pyfao56: FAO-56 evapotranspiration in Python

The pyfao56 software package is a Python-based implementation of (1) the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Standardized Reference Evapotranspiration Equation and (2) the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 56 (FAO-56) dual crop coefficient methodology. The software was initially developed to support crop water use estimation and irrigation scheduling for field research at the Maricopa Agricultural Center in Arizona. Recent efforts to generalize and modularize the software design have increased its applicability and relevance for broader scientific studies on crop evapotranspiration and irrigation management worldwide. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

The pyfao56 software package is a Python-based implementation of the ASCE Standardized Reference Evapotranspiration Equation and FAO-56 dual crop coefficient methodology. It is used for crop water use estimation and irrigation scheduling worldwide. This software has been increasingly generalized and modularized to enhance its applicability and relevance for scientific studies.