Water Budget Calculator Created for Residential Urban Landscapes in Albuquerque, New Mexico

• Published in: Journal of irrigation and drainage engineering 2012-06, Vol.138 (6), p.525-533
• Main Authors: Al-Kofahi, Salman D, VanLeeuwen, Dawn M, Samani, Zohrab A, St. Hilaire, Rolston
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural and forest climatology and meteorology. Irrigation. Drainage; Agricultural and forest meteorology; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General agronomy. Plant production; Irrigation. Drainage; Technical Papers; Water balance and requirements. Evapotranspiration
• ISSN: 0733-9437; 1943-4774
• DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)IR.1943-4774.0000439

AbstractThe current methods used to calculate urban landscape water budgets are limited because they lack site specificity. The objective of this study was to create a landscape water budget web interface based on ground-proofed information, such as plant coefficients (Ks), vegetation components, and reference evapotranspiration (ETo). Using Albuquerque, New Mexico as the base city, mixed landscape and monthly turf grass coefficients for each zip code in Albuquerque were developed. The spatial variability of zip code ETo and ETo weather anomalies was assessed because of their potential effect on water budgets. Evapotranspiration varied among zip codes, months, and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases. To improve the water budget estimate, the interface accounts for spatial and temporal variability of the monthly, historical (monthly and yearly), and the ENSO phases ETo. Because nonturf landscape plant Kss were unavailable for Albuquerque, the authors developed a Region Match Analysis to transfer nonturf plant Kss from the most similar California climate region to Albuquerque. The interface allows users to input an address and view its image. Users can digitize a site image and calculate the water budget based on either total vegetated areas, areas of trees, shrubs, and grass, or areas of specific plant species. The water budget calculation based on the developed approaches showed a reduction in the estimated water budget compared with the common water budget approach. The web interface can be utilized as a planning tool to estimate water budgets for new developments, irrigation scheduling, and planning for ordinances and policies. The web interface uses improved methods to calculate water budgets and possesses an enhanced potential to provide accurate water budgets.