Cunha et al. (2026) EVAonline: An open-source web platform for global reference evapotranspiration estimation via multi-source data fusion

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Modelling & Software
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-07-20
• Authors: Ângela Silviane Moura Cunha, Vitor P. Ribeiro, Sérgio Nascimento Duarte, José Antônio Perrella Balestieri, Carlos Roberto Padovani, Álex Júnior Zanchet Bordignon, Carlos Dias Maciel, Patrícia Angélica Alves Marques
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2026.107113

Research Groups

• Department of Biosystems Engineering, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo
• School of Engineering, São Paulo State University
• Geoprocessing Laboratory, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation

Short Summary

This paper introduces EVAonline, an open-source web platform for global reference evapotranspiration estimation via multi-source data fusion. The platform achieves a Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) of 0.814 in the MATOPIBA region.

Objective

• Develop a globally deployable Environmental Decision Support System (EDSS) featuring automated API integration, an asynchronous architecture, and deployment capabilities on conventional hardware.
• Implement a two-stage data-fusion framework capable of stochastic noise mitigation and uncertainty-aware data harmonization, constrained by 30-year climatological priors.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, with focus on the MATOPIBA region in Brazil.
• Temporal Scale: Daily time steps, with historical (1991-2020) and forecast modes.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: FAO–56 Penman-Monteith equation for reference evapotranspiration calculation.
• Data sources: Six meteorological APIs provided by four institutions: NASA POWER, Open-Meteo Archive/Forecast, MET Norway, NWS Forecast/Stations.

Main Results

• EVAonline achieves a Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) of 0.814 in the MATOPIBA region.
• The platform significantly mitigates uncertainty, reducing Mean Absolute Error by 50% and systematic bias by 95% compared to individual products.
• The fusion process effectively downweights anomalous observations without discarding them.

Contributions

• Original value of the article with respect to existing literature lies in its ability to address both data-level uncertainties and infrastructure bottlenecks simultaneously, providing a scalable, open-source decision-support architecture designed for global deployment.

Funding

• This research was funded by [list projects, programs, and reference codes that funded this research].

Citation

@article{Cunha2026EVAonline,
  author = {Cunha, Ângela Silviane Moura and Ribeiro, Vitor P. and Duarte, Sérgio Nascimento and Balestieri, José Antônio Perrella and Padovani, Carlos Roberto and Bordignon, Álex Júnior Zanchet and Maciel, Carlos Dias and Marques, Patrícia Angélica Alves},
  title = {EVAonline: An open-source web platform for global reference evapotranspiration estimation via multi-source data fusion},
  journal = {Environmental Modelling & Software},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.envsoft.2026.107113},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2026.107113}
}