AquaCrop-OS is an unofficial, free, open-source implementation of the FAO AquaCrop model. AquaCrop-OS was originally released in 2017, and is developed and maintained by the Agriculture, Water, and Climate Research Group (www.ag-water.weebly.com) at the Uniiversity of Manchester.
AquaCrop-OS is provided in Matlab/Octave and Python programming languages, and is currently updated to version 6.0 of the official FAO AquaCrop model. Some features of the FAO AquaCrop model, namely salinity and fertility stress, and weed management, are not currently included in AquaCrop-OS. AquaCrop-OS simulates yield response to water for multiple crop types and environmental conditions, and is designed specifically for regions where water is a critical limiting factor in crop production.
AquaCrop-OS has several key features
An introduction to AquaCrop-OS can be found in the following journal papers:
AquaCrop-OS is provided in Matlab/Octave and Python programming languages, and is currently updated to version 6.0 of the official FAO AquaCrop model. Some features of the FAO AquaCrop model, namely salinity and fertility stress, and weed management, are not currently included in AquaCrop-OS. AquaCrop-OS simulates yield response to water for multiple crop types and environmental conditions, and is designed specifically for regions where water is a critical limiting factor in crop production.
AquaCrop-OS has several key features
- Support for multiple operating systems (Windows, Macintosh OS X and Linux).
- Replication of key features within the FAO AquaCrop model, and ability to modify and extend to support custom applications.
- Ability to run parallel model simulations and integrate with cloud computing to reduce run times of computationally intensive tasks.
- Easy linkage with other models, for example to support basin and multi-sector water management and integrated water policy analysis
- Interactive training resources through a series of web tutorials and workflows for common use cases developed in Jupyter notebooks
An introduction to AquaCrop-OS can be found in the following journal papers:
- T. Foster, N. Brozovic, A.P. Butler, C.M.U. Neale, D. Raes, P. Steduto, E. Fereres, and T.C. Hsiao (2017) AquaCrop-OS: An open source version of FAO's crop water productivity model. Agricultural Water Management, 181, 18-22. (Open Access)
- T. Kelly and T.Foster (2021) AquaCrop-OSPy: Bridging the gap between research and practice in crop-water modeling. Agricultural Water Management, 254, 106976. (Open Access)
Development Team
Contributors
The following people contributed to the development of AquaCrop-OS:
- Nick Brozovic, Water for Food Global Institute
- Christopher Neale, Water for Food Global Institute
- Adrian Butler, Imperial College London
- Dirk Raes, KU Leuven
- Pasquale Steduto, FAO
- Elias Fereres, University of Cordoba
- Ted Hsiao, UC Davis
Acknowledgments
AquaCrop-OS has been supported by funding provided by UK Research and Innovation, Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute, the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, and the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester. We also acknowledge the members of the AquaCrop science group and network for their efforts in the conceptualization, development, calibration, validation, and testing of AquaCrop.