KNS 3143

10/30/2015

Abstraction from Precipitation :

EVAPORATION &
TRANSPIRATION

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this class, students should
be able to:
Define evaporation and transpiration
Explain evapotranspiration
Calculate evaporation & evapotranspiration
using different methods/ equations discussed
in class.

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Introduction

Losses from Precipitation: Quantity not used for

hydropower generation, irrigation, water supply,
other uses.

P recipitation Surface runoff Total loss

Total loss Evaporation Transpirat ion Interception Depression Storage Infiltrati on

Losses form a major portion of hydrologic cycle.

1. Evaporation
2. Transpiration
3. Infiltration

Meteorological Factors
Water evaporates from:
land, either bare soil or soil covered
vegetation,
trees,
impervious surfaces like roofs and roads,
open water and flowing streams.

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Met Factors
Other meteorological (met) factors
affecting evaporation
Solar radiator:
Wind:
Relative humidity:
Temperature:

Transpiration
Growing vegetation needs water.
Only small fraction of water is retained in plant
structure.
Most passes through the roots of stem or trunk;
and transpired into atmosphere through leaves.
In field conditions, it is practically impossible to
differentiate evaporation from transpiration if the
ground is covered by vegetation.
The process are commonly linked together and
referred as evapotranspiration.

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Evapotranspiration (ET)
Amount of ET depends on
Frequency/ occurrence of precipitation
Climatic factors
Type, manner of cultivation & extent of vegetation

Transpiration: Day time (under solar radiation)

Night : pores of plants close up and little moisture

leave plant surface
Evaporation: as long as heat input is available
Other factor: Availability of water supply
If water is abundant, more will be used by plants.
Thus, Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) may take place
Most methods assume abundant water supply

Estimating Evaporation
1.
2.
3.
4.

Water Budget Method

Energy Budget Approach
Mass Transfer Approach
Penmans Theory

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1 Water Budget Method

Assumes all relevant water-transport phases can be
evaluated for a time period t, and expressed in terms of
volumes.
Reservoir or lake evaporation is calculated as follows:

E P Q O I S
All items in the above equation refer to a time period t,
usually taken as 1 week or greater.
Most of the terms in the equation can be evaluated
easily/ directly.
Net infiltration: evaluated indirectly, by measuring soil
permeability or monitoring changes in groundwater level
in nearby wells.
Difficulty in measuring net infiltration generally limits the
water budget method.

2 Energy Budget Approach

Involves solving an equation that list all the
sources and sinks of thermal energy and
leaves evaporation as the only unknown.
Involves a great deal of instrumentation
and is still under active development.

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3 Mass Transfer Approach

Studies have shown that evaporation rates
are a function of the difference between
the saturation vapour pressure at water
surface temperature and the vapour
pressure of the overlying air (partial
vapour pressure).
Mass transfer techniques of turbulent
transfer water vapour from a water surface
to the atmosphere.

There are two cases that should be

considered:

When the temperature of the water surface

is the same as the air temperature

Rarely occurs

When the air and water surface

temperatures are different

Normally occurs

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4 Penmans Theory (1948)

Estimate evaporation from weather data
2 requirements:
Supply of energy to provide latent heat of evaporation
Mechanism for removing vapour, once produced.

The theory combines energy balance method with

vapour transfer process to compute evaporation E0.
Penman formula:
E0

H E a

H RA (0.18 0.55n / D)(1 r ) (117.4 x10 9 )Ta4 (0.47 0.077 e )(0.20 0.80n / D)
r is reflection coefficient (or albedo) ; 0.06 for water surface, 0.15 0.25 for close-ground crops

E0: evaporation from open water

ew: saturation vapour pressure of air at water surface temperature tw
e: actual vapour pressure of air at temperature t = saturation vapour
pressure at dew-point td
es: saturation vapour pressure of air at temperature t

: saturation vapour pressure of air at boundary layer temperature

n/D: cloudiness ratio = actual/possible hours of sunshine (Table 2)
RA: Angots value of solar radiation arriving at the atmosphere
(Table 1)
H: net amount of energy remaining at a free water surface
: psychrometer constant = 0.49 mm Hg/C
Ta: absolute earth temperature = tC + 273
Ea: evaporation (in energy terms) for hypothetical case of equal
temperatures of air and water.
u

Ea 0.351 2 es e
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tC

0.36

10

0.61

20

1.07

30

1.80

: is obtained from the saturation vapour

pressure curve, typically as shown.

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5 Evapotranspiration
ET : loss of water from
Land (evaporation) +
Plants (transpiration)

Potential evapotranspiration (PET): rate of ET from a

fully vegetated watershed when sufficient moisture is
always available.
Actual evapotranspiration (AET): always less than or
equal to PET depending on the specific situation.
ET can be estimated by:
Climatic approach
Experimental field measurements

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5.1 Climatic Approach

Blaney-Criddle (1962)
An empirical relation used by irrigation engineers to calculate crop
water requirement of various crops.
Estimates of PET is carried out by correlating with sunshine
temperature.

PET K .F
where

F (0.0457Tm 0.8128) P

K: monthly crop coefficient

F: monthly consumptive use factor,
Tm: mean monthly temperature (C)
P: monthly percentage of hours of bright sunshine in the year
PET: potential evapotranspiration (cm)

Value of K depends on the month and locality.

Average value for the season for selected crops
is given below.

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5.1 Climatic Approach

Thornthwaite Equation (1948)
An exponential relationship between mean monthly temperature and
mean monthly consumptive.
10Tm
ETmonth 1.62 R f
Te

a 0.4923 0.01792Te 0.0000771Te2 0.000000675Te3

1.514

12
T
Te m
1 5

where: Rf is the reduction factor (Table 3),

Tm the mean monthly temperature in C,

a is a constant

Te is the annual heat index, excluding negative temperature.

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Class Exercise 1

Estimate the monthly potential

evapotranspiration by using the
Thornthwaite formula for a place
located at latitude of 40N.
The monthly temperature are
shown in the next table.
If the Growing season for crops is
from May 15 to September 15,
determine the seasonal
consumption for the crops.

Month

Tm (C)

January

-18.6

February

-14.6

March

-1.0

April

4.6

May

14.5

June

24.2

July

21.3

August

19.7

September

10.6

October

4.6

November

-0.4

December

-9.3

5.2 Field Measurements

Evaporation pan practical.
Pan expose free water surface to the air,
Evaporation rate is determined by measuring water loss during
one time period, usually 1 day.
Evaporation rate measured by the pan, however is not the same
as that of the lake or reservoir exposed to similar meteorological
conditions.

Evaporation rate measured by the pan is not the same

as that of the lake or reservoir exposed to similar
meteorological conditions
Difference attributed to pan installation & exposure.
The factors produce pan evaporation rate greater than
actual lake/reservoir evaporation.
Therefore, apply correction factor: pan coefficient

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Relationship between PET and pan

evaporation is given by:
ET = cp Ep
Where: cp = pan coefficient (value varies from 0.64 to 0.81)

Evaporation Pan
The NWS Class A
pan is the most widely
used evaporation pan
in US.
Recommended as a
standard for
evaporation
measurement by the
World Meteorological
Organisation.

How does it
work??

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Evapotranspirometers
Measure PET.
Consist of: central tanks & 2 or more watertight soil tanks
Soil tanks: connected to central tank, vegetative cover, open to air
above
Water enter only from above: natural @ artificial precipitation
Water leave soil tanks only from bottom pipes, to the central tank.
During one time period,
Amount of water entering soil tanks Amount of water collected in
collecting cans in central tank water lost in ET
If soil moisture is maintained at field capacity, difference is PET.

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Lysimeters
Measure AET.
More difficult to measure than PET.
A properly constructed lysimeter must be representative
of the surrounding area.
Ideal conditions are rarely obtained, particularly when
AET is markedly less than PET.
A lysimeter is buried to the level of natural soil.
Diameter of lysimeters may vary from 0.6 to 3.3 m and
depth from 1.8 to 3.3 m .
Arrangements are made to weigh the lysimeters
whenever reading is required to be taken.
Outflow from the lysimeter is measured by a metering
device.

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