EVAPOTRANSPİRATİON

ESTİMATİON
İSTANBUL ÜNİVERSİTESİ CERRAHPAŞA
ORMAN FAKÜLTESİ
ORMAN MÜHENDİSLİĞİ ANA BİLİM DALI DOKTORA PROGRAMI

Yavuz DÖNER
What is Evapotranspiration?
• Evaporation from soil and water surface and transpiration of plants is collectively called as
Evapotranspiration (ET).
• ET is a combined process of Evaporation (E) from soil and plant surfaces and transpiration (T)
through plant canopies. İt is important for many disciplines, including irrigation system
design, irrigation scheduling, hydrologic and drainage studies, and water resources
management (Irmak and Dorota,2003).
• ET is one of the key component of Hydrological Cycle. It represents 60-75% of precipitation
inputs at the global, continental, and regional scales (crossref. Zhou et al.,2008).
• Terrestrial ET and Evaporation are the two sources of atmospheric water vapour.
• Water vapour added to atmosphere from ocean is abut 7 times of vapour from terrastrial ET
(crossref. Chow et al.,1988).
• ET estimation methods has been evolving since 1802 following the Daltons studies which
first conducted to estimate Evaporation from open water (Xiang et al.,2020).
• Penmann (1948) studied surfaces including open water, bare soil and grass for E estimations
and was known to first to introduce energy balance concept.
EVAPOTRANSPİRATİON

Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R., &

By M. W. Toews - Own work, CC BY 4.0, Mays, L. W. (1988). Applied
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2843655 hydrology.
Why Accurate ET Estimations are Needed?
• To İmprove Water Use Efficiency
• Optimization of İrrigation Scheduling
• For better decision making in natural resource management activities
• Provide assistance to Disaster and Environmental Risk Management
• Enable making future climate forecasts and scenarios
 FACTORS AFFECTİNG ET
CLİMATİC FACTORS VEGETATİON GEOPYSİCAL MANAGEMENT

Solar Radiation Plant Type Latitude İrrigation

Air Temperature Development Stage Altitude Harwesting

Transpiration Resistance or Stomatal
Humudity Conductance Soil Properties Soil Conservation Practices

Wind Speed Plant Height Aspect

Vapour Pressure Plant Rougness Slope Gradient

Precipitation Ground Cover or Canopy

Rooting Characteristics

Plant Density

Leaf Area İndex

Evapotranspiration Consepts
• Potential ET ), Reference Crop ET ), Actual ET (), Crop ET () and Crop Coefficients ) are important terms to know.
• Although both and give estimates of atmospheric evaporative demand, they are based on different concepts
having different equations which can help to differentiate the terms (Xiang et a.,2020)
• Potential Evapotranspiration:The term first introduced by Thornwaite in 1948. İt is the atmospheric
evaporation demand from the land consisting of water vapour released from water bodies, soil surfaces and
plants. İt is the transport of water from the earth back to atmosphere, the reverse of precipitation
(Thornwaite,1948).
• Penmann (1948) provided new formulas for evaporation from different surfaces but untill 1956 he didn’t use
the potential evapotranspiration term. Penmann (1956,1963) later used ‘’potential transpiration’’ which means
the transpiration rate from an extensive short green grass cover shading the surface completely and having
adequate and continuous supply of water.
• Following these developments, many references and alterations were made. However, the terms Etp and Ep
were confused for long and their estimation methods as well.
• Crop Potential Evapotranspiration term eloborating the ‘’potential evapotranspiration’’ was described by
Jensen (1968) as the ‘’rate of evapotranspiration for a given crop at a given stage of growth when water is not
limiting and other factors such as insects, diseases, and nutrients have not materially restricted plant
development’’. İn addition to the definition, Jensen (1968) provided Etp differences among several crops under
varying growing conditions. To establish the relationship between potential and actual crop ET the Crop
Coefficient ) term was introduced based on selected reference crops such as alfalfa having aerodynamical rough
surface which is 30-50 cm of top growth.
Evapotranspiration Consepts

Xiang et al.,2020
 Potential versus Reference Evapotranspiration
• Thornthwaite and Penman in 1948 both developed potential ET equation independently. Potential ET here
refers to the maximum ET that can occur from a given crop surface under ideal conditions. Penman’s equation
was more mechanistic while Thornthwaite’s equation was more empirical. The Thornthwaite (1948) equation is
simpler than Penman’s equation because the method requires less climatic data (Subedi, Abhinaya, and José L.
Chávez.,2015). Originall Penmann-Monteith Equation further developed by several studies. Prominent modified
PM methods are FAO 56 PM, ASCE-EWRİ Standardized PM and CIMIS PM.

Thornthwaite Equation Original Penmann-Monteith Equation

Δ: slope of the saturated water vapor pressure curve : Saturation vapor pressure
Rn: Net radiation flux : Actual vapor pressure
G: Sensible heat flux
Y: psychrometric constant
Reference Crop Evapotranspiration
• Due to the need for a unique term having no multiple meanings and requirement for
standart specifications for ET surface, Reference Crop Evapotranspiration term was coined.
• The Penman-Monteith (PM) method is accepted as the standard method for estimating
reference crop ET (ETo) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO). The FAO56 PM equation was developed and recommended by the FAO Irrigation
and Drainage Paper 56 in 1998 as the standard method for calculating Eto.
• According to the FAO 56 PM method, the reference crop is a hypothetical crop with an
assumed height of 0.12 m having a surface resistance of 70 s/m and an albedo of 0.23,
which is smilar to the ET of an extensive surface of green grass of uniform height, actively
growing and adequately watered.
• Reference Evapotranspiration has been enormously hot topic for researchers untill today.
The number of research documents having the key word ‘’Reference Evapotraspiration’’
on Scopus database covering 1800-2021 period was found to be 72,899 (Pinos,2022).
ET Measurements
• ET is measured directly and indirectly or estimated by plenty of equations proposed.
• Direct measurements of ET consists of lysimeters and eddy covariance systems.
• İndirect measurements for estimating ET are done by using catchment water balance,
soil water balance, pan evaporation or the remote sensing data analysis methods.
• Because field methods are labor-intensive, costly, and complex, crop evapotranspirtion
is mainly calculated benefiting from ETo.
• While using ETo to find actual or crop ET (Etc) experimentally obtained krop coefficients
(Kc) are needed. This approach is called as ‘’two-step approach’’.
• Because direct measurement of actual evapotranspiration is complicated, mostly
potential or reference rate of evapotranspiration is estimated and then converted to
the an estimate of the actual evapotranspiration using crop coefficients (Edraki,
Masoud,2006) .
 ET MEASUREMENTS
DİRECT İNDİRECT

Catchment Soil Water Remote

Water Balance Balance Sensing
- Lysimeter Method
- Eddy Covariance
Method
ETo MODELS
- Bowen Ratio ETp MODELS - Temperature Based
- Sap Flow - Mass Transfer
Measurements - Radiation Based
- Temperature Based - Combination Based
- Chamber Method
- Radiation Based - Pan Evaporation
- Combination Based Based
Edraki,2006 Thermal Dissipation Probe
Kushwaha et al.,2021
WET150 Multi-Parameter Soil Sensor
Open Water Evaporation

Xiang et al.,2020
ETp Estimation Equations

Xiang et al.,2020
ETp Estimation Equations
ETp Estimation Equations
ETo Estimation Equations
ETo Estimation Equations
ETo Estimation Equations
ETo Estimation Equations

List of the combination-based equations to estimate the daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo) in mm day-1. The data requirements for each of the semi-empirical and
empirical models are listed in the columns to the right side of the table (Lat is the latitude, z the elevation, Tmax the maximum temperature, Tmin the minimum
temperature, T the average temperature, RHmax the maximum relative humidity, RHmin the minimum relative humidity, RH the average relative humidity, u the wind
speed, and Rs the solar radiation. Obs stands for additional information and the number in the table refers to the number in the footnote of the table (Pinos, 2022).
ETo Estimation Equations
REFERENCES
• Xiang, K., Li, Y., Horton, R., & Feng, H. (2020). Similarity and difference of potential evapotranspiration and reference crop
evapotranspiration–a review. Agricultural Water Management, 232, 106043.
• Irmak, S., & Haman, D. Z. (2003). Evapotranspiration: Potential or Reference? ABE 343/AE256, 6/2003. EDIS, 2003(14).
• Edraki, M. (2006). Final Report Locally Calibrated Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) for the Sunraysia Region.
• Chow, V. T., Maidment, D. R., & Mays, L. W. (1988). Applied hydrology.
• Subedi, A., & Chávez, J. L. (2015). Crop evapotranspiration (ET) estimation models: a review and discussion of the applicability and
limitations of ET methods. Journal of Agricultural Science, 7(6), 50.
• Pinos, J. (2022). Estimation methods to define reference evapotranspiration: a comparative perspective. Water Practice & Technology, 17(4),
940-948.
• Zhou, G., Sun, G., Wang, X., Zhou, C., McNulty, S. G., Vose, J. M., & Amatya, D. M. (2008). Estimating forest ecosystem evapotranspiration at
multiple temporal scales with a dimension analysis approach 1. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 44(1), 208-
221.
• Taheri, M., Mohammadian, A., Ganji, F., Bigdeli, M., & Nasseri, M. (2022). Energy-based approaches in estimating actual evapotranspiration
focusing on land surface temperature: A review of methods, concepts, and challenges. Energies, 15(4), 1264.
• Kushwaha, N. L., Rajput, J., & Elbeltagi, A. (2021). Data intelligence model and meta-heuristic algorithms-based pan evaporation modelling
in two different agro-climatic zones: a case study from Northern India. Atmosphere (basel) 12: 1654.
• Big Leaf Theory related to Fixed Canopy Resistance
• Alternative dynamic canopy resistance through remote sensing
• Taheri, Mercedeh, et al.,2022