Evaluating country-scale irrigation demand through parsimonious agro-hydrological modeling

WaterCROPv2 is an advanced agro-hydrological model designed to estimate irrigationwater demand at a national scale by effectively balancing hydrological accuracy with manageable datarequirements. Building on the original WaterCROPv1 model, WaterCROPv2 incorporates severalsignificant enhancements, including hourly computation, rainwater canopy interception, soil-dependent5leakage dynamics, and daily evapotranspiration trends based on localized meteorological data. WaterCROPv2 was used to assess mean irrigation water demand for maize from 2005to 2015, illustrating its potential as a decision-support tool for policymakers.