Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355

www.elsevier.com/locate/jhydrol

Estimation of the evapotranspiration rate from diurnal groundwater

level fluctuations in the Okavango Delta, Botswana
Peter Bauera,*, George Thabengb, Fritz Stauffera, Wolfgang Kinzelbacha
a
Institute of Hydromechanics and Water Resources Management, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
ETH-Zürich, Zürich CH-8093, Switzerland
b
Department of Water Affairs, Gaborone, Botswana
Received 27 March 2003; revised 17 October 2003; accepted 31 October 2003

Abstract
Evapotranspiration from a phreatic groundwater table is an important input parameter for hydrological models. This
parameter, however, is difficult to determine in the field, since plants take their water from various depths and the penetration
depth of direct evaporation is unknown. We present a method to estimate evapotranspiration rates based on diurnal groundwater
level fluctuations observed in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. To this end, the regional setting as well as the local processes in
the unsaturated zone have to be analysed. Resulting estimates for the evapotranspiration rate range from 0.06 to 4.3 mm/day, for
varying local vegetation cover and soil characteristics.
q 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Evapotranspiration; Okavango Delta; Diurnal water level fluctuations

1. Introduction average, the discharge of the Okavango River at the

The Okavango Delta is a large alluvial fan situated
in northwestern Botswana. This wetland is fed by the
Okavango River, which flows from the tropical
highlands of Angola into the Kalahari basin (Fig. 1).
A variety of hydrological, geochemical, sedimento-
logical and biological processes are shaping the Delta
over different spatial and temporal scales (Ellery et al.,
1993; Gumbricht et al., 2001; McCarthy and Ellery,
1994; Modisi et al., 2000). One key feature of the
Okavango Delta is its strong seasonality, which is due
to the highly variable flow in the Okavango River. On
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ41-1-633-31-71; fax: þ 41-1-
633-10-61.
E-mail address: bauer@ihw.baug.ethz.ch (P. Bauer).
0022-1694/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2003.10.011
top of the Delta is 300 m3/s. During the peak flood
(March – April), the discharge can reach more than
800 m3/s, whereas during low flow periods, the
discharge is around 100 m3/s. The strong variation
in the discharge translates into large, seasonally
flooded plains. The core wetland, which is
permanently flooded, is around 6000 km2 in size;
the surrounding seasonal floodplains add another
6000 km2 (McCarthy et al., 2003).
The wetland displays a spectacular landscape and
is home to a rich variety of wildlife. Its high
ecological value has generated a lot of controversy
between international environmental organisations
and local people with respect to the sustainable use
of the Okavango waters and the conservation of the
wetland. Growing water demand in the population
 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355
Fig. 1. The Okavango Delta. Coordinates are UTM Zone 34 S, Cape Datum.
centres around the Delta as well as international
resource sharing further complicate the issue.
It has been acknowledged long time ago, that a
sound hydrological model of the Delta is needed
in order to simulate the impacts of proposed
management scenarios and to optimally reconcile
the needs of man and nature. Several modelling
attempts have been undertaken within the last 20 years
(Dincer et al., 1987; Gieske, 1997; SMEC, 1987).
Since almost 100% of the water flowing into the
Okavango Delta is lost to evapotranspiration (ET),
reliable estimates of the ET-rate for different land-
cover types and plant communities are an essential
prerequisite for any successful modelling attempt.
The different land cover types of the Delta are
described and mapped in a recent publication by
McCarthy and Gumbricht (2003). Of the 12 land
cover classes described in this work, five are present
in the study area, as indicated in Table 2.
ET is a complex process involving the soil, the land
cover and the atmosphere. Highly accurate estimates
of ET can be derived from the soil water balance
based on lysimeter data. The ET can also be expressed
as the turbulent vertical moisture flux in the
atmospheric boundary layer. Eddy-correlation
measurements can be used to directly quantify this
flux (Swinbank, 1951). Other methods determine the
ET as the residual term in the surface energy balance:
one of the most accurate ET equations is the Bowen
ratio method (Bowen, 1926; Dyer, 1974; Sellers,
345
1965). Instead of measuring the latent heat flux
directly, only the ratio between sensible and latent
heat flux is determined and fed into the surface energy
balance. With a variety of remote sensing datasets
readily available, surface energy balance methods
have become increasingly popular to derive spatially
distributed estimates of ET over larger scales. A
number of algorithms have been proposed to calculate
ET based on multispectral satellite images (Bastiaans-
sen et al., 1998a,b; Roerink et al., 2000). The most
robust and inexpensive method for determining ET is
the reference ET—crop coefficient method: the ET is
written as the product of a term dependent on the
atmospheric conditions (potential ET, reference ET,
pan evaporation, etc.) and a term, the crop coefficient,
which expresses the kind and status of the land cover
and vegetation (Allen et al., 1989; Penman, 1948;
Wright and Jensen, 1972). The mean monthly
potential ET for our study site was calculated using
Hargreaves’ method (Hargreaves and Samani, 1982)
and is shown in Fig. 2.
All the above-mentioned methods require a
considerable amount of input data and instrumenta-
tion. Furthermore, there is a trade-off between
accuracy and scale, with large-scale methods being
less accurate and accurate methods being local. In this
paper, we present a technique, how estimates of the
ET-rate can be extracted from diurnal changes of the
water level, which are observed almost universally in
the Okavango Delta’s shallow groundwater systems.
346 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355

and right, two fixed potentials represent the

permanent water bodies. Water level changes within
the system are small compared to the overall
thickness of the aquifer. Therefore, the system can
be reasonably described as a 1D unconfined aquifer
with constant transmissivity.
The 1D governing equation for the water table in
the aquifer is

›hðx; tÞ ›2 hðx; tÞ
SY ¼T þ ETðtÞ ð1Þ
›t ›x 2
SY is the specific yield ( –), T is the transmissivity
Fig. 2. Potential ET for the project area (10 year average). (m2/s), h is the hydraulic head (m) and ET is the
evapotranspiration rate (m/s). If the water level is
The results are compared to independently derived assumed to be the same on both sides, the governing
estimates from (i) water level gradients, (ii) satellite equation is subject to the following boundary and
data, (iii) stable isotope profiles in the soil water. initial conditions:
Because of the high cost and the remoteness of the hð0; tÞ ¼ H; hðL; tÞ ¼ H; hðx; 0Þ ¼ H ð2Þ
area, no Eddy correlation or Bowen ratio measure-
ments were taken. The time dependence of the ET is written as a sum
of step functions, i.e. the ET is constant during the day
and drops to zero during the night (Fig. 4).
2. Conceptual model X
1
ETðtÞ ¼ 2·ETday · ð21Þn uðt 2 nkÞ ð3Þ
Typically, the Okavango landscape consists of a n¼0

mosaic of wetlands and drylands. Some of the water ETday is the average daily evapotranspiration, u is the
bodies are permanent. In hydrogeological terms, this Heaviside step function and k is the spacing of the step
mosaic can be conceptualised as a sand aquifer functions, i.e. k ¼ 12 day:
bounded by two fixed potentials (Fig. 3). The governing equation can be made dimensionless
To investigate, how a time-variant, spatially uniform with length scale L and time scale k: The result is
ET affects the water table in the aquifer, we use
a very simple conceptual model, which can be ›h0 ðx0 ; t0 Þ T·k ›2 h0 ðx0 ; t0 Þ 2·k·ETday
solved analytically. Consider a vertical cross-section 0 ¼ 2 02 2
›t L ·SY ›x L·SY
through the aquifer: At the base, the aquifer is X
1 ð4Þ
underlain by an impervious boundary. At the top,  ð21Þn uðt0 2 nÞ
uniform, time dependent ET is acting and to the left n¼0

Fig. 3. Conceptual model.

 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355 347

the time domain. The solutions are superpositions of

the parabolic mean water level due to average ET and
water level fluctuations due to the diurnal variation of
ET. One number, D; characterizes the mean parabolic
water level:
B 2·ETday ·L
D¼ ¼ ð7Þ
A T
Once steady state has been reached, the mean
drawdown at x0 ¼ 0:5 is D=8:
Fig. 5 shows the dependence of the water level
fluctuation width (maximum WL – minimum WL)
from x-coordinate for different ‘head diffusion
coefficients’, A: The maximum water level fluctuation
Fig. 4. Time dependence of evapotranspiration. width is given by average daily ET divided by specific
yield. Within the reach of ‘head diffusion’,pffiffithe width
is reduced. The diffusion length is lD ¼ A: If that
subject to boundary and initial conditions diffusion length is less than 0.5, the width function has
H H a parabolic shape; else, a plateau is formed in the
h0 ð0; t0 Þ ¼ ; h0 ð1; t0 Þ ¼ ; central parts with constant width equal to average ET
L L
ð5Þ divided by specific yield.
0 0 H
h ðx ; 0Þ ¼ For the specific field case at hand, T is around
L 0.001 m2/s, SY is around 0.2, ETday is 0.5 mm/day
This shows that the solution depends on two and L is on the order of 5 km. Taking this parameter
dimensionless numbers only: A ‘head diffusion set yields A ¼ 8:64 £ 1026 ; B ¼ 5:0 £ 1027 and
coefficient’, which is Tk=L2 ·SY and a dimensionless D ¼ 0:0579: lD is calculated as 0.003, which means
ET rate, which is 2·k·ETday =L·SY: that measurements taken between 1 and 99% of L are
The analytical solution for one individual step virtually free of influence from the fixed potentials.
function can be found in Laplace domain (Eq. (6)) and We conclude that water level fluctuations
is subsequently transformed back into time domain by measured close to the fixed potential cannot be
numerical Laplace inversion. used for the estimation of ET, since the width of
 rffiffiffi   rffiffiffi 
0 0 s 0 s 0 C B
h ðx ; sÞ ¼ F exp x þ G exp 2 x þ þ 2;
A A s s
 rffiffiffi
s
  exp 2 21
B 1 A
F¼2  rffiffiffi rffiffiffi ;
s s s s
exp 2 2 exp
A A
rffiffiffi
s
  1 2 exp
B 1 A
G¼2  rffiffiffi rffiffiffi ;
s s s s
exp 2 2 exp
A A
Tk 2·k·ETday H
A¼ 2 ; B¼ ; C¼
L ·SY L·SY L
ð6Þ
The solution for the complete rectangular function
is calculated as the sum of individual step responses in Fig. 5. Dependence of the fluctuation width on lateral coordinate.
348 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355
the fluctuation strongly depends on the location
relative to the fixed potential. However, if measure-
ments are taken in the plateau region of Fig. 5, the
amplitude of the diurnal variation should reflect the
local ET rate.
3. Effect of the unsaturated zone
From the above modelling results (Fig. 5), it is
found that in the plateau region, the water level
fluctuation width is equal to the mean daily ET
divided by the specific yield, or expressed the other
way round, the ET rate can be estimated as water
level fluctuation width times specific yield. However,
this holds only, if the saturation profile in the
unsaturated soil column above the water table is
assumed to be static, i.e. the time scale for the build-
up of the stationary saturation profile is much shorter
than the time scale of the water level fluctuations
(one day).
Stauffer and Kinzelbach (2001) have analysed the
behaviour of an unsaturated soil column subject to
periodic boundary conditions at its lower end.
The governing equation is the 1D Richard’s equation,
together with the Brooks – Corey formulation for the
saturation and the unsaturated conductivity.
  
›S ›h › ›h
n ¼ Kr ðSÞKs 1 þ ; the diurnal water level low therefore introduces an
›h ›t ›z ›z
 l
S 2 Sr hb
¼ for hc . hb ; S ¼ 1; else; ð8Þ
1 2 Sr hc
 
S 2 Sr 1
Kr ðSÞ ¼
1 2 Sr
S is the saturation (– ), h the hydraulic head (m), Kr the
relative unsaturated conductivity (–), Ks the saturated
conductivity (m/s), Sr the residual saturation (– ), hb the
air entry pressure head (m) and hc is the capillary
pressure head, which is equal to 2h under the
assumption that the relative air pressure is 0 every-
where in the capillary zone. l and 1 are Brooks – Corey
parameters, usually 1 ¼ 3 þ 2=l is assumed.
If the amplitude of the cyclic boundary condition at
the lower end of the column is equal to hb ; the
dimensionless number governing the time response of
the system is
tKs
t0 ¼ ð9Þ
nhb
t is the period length (s) of the cyclic boundary
condition. If this number tends to infinity, quasi-
stationarity can be assumed. If this number is small,
dynamic effects in the soil column have to be taken
into account. From Eq. (8) it is evident that three
parameters are important for the response of
the unsaturated zone to a varying water level:
the saturated conductivity, the porosity and the air
entry pressure.
4. Procedure for evaluation of field data
The basic idea is to estimate ET as the amount of
water stored and de-stored in the soil column during
one diurnal cycle, thereby assuming that ET is the
process, which brings the water level down and that
lateral flow from the permanent water bodies brings it
up again. This is an idealized conceptual model, since
there are long-term water level changes due to the
flooding cycle in the Okavango Delta underlying
the diurnal variations. The long-term variations,
however, are slow (about 4 mm/day, cf. Fig. 11),
whereas the diurnal variations are typically of a scale
of 4 cm/day. Disregarding incomplete recovery from
error on the order of 10% into the ET estimate, which
we do not consider as critical, given the other sources
of uncertainty (hydraulic conductivities, air entry
pressures, etc.). ET is the sum of evaporation and
transpiration by plants from different depth. Since the
water table is shallow, significant amounts of water
are taken from the saturated zone. The flux
distribution with depth is unknown, and therefore,
the exact soil moisture profile in the unsaturated zone
cannot be calculated. However, during the night,
when the water level is recovering, we essentially
have a no flow situation. We therefore assume a no
flow soil moisture profile in the unsaturated zone.
Nevertheless, it has to be noted, that the soil moisture
profile at the end of the day, i.e. when the water level
is most depressed, can differ significantly from the no
flow profile due to e.g. direct evaporation, which will
introduce an error into the ET estimate.
 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355
Fig. 6. Fluctuations in the total water volume contained in the soil
column. Parameters: n ¼ 0:4; l ¼ 2; 1 ¼ 4; hb ¼ 0:28 m; Sr ¼ 0:1;
water level fluctuation width Dh ¼ 0:05 m:
Input data from the field include the width of
the water level fluctuation, saturated hydraulic
conductivity, porosity and grain size distributions.
Air entry pressure is estimated from the grain size
distributions using empirical formulae presented in
Saxton et al. (1986). The 1D governing equation
(Eq. (7)) for the unsaturated soil column subject to
a cyclic head boundary condition at its lower
end and no flow boundary condition at its upper
end is solved numerically using the software
HYSTFLOW (Stauffer and Kinzelbach, 2001).
The water volume, which is stored in the
unsaturated soil column, is calculated for each
time step. The difference between the maximum
and the minimum stored volume gives an estimate
of mean daily ET. Fig. 6 presents examples of time
series of stored volumes.
Fig. 7. Location of the Thata Island field site. Regional view (left), permanent water bodies (black, centre) and piezometers (right).
349
5. Field data and results
The field site is Thata Island in the northern part of
the Delta (Fig. 7) and has already been described in
McCarthy et al. (1991). Thata Island is only an island
during periods of high flood. During the time of the
study, the surrounding seasonal floodplains were
mainly dry and the permanent water bodies are
several kilometres away from Thata Island.
The distribution of permanent water bodies around
the island is shown in Fig. 7(b). A couple of
piezometers were drilled using a hand auger and
long-term water level records were taken with
pressure transducers. The water level in all the
piezometers is around 2 m below ground. The piezo-
meters are located on the island itself as well as in the
surrounding floodplains (Fig. 7). Upward directed flux
on the island is confirmed by establishing the vertical
water level gradient: the water level in a recently
drilled borehole in the island’s centre which is
screened from 30 to 33 m below ground is c. 20 cm
higher than the water level at the surface. Pump testing
yields a hydraulic conductivity of c. 1025 m/s at 30 m
depth, but at the surface, a highly cemented layer of
ca. 10 m thickness is encountered, whose kf is around
2.3 £ 1028 m/s (Table 2). Darcy’s law yields
0.04 mm/day for the resulting upward flux.
6. Porosity
Porosity has been determined gravimetrically by
weighing a fresh sample of known volume from the
saturated zone, re-weighing it after drying and
350 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355

Table 1
Total porosity of soil samples from different piezometers

Piezometer Land cover type Density of matrix (kg/m3) Total porosity (%)

P1 Sparse dry grassland/salt crust 2400 0.46

P1 Sparse dry grassland/salt crust 2372 0.45
P2 Grassland occasionally flooded 2305 0.38
P6 Secondary floodplain 2440 0.41
P4/P5 Sparse dry grassland/salt crust 2350 0.40
P3 Grassland occasionally flooded 2470 0.33

determining the density of the matrix using a
pycnometer. After drilling ca. 50 cm below the
water table using a hand auger, a steel cylinder
(diameter 67 mm) was hammered into the subsurface
and the sample was extruded subsequently.
The resulting total porosities range from 33 to 46%
and are presented in Table 1.
to which the sand is affected by cementation.
Precipitation of salts, which is mainly occurring on
the Islands, is the cause of cementation. Results for
the hydraulic conductivity are presented in Table 2.
8. Grain size distributions and air entry pressure

The grain size distribution of five samples taken

7. Hydraulic conductivity
Saturated hydraulic conductivity has been
measured in the field close to all piezometers where
water level fluctuations were measured. Again, an
auger hole was drilled to ca. 50 cm below the water
table in the immediate vicinity of each piezometer.
The sample was taken using the steel cylinder. A layer
of ca. 5 cm of coarse gravel was added on top of the
sample to prevent clogging by fine materials.
Subsequently, a column was connected to the cylinder
and filled with water. The lower end of the cylinder
was resting in a bowel filled with water. The
drawdown of the water table over time allows for
the estimation of the saturated conductivity. The
conductivity varies widely. It depends on the degree
close to different piezometers has its 50-percentile
around 200– 250 mm (Fig. 8). The high variability in
kf is not reflected in the grain size distributions, since
it is not due to differences in soil texture but due to
cementation. The air entry pressure is difficult to
determine in the field and therefore we estimate the
value of hb ¼ 0:28 m using empirical relationships
between texture and water retention characteristics
presented in Saxton et al. (1986).
9. Soil water content profiles
Soil water content profiles were recorded at three
different locations on Thata Island. All the profiles
are located in the barren, highly salinized centre of

Table 2
Saturated conductivity of soil samples from different piezometers

Piezometer Land cover type kf (m/s) 90%-CI lower limit 90%-CI upper limit

P1 Sparse dry grassland/salt crust 4.39 £ 1027 4.32 £ 1027 4.46 £ 1027
P2 Grassland occasionally flooded 2.68 £ 1026 2.67 £ 1026 2.69 £ 1026
P3 Grassland occasionally flooded 1.04 £ 1026 9.21 £ 1027 1.16 £ 1026
P4/P5 Sparse dry grassland/salt crust 2.30 £ 1028 2.07 £ 1028 2.52 £ 1028
P6 Secondary floodplain 1.61 £ 1026 1.58 £ 1026 1.63 £ 1026
P7 Secondary floodplain 2.04 £ 1026 2.02 £ 1026 2.07 £ 1026
P11 Grassland occasionally flooded 1.01 £ 1024 1.01 £ 1024 1.02 £ 1024
P12 Grassland occasionally flooded 5.25 £ 1025 5.20 £ 1025 5.30 £ 1025
 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355
Fig. 8. Grain size distributions.
the Island, where evaporation dominates. An undis-
turbed soil sample was taken from the respective
depth and the water content was determined by
azeotropic distillation. In all the profiles (Fig. 9) the
evaporation front can be nicely seen and is located
around 30 cm depth. Profiles were taken in July and
December 2002.
10. Water level fluctuations
Water level fluctuations were measured in several
piezometers, using pressure transducers (Keller
DC-22 SG, accuracy ^ 0.2 mbar). The measured
Fig. 9. Water content profiles for three different locations on Thata
Island (crosses and circles: July 2002, diamonds: December 2002).
351
Fig. 10. Correction of pressure data for air pressure variations.
Black solid line: pressure in piezometer minus mean pressure in
piezometer. Grey solid line: air pressure minus mean air pressure.
Black dotted line: difference between pressure in piezometer and air
pressure minus mean of this difference.
data were first corrected for air pressure variations,
using air pressure data from the same type of device,
measured on the spot. Fig. 10 demonstrates this
correction step. The correction removes a second
smaller pressure maximum during the diurnal cycle,
which is due to the air pressure variation.
Furthermore, it eliminates fluctuations over the scale
of a couple of days, which are due to weather changes.
For a total of 6 piezometers, a sufficiently long
time series was measured to allow for the estimation
of ET-rates. The data are shown in Fig. 11. The mean
fluctuation widths range from 3.4 to 7.5 cm. In some
of the piezometers, there is a significant trend in
the fluctuation widths over time, which is related to
the climate, the flooding cycle and vegetation status:
The floodplain around piezometer 6 for example was
entirely burned in early July. The growth of the fresh
grass reflects itself in growing fluctuation widths
until the decreasing water table outweighs this effect.
The derived ET-estimates (Table 3) vary over a
much wider range due to highly variable kf -values. In
the highly cemented, sparsely vegetated centre of
the island, the ET-rate is as low as 0.06 mm/day. In
the floodplains and riverine forest surrounding the
Island, it can be as high as 4.3 mm/day, reflecting the
dense and vigorous vegetation. The latter value is
close to the potential ET, which is around 5 mm/day
352 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355

Fig. 11. Average water level trends and width of the diurnal water level fluctuation (maximum WL–minimum WL) for the six piezometers. The
discontinuities in water levels in Piezo 2 (around day 50) and Piezo 3 (around day 80) are due to mechanical disturbance by wild animals.

(Fig. 2). These ET estimates correspond nicely with estimate derived with this method (0.06 mm/day)
estimates derived from satellite data using surface compares favourably with the one derived from
energy balance algorithm (Brunner et al., 2003). Darcy’s law (0.04 mm/day, see Section 9). Table 3
Furthermore, in the centre of the Island, the ET shows that the estimates sensitively depend on hb

Table 3
ET estimates for different piezometers

Piezometer kf (m/s) Mean width of Porosity ET estimate ET estimate (mm/day) ET estimate (mm/day)
fluctuation (m) (mm/day) hb ¼ 0:28 m; hb ¼ 0:35 m; l ¼ 2; Sr ¼ 0:1 hb ¼ 0:28 m; l ¼ 1:5;
l ¼ 2; Sr ¼ 0:1 Sr ¼ 0:1

P1 4.4 £ 1027 0.05 0.46 0.87 0.72 0.86

P2 2.7 £ 1026 0.036 0.38 2.9 2.5 2.7
P3 1 £ 1026 0.034 0.33 1.2 1.0 1.2
P4 2.3 £ 1028 0.034 0.4 0.06 0.05 0.04
P6 1.6 £ 1026 0.075 0.41 3.9 3.3 3.8
P7 2 £ 1026 0.069 0.4 4.3 3.7 4.1
 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355 353

and l: The sensitivity is particularly high in the case the exponential curve to the data is
of hb :  
1 N sat
l ¼ zv þ zl ¼ ufD þ ðn 2 uÞfDv ð13Þ
E r
11. Comparison with results from isotope profile solving for the evaporation rate, we get
method    
m 1 N sat
E ¼ ufD þ ðn 2 uÞfDv
Another way of cross-checking the estimates of the s l r
ET rate is to look at stable isotope profiles in the soil 1
water. If water is withdrawn from the surface by ¼ ð3:8 £ 10210 þ 5:9 £ 10211 Þ
l½m
evaporation only, stable isotope (O-18 and H-2)
profiles of the soil water can be used to estimate the 1
¼ ·4:39 £ 10210 ð14Þ
evaporation rate. In the centre of Thata Island, the l½m
vegetation cover is very sparse, because of the high
soil and groundwater salinity. Only a thin cover of The isotope profile was taken in July 2002. Soil
salt-tolerant grass (Sporobolus spicatus) is observed water was extracted from the samples using
and transpiration can therefore be neglected. azeotropic distillation (Revesz and Woods, 1990)
Following Barnes and Allison (1988), the isotope and the isotope signature was subsequently deter-
profile has the following shape: mined by mass-spectrometry. Deuterium values were
  scaled using a correlation between 18-O and D
z 2 zef derived from our data and the data by Dincer et al.
RðzÞ ¼ R1 þ ðRef 2 R1 Þexp 2 ð10Þ
zv þ zl (1978). The correlation is
where RðzÞ is the isotope signature at depth z: zef is the dD ¼ 5:1·d18 O 2 11:6 ð15Þ
depth of the evaporation front and was estimated from
2
the water content profiles (Fig. 9) and zv is (Barnes The r for this regression line is 95%. The decay
and Allison, 1988) length found for the isotope profile from Thata
Island (Fig. 12) is 106 mm, which is equivalent to
Dpv N sat ðn 2 uÞ·f·Dv N sat
zv ¼ ¼ ð11Þ
rE rE
where r is the density of water ( ¼ 106 g/m3), n is the
porosity of the soil, N sat is the density of saturated
water vapour ( ¼ 23 g/m3 at 25 8C) and Dv is the
diffusion coefficient for water vapour in air. Dv has a
value of 2.6 £ 1025 m2/s at 25 8C (Massman, 1998).
Dp u·f·D
zl ¼ ¼ ð12Þ
E E
where E is the evaporation rate, u is the volumetric
water content, f is the tortuosity factor and D is
the self-diffusion coefficient for liquid water. The
tortuosity factor for sand is around 0.66 (Barnes and
Turner, 1998) and D is 2.3 £ 1029 m2/s (Mills, 1973).
For the Thata Island profile, we assume the
following values: tortuosity is set to the standard Fig. 12. Isotope profile from Thata Island (December 2002). Circles
indicate O-18, diamonds H-2. Crossed circles indicate samples that
value for sand, f ¼ 0:66; porosity is typically 40%, were affected by significant evaporation between sampling and
n ¼ 0:4; and water content is not changing a lot in the processing and were therefore disregarded for the regression.
depth range of interest and is around u ¼ 0:25: Samples from above the evaporation front (25 cm) were
The decay length, which results from the fit of disregarded.
354 P. Bauer et al. / Journal of Hydrology 288 (2004) 344–355
an evaporation rate of 0.36 mm/day. This is in good
agreement with the estimates derived from ground-
water level fluctuations, given the location of the
isotope profile half-way between piezos 3 and 4
(Fig. 7).
12. Conclusions
Reasonable estimates for local ET can be
derived from diurnal variations of the shallow
groundwater table in the Okavango Delta. Only
long-term, high-resolution data on water levels are
needed along with reliable estimates for porosity
and saturated conductivity. The method was applied
on the Thata Island field site, where it yielded
highly varying ET rates for different locations. The
rates in the barren, highly salinized centre of the
Island were significantly lower as compared to the
riverine forest or the floodplains. Potentially, the
method may be used for generating ET estimates
for all the land cover types present in the Delta
(McCarthy and Gumbricht, 2003). In field sites
with strong groundwater level fluctuations, it may
also be used to shed new light on the depth
dependence of the ET. Most ground water model-
ing software packages still use a linear relationship
between the depth to the groundwater table and the
ET, but there is considerable debate on the topic
within the literature (Coudrain-Ribstein et al., 1998;
Sepaskhah et al., 2003; Shih and Rahi, 1984;
Thorburn et al., 1992). Long-term observations of
diurnal water level fluctuations for varying depths
to the groundwater on the same site may yield
some hard evidence in that regard.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology (ETH) and Botswana’s
Department of Water Affairs. Without the Depart-
ment’s dedicated support, particularly from the
Maun staff, fieldwork would have been impossible.
We are most grateful to Stefano Bernasconi and
Carsten Schubert for isotope analyses.
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