Evaluation of a simple approach for crop evapotranspiration partitioning and analysis of the water budget distribution for several crop species

We compared these estimations with calibrated simulations of the ICARE-SVAT double source mechanistic model. The results showed good agreement between the two partitioning methods, demonstrating that MDS is a convenient, simple and robust tool for estimating E with reasonable associated uncertainties. During the growing season, the proportion of E in ETR was approximately one-third and varied mainly with crop leaf area. When calculated on an annual time scale, the proportion of E in ETR reached more than 50%, depending on the crop leaf area and on the duration and distribution of bare soil within the year.