18‐Mar‐16

EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

EVAPORATION
 Definition: Process by which water is changed from the
liquid or solid state into the gaseous state through the
transfer of heat energy (ASCE, 1949).

 It occurs when some water molecules attain sufficient

kinetic energy to break through the water surface and
escape into the atmosphere (~ 600 cal needed to evaporate
1 gram of water).

 Depends on the supply of heat energy and the vapor

pressure gradient (which, in turn, depends on water and air
temperatures, wind, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation,
etc).

1
 18‐Mar‐16

TRANSPIRATION (T)
 Transpiration is the evaporation occurring through plant 
leaves (stomatal openings). 

 Transpiration is affected by plant physiology and

environmental factors, such as:
‐ Type of vegetation
‐ Stage and growth of plants 
‐ Soil conditions (type and moisture) 
‐ Climate and weather 

EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET)
 Combined “loss” of water vapor from within the leaves of
plants (“transpiration”) and evaporation of liquid water
from water surfaces, bare soil and vegetative surfaces.

 Globally, about 62% of the precipitation that falls on the

continent is evapotranspired (~72,000 km3/yr); 92% of
which from land surfaces evapotranspiration and 3% from
open water evaporation (source: Dingman, “Physical
Hydrology”).

 Approximately 70% of the mean annual rainfall in the U.S.

is returned to the atmosphere as evaporation or
transpiration.

2
 18‐Mar‐16

EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (ET)

 In practice, the terms E and ET are often used to

mean the same thing ‐ the evaporation from the
land surface.

 Therefore, you must use the context to determine

what the term evaporation means in a specific case
(i.e., is it just from an open water surface or the
entire land surface?).

POTENTIAL EVAPORATION (PE)
 is the climate controlled evaporation from an open
water surface with unlimited supply.

3
 18‐Mar‐16

POTENTIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION (PET)
 is the ET that would occur from a well vegetated 
surface when moisture supply is not limiting (often 
calculated as the PE). 

 Actual evapotranspiration (AET; ET) drops below 

its potential level as the soil dries. 

Factors affecting Evaporation from an open water surface:

1. Meteorology
a) energy (mostly solar)
b) wind
c) temperature at the air-water interface
d) humidity in the overlying air

2. Geographical
a) Water quality
- saline water has a reduced vapor pressure, and therefore evaporation
decreases about 1% for every 1% increase in salinity. Normally a small
consideration
- turbidity of the water can affect the heat budget, but generally not considered
b) Depth of water body
c) Size of the water surface

4
 18‐Mar‐16

Additional factors specific to soils:

a) Soil moisture content
- Soil is different than open water surface because opportunity for evaporation is not
always 100%, can be more or less
- evaporation decreases as the soil surface dries, therefore more rain is evaporated
in small frequent storms than in large infrequent storms

b) Soil capillary characteristics

- capillary rise is affected by soil texture. < in sandy soils > in clay soils

c) water table depth

d) soil colour - darker soils absorb more heat

e) presence of vegetation - shading effects

f) snow cover

Application of Evaporation
 Evaporation must be considered in the design of
large water storage reservoirs, large‐scale water
resources planning and water supply studies.

 For flood flow studies, urban drainage design

applications it may be neglected.

 Example: during typical storm periods with

intensities of 0.5 in/hr, evaporation is on the order
of 0.01 in/hr.

5
 18‐Mar‐16

Methods to Reduce Evaporation Losses
 Reduction of Surface Area

 Mechanical Covers

 Chemical Films
 Acetyl Alcohol (hexadecanol)
 Stearyl Alcohol (octadecanol)
 Growing tall trees on the windward side of the reservoirs 
to act as wind breakers 
 Removing the water loving weeds and plants like
Phreatophytes from the periphery of the reservoir.

6
 18‐Mar‐16

Measuring Evaporation

Atmometer

7
 18‐Mar‐16

The Piche evaporimeter is an atmometer, a simple instrument

well known to observers of the weather all over the world. Usually
placed inside a Stevenson screen it does what it says – it
measures evaporation. Like the lysimeter, or evaporation pan, it
measures the amount of water lost to the atmosphere usually
over a period of one day. Evaporation takes place from a 3 cm
diameter circle of blotting paper [filter paper] held in place at the
bottom of a calibrated (laboratory burette‐ or pipette‐type) glass
tube by a metal clip. The outside diameter of the tube is nominally
1.5 cm as is the base of the retaining clip. Water, preferably
deionised, keeps the paper constantly wet. Water is evaporated
from both the upper and lower surface of the filter paper; and the
surface area works out as 11 cm sq. cm (11 cm‐2). The tube is
calibrated in millilitres (mm), or cubic centimetres (cm3), like a
laboratory burette, or pipette, and evaporation totals are reported
as cm3. If thought more meaningful evaporation may be expressed
in terms of mm per unit area (m‐2).

8
 18‐Mar‐16

Evaporation Pans

9
 18‐Mar‐16

Evaporation Pans

U.S. Weather Bureau Class A Pan

4 ft

Wooden 
10 in
support
6 in

Galvanized 
steel

10
 18‐Mar‐16

Evaporation pan

S
 P  Q  Qr  Qs   Q0  Qd  E p 
t
S S
P  Ep   Ep  P 
t t

Surface runoff ‐ Qr Evaporation ‐ Ep Precipitation ‐ P

Inflow‐ Q

Subsurface 
runoff ‐ Qs

Outflow‐ Q0
Subsurface seepage losses‐ Qd

Evaporation Pan
 We are not really interested in what evaporates from a
pan; instead we want to know the regional evaporation
from land surface or the evaporation from a nearby
lake. Unfortunately, pan evaporation is often a poor
indicator of these variables (due in part to pan
boundary effects and limited heat storage).

11
 18‐Mar‐16

Evaporation Pan
Evaporation from an open water surface (E) is
usually estimated from the pan evaporation (Ep)
as:
E=K*Ep
where K is the pan coefficient (regional coef,
usually around ~0.7). Similar expressions are also
used in practice to estimate potential
evapotranspiration from pan data.
Pan Coefficient = Lake Evaporation / Pan Evaporation
K = 0.67 – 0.82 (with an average 0.7)

Pan coefficient
FIGURE 2. Source: 
Farnsworth, Richard 
K., Edwin S. 
Thompson, and 
Eugene L. Peck. 
After Map 4: Pan 
Coefficients.

In NOAA Technical 
Report NWS 33, 
Evaporation Atlas 
for the Contiguous 
48 United States,
NWS, NOAA, 1982.

12
 18‐Mar‐16

Measurement of Transpiration

13
 18‐Mar‐16

Direct Measurement of Consumptive Use
1. Tank & Lysimeter Methods
 Tank is a container having an area of 10m2, 3m deep

 Tank is filled with the soil of field & crop is grown

 Cu is determined by estimating the quantity of water required to 
maintain constant moisture conditions for satisfactory plant 
growth

 In Lysimeter, the bottom is pervious, Cu is difference of water 
applied & that draining through pervious bottom  which is 
collected in a pan

2. Field Experimental Plots
 Irrigation water is applied to selected field experimental plots in 
such a way that there is neither runoff nor deep percolation

 Yield obtained from different fields are plotted against total 
water used

14
 18‐Mar‐16

Irrigated lysimeter

PE = Rainfall + Irrigation ‐ Percolation

Direct Measurement of Consumptive Use
3. Soil Moisture Studies
 Suited to areas soil is fairly uniform & groundwater is deep enough  so 
that it doesn’t affect the fluctuations in soil moisture within root zone 
 Soil moisture measurements are done  before & after each irrigation
 Water quantity extracted per day from soil is computed for each period
 A curve is drawn between rate of water use & time  seasonal use

4. Integration Method

 Necessary to know division of area:
a) Irrigation crop area  unit Cu for each crop times its area
b) Natural vegetation area  unit Cu of native vegetation times 
its area
c) Water surface area  water surface evaporation times its area
d) Bare land area  evaporation from bare land times its area
 Summation of all above products  annual Cu for total area

15
 18‐Mar‐16

Direct Measurement of Consumptive Use
5. Inflow & Outflow Studies for Large Area
Annual consumptive use for large area is found by:

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
1. Blaney‐Criddle Method

2. Penman Method

3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

16
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
1. Blaney‐Criddle Method
Blaney & Criddle (1962) proposed an empirical relation to express 
potential evapo‐transpiration (consumptive use) in terms of temp. & 
day time hours:

(Table‐1)

Table‐2

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
1. Blaney‐Criddle Method
Table‐1

17
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
1. Blaney‐Criddle Method
Table‐2

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
2. Penman Method

Table‐3

Equation‐1
Equation‐2

18
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
2. Penman Method
Table‐3

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
2. Penman Method

Equation‐1
Equation‐1a
Table‐3

Equation‐1a

19
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
2. Penman Method

Equation‐2

Table‐4

Table‐1

Table‐5

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
2. Penman Method
Table‐4

20
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
2. Penman Method
Table‐5

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

Table‐6
Equation‐3

21
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

Equation‐3

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method
Table‐6

22
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

23
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

Table‐1

Table‐5

24
 18‐Mar‐16

Consumptive Use Determination by Use of Equations
3. Hargreaves Class A Pan Evaporation Method

Evapotranspiration from satellite data
 When a surface evaporates, it looses energy and cools 
itself. It is that cooling that can be observed from space. 
Satellites can map the infrared heat radiated from Earth, 
thus enabling to distinguish the cool surfaces from the 
warm surfaces. 

winter summer

25