Djaman K, Koudahe K, Allen S, O Neill M and Irmak S
Numerous daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo) equations were developed for different climatic conditions with different performance even within the same climatic region. Their calibration and validation to the local climate usually increase their performance. The objective of this study was to evaluate Valiantzas’ daily grass ETo equation with comparison to Penman-Monteith equation at 61 weather stations across 10 countries in Africa for the period of 1980-2012. The results showed good performance of Valiantzas’ ETo equation with very low RMSE varying from 0.03 to 0.27 mm/day, low percent error PE from 0.87 to 5.46%, MBE from -0.09 to 0.23 mm/day and MAE from 0.03 to 0.23 mm/day. For the pooled data set, RMSE averaged 0.10 mm/day, mean PE was 1.95%, mean MBE was 0.02 mm/day and the mean MAE was 0.08 mm/day. These indexes indicated the very high performance of the Valiantzas’ ETo equation compared to the Penman-Monteith equation and its adaptation to very broad conditions from humid to semiarid climates. *
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