Crop coefficients for estimating evapotranspiration in the Rio Grande/Bravo basin in 2020

This database provides crop coefficients and start and termination dates for more than 40 crops grown in the Rio Grande/Bravo basin. It was created drawing on a literature and dataset review covering resources from the State Agricultural Extension Services (Colorado State University, New Mexico State University, and Texas A&M University), the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), AgriMet, and the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). The database provides crop coefficients from plant emergence (or break dormancy in the case of perennials) to termination (harvest or dormancy), as well earliest planting date, killing frost temperature and cumulative growing degree days up to emergence, full cover and termination. Given the computational requirement of the ENVISION platform, the crop curves (i.e., the set of crop coefficients from emergence to termination) were divided into 21 points ranging from 0% (plant emergence) to 100% (full cover), to 200% (termination date). The database also documents the source of the data and the reference crop used when crop coefficients or start date were not available for a specific crop. This dataset provides input for calculating evapotranspiration in ENVISION.