Evapotranspiration and Plant Water Stress Measurements as the Driving Standard for Agricultural Irrigation
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water, Agriculture and Aquaculture".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 1321
Special Issue Editors
Interests: evapotranspiration; plant water requirements; irrigation; deficit irrigation; plant water stress; green infrastructure water management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: evapotranspiration; transpiration; soil evaporation; sap flow; eddy covariance; water stress diagnosis; stress-indicator interpretation; irrigation scheduling; fluxes of water and heat around vegetation; ecohydrology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: irrigation modeling; climate change; evapotranspiration; irrigation engineering; soil water balance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue of Water will be focused on several topics that we have selected based on the following rationale:
- With irrigation accounting worldwide for about 70% of all water use, the proper modelling of plant water requirements is a critical issue for water management in agriculture, but its accuracy is highly dependent on the availability of quality data.
- Improvements to the existing algorithms for estimating ET are based on ET measurements. These measurements, when applied to tall and/or deep-rooted permanent crops, require expensive equipment, sophisticated know-how, and high commitment from researchers.
- Furthermore, reliable evapotranspiration (ET) estimates are more challenging for permanent crops, especially when subjected to water stress, i.e., deficit-irrigated or rainfed crops.
- Conversely, a water stress diagnosis is necessary for the interpretation and therefore the best use of such water flux measurements.
- Ensuring proper irrigation scheduling requires more than a stress indicator that simply reacts to water stress. Instead, an identified threshold or stress function must be established and applied, allowing a transfer in space and time under identical circumstances. This ensures that the meaning of the threshold or stress function remains consistent, making it easier to adapt and manage irrigation schedules effectively.
- The analysis of survival mechanisms regarding water stress (hydraulic redistribution) and the derived new concepts around functional root volume are critical to our understanding of plant water use in almost-rainfed stands, mainly in Mediterranean and semi-arid climates.
- We do not yet have sufficient useful data from measuring ET and quantifying and understanding stress levels. More reliable field data, sound interpretations, and the good communication of results are necessary in order to best aid the scientific/engineering community.
Considering these points, we welcome the submission of manuscripts for this Special Issue addressing the following topics:
- measurements of evapotranspiration;
- reference information to be used for modelling and reviewing crop coefficients;
- assessment of plant water stress;
- use of crop water stress measurements and threshold establishment to schedule deficit irrigation;
- resilience to water stress in a plant/soil continuum.
Prof. Dr. Teresa Afonso do Paço
Prof. Dr. Maria Isabel Freire Ribeiro Ferreira
Guest Editors
Prof. Dr. Joao Rolim Lopes
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- evapotranspiration
- irrigation scheduling
- deficit irrigation
- water stress indicators
- ground truth data
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.
