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Design of an Object-oriented Framework for Modelling the Partitioning of Captured Solar Radiation and Evapotranspiration in Intercropping Systems

C. B. S. Teh and T. R. Wheeler

Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 35, Issue 2, May 2012

Keywords: Intercrop, model, object-oriented, reusability

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x-library is a C++ object-oriented framework for modelling the partitioning of captured solar radiation and evapotranspiration in intercropping systems. The design and analysis of the x-library are done to ensure that the soil-plant-atmosphere system is categorised into classes, such as weather, microclimate, intercrop, crop, canopy, leaf, roots, soil, heat, and radiation. Meanwhile, x-library implements two kinds of solar radiation models; namely, one-dimensional (1-D), and two-dimensional (2-D) model, where irradiance varies in one dimension (vertical) and in two dimensions (vertical and horizontal), respectively. Radiation partitioning is based on weighting criteria so that a crop having the larger leaf area index and extinction coefficient would have greater share of captured radiation. Evapotranspiration partitioning is calculated using the Shuttleworth- Wallace equation. Model comparisons with a field experiment showed an overall good agreement between the simulated and measured solar radiation and transpiration values. A graphical user interface front-end for the x-library known as the x-model was also developed, primarily for non-modellers and non-programmers.

ISSN 1511-3701

e-ISSN 2231-8542

Article ID

JTAS-0295-2010

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