G. Provenzano

Comparison of SWAP and FAO Agro-Hydrological Models to Schedule Irrigation of Wine Grapes

AbstractThis paper compares two agro-hydrological models that are used to schedule irrigation of a typical Mediterranean crop. In particular, a comparison between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) model, which uses a black box approach, and the soil-water-atmosphere-plant (SWAP) model, which is based on the numerical analysis of Richards’ equation, are shown for wine grape. The comparison was carried out for the 2005 and 2006 irrigation seasons and focused on hydrological balance components and on soil water contents. Next, the ordinary scheduling parameters were identified so that the performance of the two models, which aimed to evaluate the seasonal water requirements and the irrigation times, could be assessed. In the validation phase, both of the models satisfactorily simulated the soil water content, and comparable values of cumulative evapotranspiration were obtained. With the goal of recognizing the crop water stress condition in the field, the original algorithm of the FAO model was mod...

Improvement of FAO-56 Model to Estimate Transpiration Fluxes of Drought Tolerant Crops under Soil Water Deficit: Application for Olive Groves

AbstractAgro-hydrological models are considered an economic and simple tool for quantifying crop water requirements. In the last two decades, agro-hydrological physically based models have been developed to simulate mass and energy exchange processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. Although very reliable, because of the high number of required variables, simplified models have been proposed to quantify crop water consumes. The main aim of this paper is to propose an amendment of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations FAO-56 spreadsheet program to introduce a more realistic shape of the stress function, valid for mature olive orchards (Olea europaea L.). The modified model is successively validated by means of the comparison between measured and simulated soil water contents and actual transpiration fluxes. These outputs are finally compared with those obtained with the original version of the model. Experiments also allowed assessing the ability of simulated crop water str...

Potential of Thermal Images and Simulation Models to Assess Water and Salt Stress: Application to Potato Crop in Central Tunisia

Potential of Thermal Images and Simulation Models to Assess Water and Salt Stress: Application to Potato Crop in Central Tunisia Hiba Ghazouani, Fulvio Capodici, Giuseppe Ciraolo, Antonino Maltese, Giovanni Rallo, Giuseppe Provenzano* Département du Génie des Systèmes Horticoles et du Milieu Naturel, Institut Supérieur Agronomique Chott Meriém, Sousse, Tunisie. Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace, Materials Engineering (DICAM), University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Bdg. 8, 90128 Palermo, Italy. Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (DAFE), University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy. Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences (SAF), University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Bdg. 4, 90128 Palermo, Italy. giuseppe.provenzano@unipa.it