Evaporation,

Transpiration,
EvapoTranspiration

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Losses of Precipitation

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Evaporation

Evaporation happens
in several ways

Open water evaporation

Transpiration from
leaves
Evaporation from soil
and land surface

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Evapotranspiration

Evaporation

Terminology
Evaporation process by which liquid
water passes directly to the vapor phase
The rate of evaporation depends upon the
water temperature and the temperature
and humidity of the air above the water.
Humidity refers to the amount of moisture
in the air; more specifically:

Absolute humidity - mass of water per unit volume of air (usually grams
water per cubic meter of air)
Saturation humidity - maximum amount of moisture the air can hold at a
given temperature
Relative humidity - the absolute humidity over the saturation humidity
(i.e., the percent ratio of the amount of moisture in the air to the total
amount it could possibly hold)

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Transpiration

Transpiration - process by which

liquid water passes from liquid to
vapor through plant metabolism
Plants take up water for their own
use (i.e., for building plant tissue),
Only about 1% of what they suck up
gets used; the rest is released to the
atmosphere through leaves.

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Evapotranspiration

When studying water in the field, one

cannot separate water lost to evaporation
from transpiration losses
It is typical to lump them together as
evapotranspiration (E-T).

Potential evapotranspiration is the water loss that would occur if there

is an unlimited supply of water available for transpiration and
evaporation.

In reality, the amount of water that transpires or evaporates is limited

by the amount of water that is available. If the amount of water
available is less than the potential, then the actual evapotranspiration
will be lower than the potential.

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Factors Influencing
Evaporation

Energy supply for vaporization

(latent heat)

Solar radiation

Temperature
Energy input for evaporation to proceed
The higher the temperature the higher
the capacity of air to absorb more water

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Factors influencing
evaporation

Transport of vapor away from

evaporative surface

Wind velocity over surface

Specific humidity gradient above
surface

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Wind has a major effect on

evaporation, E
By convection wind removes vapor-laden
air
Keeping the boundary layer thin and
maintaining a high transfer rate of water
from liquid to vapor phase
Wind is also turbulent, increasing the
diffusion several orders of magnitude over
that of molecular diffusion

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Factors influencing
evaporation

Vegetated surfaces/Crop resistance

The transpiration of cropped surface is
usually less than the evaporation of an
open water surface
Supply of moisture to the surface

Evapotranspiration (ET)
Potential Evapotranspiration (PET)
moisture supply is not limited

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Measurement of
evaporation

(a) Evaporimeters
Class A-Evaporation pan
IS standard pan
Colorado Sunken pan
US geological survey floating pan

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Evaporation from a
Water Surface

Simplest form of evaporation

From free liquid of permanently

saturated surface

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Evaporation from a Pan

Sensible
Net radiation Vapor flow rate
heat to air

Rn

Hs

m v w AE

National Weather Service Class A

type
Installed on a wooden platform in a
grassy location
Filled with water to within 2.5
inches of the top
Evaporation rate is measured by
manual readings or with an analog
output evaporation gauge

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CS

dh
dt

Area, A

Heat conducted
to ground
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The most commonly use evaporimeter is the class A pan.

This is a pan with 1.21m diameter and depth of 225mm.
the pan is set 150 mm above the ground to allow air to move
freely around.
Evaporation is measured daily as the amount of water
evaporated from the pan.
At the beginning of the day, the pan is filled to the 50mm
from the top and is left to evaporate for 24 hrs.
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To
determine the amount of water evaporated during the

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Pan coefficient

Evaporation pans are not exact models

of large reservoirs and have the
following drawbacks:
They differ in heat storing capacity and
heat transfer from the sides and bottom
The height of the rim in an evaporation pan
affects the wind action over the surface
The heat transfer characteristics of the pan
are different from that of the reservoir

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Values for Pan

Coefficient Cp
Types of Pan

Average
value

Range

Class A Land Pan

0.70

0.60-0.80

ISI pan

0.80

0.65-1.10

Colorado Sunken
Pan

0.78

0.75-0.86

USGS floating
pan

0.80

0.70-0.82

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(b) Empirical Methods

A Large empirical equations are available to

estimate Free water evaporation using commonly
available meteorological data.
Most formulae are based on the Dalton-type
equation and can be expressed as:

EL Kf (u )(es ea )
Where;
EL = free water evaporation in mm/day
es = saturation vapour pressure at the water-surface
temperature in mm of mercury
ea = actual vapour pressure of overlying air at a specified
height
f(u) = wind speed correction
K is a coefficient
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Meyers
equation:

E C es ea 1 0.06215V
E = evaporation in mm/month
es = saturation vapour pressure
ea = actual vapour pressure in mm
V = monthly mean wind velocity in km/hr
C = 15 for small shallow ponds

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(c) Analytical Methods of

Estimating Evaporation

Water-budget method
Energy Balance Method
Aerodynamic method (Mass-transfer
method)
Penman Method (Combined method)

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(i) Water-Budget Method

The water budget method is the simplest of

the three analytical methods.
It involves writing the hydrological
continuity equation for the free water
storage system
The ideal way of estimating evaporation
from any lake, reservoir, or catchment
would be to measure the various
components of inflow, outflow and storage
and apply the mass balance equation.

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The evaporation in any time interval may

be computed from

E S1 S 2 I Q
Where I and Q are the volumes of inflow
and outflow, S1 and S2 are the initial and
final storage respectively.

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(ii) Energy Method

It is an application of the law of conservation of

energy
Continuity
CV contains liquid and vapor phase water

Hs

Liquid phase
Rn

m
v

a
dh
E
dt

d
m v w d wV dA
dt CV
CS
dh
dh
w A
E
dt
dt

0
No flow of liquid
water through CS

m v w AE

The air in contact with the ground or water surface is warmed and then m
27 H
flow of energy thru the air is termed sensible heat flux
s

December
2015
The 28,
associated

Hs

Rn

Energy Method

Energy Eq. for Water in

CV
dH
dt

Rn H s G

m
v

a
E

dh
dt

Rate of heat input to the system

Assume:
1. Constant temp of water in CV
2. Change of heat is change in internal energy of water
evaporated
dH
lv m v
dt

w AE
Recall m
:
Neglecting sensible and
1
ground heat R
fluxes
Rn H s G
E
lv w A
Er n
lv w

lv m v Rn H s G

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H s Ts Ta
Ts Ta

es ea

lv mv es ea

Tw Ta

es ea

Rn G
EL
w L 1
Rn = net radiation, G = Heat flux into the
ground, L = latent heat of vaporization, p is
the barometric
pressure in mb

=> Sign of
changes in morning and
evening, since Hs is +ve (upward )during the

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(iii) Aerodynamic
Method

Include transport
of vapor away from
water surface as
function of:

Humidity gradient
above surface
Wind speed across
surface

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Rn

Net radiation

Air Flow

E Evaporation

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Aerodynamic Method
Ea M (es ez )u z
Where Ea =evaporation by the aerodynamic
method,
M = mass-transfer coefficient, es =
saturation vapour pressure at water
temperature, ez = vapour
pressure of the air
aCE
M =0.wind
622
at level Z, u
z
Pvelocity at level Z
w

Where w = density of water, a =

density of air, P = atmospheric
pressure at level Z, CE = bulk
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evaporation coefficient

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(iv) Combined Method

Evaporation is calculated by

Aerodynamic method

Energy method

Energy supply is not limiting

Vapor transport is not limiting

Normally, both are limiting, so use a

combination method
H s lv m v
Sensible heat flux is difficult to estimate

Assume it is proportional to the vapor heat flux

= Bowen ratio
1
Rn H s G
E
Energy balance equation (G=0) lv w A
Rn lv m 1

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Recall Vapor Pressure

17.27T
es 611 exp

237
.
3

December 28, 2015

des
4098es

dT (237.3 T ) 2
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Combined Method
(Cont.)

Combining

Energy balance
Aerodynamic Methods

Combined Method
E

Er

Rn
lv w

Ea M (es ez )u z

Er
Ea

Well suited to small areas

with detailed data

Net Radiation
Air Temperature
Humidity
Wind Speed
December 28,2015
Air Pressure

des
4098es

dT (237.3 T ) 2

E 1.3

Er

Priestly & Taylor

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Example

Use Combo Method to find

Elev = 2 m,
Evaporation
lv 2.501x10 6 2370T
Press = 101.3 kPa,
Wind speed = 3 m/s,
Net Radiation = 200 W/m2,
Air Temp = 25 degC,
Er
Rel. Humidity = 40%,

December 28, 2015

(2500 2.36 * 25) x103 2441 kJ/kg

Rn
200

7.10 mm/day
lv w 2441x103 * 997

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Example (Cont.)

Use Combo Method to find

Elev = 2 m,
Evaporation
eas 3167 Pa
Press = 101.3 kPa,
Wind speed = 3 m/s,
Net Radiation = 200 W/m2,
Air Temp = 25 degC,
Rel. Humidity = 40%,

ea Rh * eas 0.4 * 3167 1267 Pa

Ea 4.54 x10 11 3167 1267 * (1000 mm / 1 m) * (86400 s / 1 day)

7.45 mm/day
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Example (Cont.)

Use Combo Method to find

Evaporation
Elev = 2 m,

Press = 101.3 kPa,

Wind speed = 3 m/s,
Net Radiation = 200 W/m2,

Air Temp = 25 degC,

Rel. Humidity = 40%,

0.738

4098 * 3167
(237.3 25)

188.7 Pa/degC

0.262

Er
E a 0.738 * 7.10 0.262 * 7.45 7.2 mm/day

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Example

Use Priestly-Taylor Method to find

Evaporation rate for a water body
Net Radiation = 200 W/m2,
Air Temp = 25 degC,

E r 7.10 mm/day

E 1.3

Er

Priestly & Taylor

0.738

E 1.3 * 0.738 * 7.10 6.80 mm/day

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