A hybrid framework for short-term irrigation demand forecasting

Abstract

Reliable short-term forecasts of Irrigation Water Demand (IWD) can provide useful information to help water supply system operators with day-to-day operating decisions. Forecasting IWD is a complex task due to different natural (soil, water, crop, and climate interactions) and behavioral (farmers’ decision-making) components of the irrigation process. So far, various approaches have been developed to estimate IWD values in different contexts. One common approach is the application of data-driven methods to map the relationship between the main influential factors and IWD. Data-driven approaches often do not consider any conceptual understanding of the system in modeling IWD, which has been f..