Evapotranspiration modelling using support vector machines

This study investigates the accuracy of support vector machines (SVM), which are regression procedures, in modelling reference evapotranspiration (ET0). The daily meteorological data, solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed from three stations, Windsor, Oakville and Santa Rosa, in central California, USA, are used as inputs to the support vector machines to reproduce ET0 obtained using the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith equation. A comparison is made between the estimates provided by the SVM and those of the following empirical models: the California Irrigation Management System (CIMIS) Penman, Hargreaves, Ritchie and Turc methods. The SVM results were also compared with an artificial neural networks method. Root mean-squared errors, mean-absolute errors, and determination coefficient statistics are used as comparing criteria for the evaluation of the models' performances. The comparison results reveal that the support vector machines Could be employed successfully in modelling the ET0 process.