings. The authors also include information on instruments for collecting and analyzing climate and other hydrological related data.