A Review of Landscape Water Requirements Using a Multicomponent Landscape Coefficient

Water requirements of landscapes are highly variable due to the heterogeneous natures of landscapes, vegetation types, influence of buildings, and nutrient and water management. Objectives for water management of landscapes are for general appearance and health rather than for maximum biomass production. A multi-component method developed for the Irrigation Association (IA) and extended from the California WUCOLS procedure is demonstrated in which the landscape coefficient (KL, equivalent to a crop coefficient) is broken down into four components: vegetation type, vegetation density, microclimate, and managed stress. Each of these components can be estimated using readily made descriptions of a landscaped area and management objectives. One form of the KL equation is used to determine target KL that incorporates a target amount of soil water stress to support water conservation and to support water planning studies. A second form of the KL equation can be used to estimate the actual KL occurring under actual water management. The second form is used in studies of water balances and actual water conservation. The general decoupled equation is further expanded to optionally incorporate impacts of evaporation from exposed soil to assess impacts of irrigation frequency on total water consumption. The mathematics for the approach can be incorporated into software applications and smart irrigation controllers to produce improved water consumption estimates for landscape water requirements for use in irrigation scheduling, water requirement planning, and water depletion studies. The simplified procedure for estimating landscape water requirements in ASABE Standard S623 that is complementary to the IA procedure is discussed and compared. Both methods use a vegetation type and density system as the basis for efficiently estimating scientifically accurate landscape water requirements