Agricultural Water Management 213 (2019) 682–692

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Agricultural Water Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat

Mapping daily and seasonally evapotranspiration using remote sensing T

techniques over the Nile delta
Ayat Elnmera,b,c, , Mosaad Khadrc, Shinjiro Kanaea, Ahmed Tawfikb,d
⁎

a
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan
b
Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), Environmental Engineering Department, P.O. Box 179, New Borg Al-Arab City, Postal Code 21934,
Alexandria, Egypt
c
Irrigation and Hydraulic Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, 31734, Tanta, Egypt
d
Water Pollution Research Department, National Research Centre, Giza, 12622, Egypt

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The rapid escalation in water demands for agriculture, domestic, and industry sectors requires skillful man-
Actual evapotranspiration agement of this limited resource. Globally, the agriculture sector is considered the main user of the water re-
SEBAL source. Actual evapotranspiration (ETc) is an important tool in determining the water requirements of different
Landsat 8 crops. Therefore, precise estimation of the ETc is the major parameter in the water balance of arid and semi-arid
Water balance
agriculture regions such as Egypt. Recently, both Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
Nile delta
become the main techniques that can be efficiently used for estimating the ETc on regional and global coverage.
The main goal of this study was to estimate the daily and seasonally ETc over the Nile delta using remote sensing
techniques. These techniques were Surface Energy Balance for Land (SEBAL) algorithm with 24 Landsat 8
images. Additionally, FAO-Penman-Monteith method was used to validate the derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm
under the same conditions using several performance criteria to assess the performance of the SEBAL algorithm
with Landsat 8 in estimating the ETc over the Nile delta. The results revealed that the SEBAL algorithm with
Landsat 8 images appears to provide an acceptable estimation of the spatial and temporal distributions of ETc
over the Nile delta with acceptable accuracy with R2 = 97.83%, RMSE about 0.469 mm/day and 15.9% NRMSE.
The derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm was then used to estimate the water balance and the irrigation efficiency
of the study area. Results of water balance estimates revealed that most of the seasonal ETc (93%) was originally
met by surface water and groundwater supplies; however, the remaining portion (7%) was particularly met by
precipitation. Furthermore, the estimated irrigation efficiency was about 48.6% in the central portion of the Nile
delta. Overall, the performance of the derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm compared to available ground datasets
demonstrates the potential of using the SEBAL algorithm with Landsat 8 images for water use and water balance
estimates within the Nile delta.

1. Introduction
Actual evapotranspiration (ETc) is a critical component of water
balance at local (field, farm, catchment, and basin) and global levels.
From an agricultural point of view, the ETc determines the amount of
water to be applied through irrigation. Most hydrologic models and
agricultural management applications require accurate estimation of
the ETc. The ETc is defined by the processes whereby water is lost
through evaporation from the soil surface and through transpiration
from the plants (Doorenbos, 1984; Running et al., 2017). The tran-
spiration of plants represents the main portion of the ETc process. The
remaining portion of the ETc is taken place due to the evaporation from
soil and water surfaces (Liu et al., 2003). The processes of evaporation
and transpiration are existing simultaneously and there is no direct
accurate way to separate the two processes (Ding et al., 2013).
There are several methods to estimate the ETc which can be gen-
erally classified as empirical methods (Thornthwaite, 1948; Blaney,
1952), surface energy balance methods and combination methods
which combine the empirical methods with the surface energy balance
methods (Penman, 1948; Allen et al., 1998b; Nouri et al., 2013b). These
methods vary in terms of the required data and the accuracy of the
estimated ETc. The empirical methods are mainly used for the ETc

Corresponding author.
⁎

E-mail addresses: ayat.abdelwahab@ejust.edu.eg, ayat.a.aa@m.titech.ac.jp (A. Elnmer), mosaad.khadr@f-eng.tanta.edu.eg (M. Khadr),

kanae@cv.titech.ac.jp (S. Kanae), ahmed.tawfik@ejust.edu.eg (A. Tawfik).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.11.009
Received 26 November 2017; Received in revised form 7 November 2018; Accepted 12 November 2018
Available online 22 November 2018
0378-3774/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A. Elnmer et al.
estimation based on point measurements. They provide undesirable
overestimation or underestimation values of the ETc (Elhag et al.,
2011). Furthermore, the applications of these methods have some
limitations such as time and cost involved in the daily obtaining and
processing the required meteorological data. Moreover, the number of
stations, where reliable meteorological data, is generally limited
(Droogers and Allen, 2002). FAO Penman-Monteith formula is con-
sidered the most common empirical method for the ETc estimation in
agriculture (Allen et al., 1998b; Allen, 2000).
Satellite imagery recently provides a dependable basis for various
computational models that perform the ETc estimation based on the
surface energy balance (Mao and Wang, 2017). The estimated ETc by
satellite images is very useful for evaluating crop water requirements
and the water balance at regional and subfields scales (Senay et al.,
2016; Pinter et al., 2003). Furthermore, satellite imagery and airborne
images are considered the most efficient and economic techniques for
the ETc estimates in large areas (Allen et al., 2011).
The surface energy balance methods can be used to estimate the ETc
based on the residual concept (Calcagno et al., 2007). The residual
concept was used for several algorithms such as Surface Energy Balance
Index (SEBI), Simplified Surface Energy Balance System (SSEBS), Sur-
face Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL), Mapping Evapo-
transpiration at High Resolution and with Internalized Calibration
(METRIC) and Two-Source Energy Balance (TSEB). The SEBI algorithm
can be efficiently used to estimate the ETc. However, it requires plenty
of ground-based measurements (Menenti and Choudhury, 1993). The
SSEBS algorithm requires several parameters to estimate the ETc under
extreme temperatures (Su, 2002). Additionally, it does not require
ground base measurements (Roerink et al., 2000). The TSEB algorithm
needs several ground-based measurements to include the view geo-
metry in the ETc estimation (Tang et al., 2011). The Surface Energy
Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) can be used to estimate the ETc
using the meteorological data. However, the input data for the SEBAL
algorithm are largely varied which provide uncertainties to the ETc
estimates. The modified and developed version of the SEBAL algorithm
namely Metric algorithm is appropriate for sloped areas (Liou and Kar,
Fig. 1. Land use and weather stations in Nile delta.
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2014). The SEBAL and METRIC algorithms have an internal calibration
of the sensible heat computations. It eliminates the need for atmo-
spheric corrections for the surface temperature and reflectance mea-
surements. The internal calibration can undoubtedly reduce the impacts
of the biases in the aerodynamic stability corrections (Tasumi et al.,
2005).
The SEBAL algorithm was originally developed and successfully
applied for the water uses estimates in Spain and Egypt (Bastiaanssen
et al., 1998). Furthermore, it requires minimum ground-based mea-
surements and can be successfully applied for the ETc estimation in arid
regions like Egypt. Additionally, the areas in the Nile delta are mainly
plain where the SEBAL algorithm can be efficiently applied.
Estimation of the ETc by combining both the meteorological data
and remotely-sensed data has been widely investigated (Nouri et al.,
2016; Najmaddin et al., 2017). Meteorological data (i.e., solar radia-
tion, wind speed, and temperature) are particularly used to estimate the
reference evapotranspiration (ETo) (Allen et al., 1998b). (Nouri et al.,
2013a) calculated the crop coefficient (Kc), depending on the growing
stage, using remote sensing techniques. Afterthought, the ETc was es-
timated by multiplying the ETo by the Kc.
Additionally, The ETc can be predicted using a method which de-
pends on Soil-Vegetation -Atmosphere transfer (SAVT) model without
using remote sensing techniques. However, Olioso (Olioso et al., 2005)
reported that combining SVAT models with remote sensing techniques
for the ETc estimation is more efficient.
Water demand in Egypt is rapidly increasing due to the incredibly
rapid growth of population. The agriculture sector in Egypt, which re-
presents the backbone of its economy, consumes more than 85% of
available water resources. Moreover, about 45% of total agriculture
water is depleted due to the ETc (Elnmer et al., 2015; Khadr et al.,
2016). Therefore, efficient water resources management is the main
priority to optimize the beneficial use of these resources to satisfy all
the demands (MWRI(2010); El-Din, 2013). The aim of the study is to (1)
estimate the daily and seasonal ETc over the Nile delta using SEBAL
algorithm with Landsat 8 images, (2) evaluate the performance of
SEBAL algorithm with Landsat 8 in the ETc estimation using
A. Elnmer et al.
independent dataset which contains 21 ground-truth points distributed
over the study area, and (3) estimate the water balance and irrigation
efficiency based on the modeled ETc for a pilot study area.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
The methodology presented in this paper was implemented in the
Nile delta, which represents 2.4% of the total area of Egypt. The study
area is located between latitudes of 31°45′-30°00ʹ N and longitudes of
30°00ʹ- 32°00ʹ E, as shown in Fig. 1. Moreover, about 49% of total in-
habitant are concentrated and settled in this area where the agriculture
and industry are the main activities as shown in Fig. 1 (El-Kawy et al.,
2011). The climate, in general, is an arid Mediterranean type, and the
coastal zone of the study area is characterized by relatively very low
rainfall with an average amount of about 200 mm/year which is used in
the rain-fed agriculture. Additionally, the rainfall decreases from the
north of the Nile delta to the south to reach almost zero in the far south.
The old and new lands in the Nile delta are mainly flat, fertile. The old
lands represent about 93% of the total areas of the Nile delta and being
characterized by alluvial soils and irrigated by traditional systems (Kotb
et al., 2000). New lands are located in the west and east sides of the Nile
delta where the sprinkler and drip irrigation techniques are used.
Wheat and clover crops dominate the crops in the winter season, which
extends from October to May. Summer crops are mainly rice and maize
and the season extends from May to October (Elnmer et al., 2015). The
winter season consist of three seasons (i.e., beginning, growing and
harvesting seasons). The beginning season extents from November to
December while the growing season extents from January to March.
The harvesting season runs from April to May.
2.2. Data set
2.2.1. Satellite data
In this study, various datasets were used from various sources ran-
ging from field records to remotely sensed images for the Nile delta.
These datasets were metrological data, Landsat 8 images, and field data
about crops type and water supplies and demands in the study area. The
metrological data include temperature, wind speed, relative humidity
(RH), surface pressure and precipitation. SEBAL algorithm requires
satellite images and meteorological data to calculate the ETc at a re-
gional scale. A total of 24 cloud-free (< 10% clouds) Landsat 8 images
were used in the SEBAL algorithm for the Nile delta during the winter
season 2015–2016. Landsat images, which have been extensively used
for water resource applications, consists of an Operational Land Imager
(OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) (Olioso et al., 2005; Serbina
and Miller, 2014). The Operational Land Imager (OLI) has nine spectral
bands to be able to collect the desired image. Moreover, it has a suffi-
cient resolution of 15–30 meter to distinguish different land uses (Du
et al., 2014). The Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) is the tool to measure
the thermal bands of 10 and 11. However, the estimated errors for the
TIRS were 0.29 and 0.51 W/m2/sr/mm respectively (Montanaro et al.,
2014). Table 1 summarizes Landsat 8 data which were used in this
study. The region of the Nile delta was covered by four satellite images
Table 1
Description of Landsat 8 images for the winter season.2015–2016
Month/Date
Path/row November December February
176/38 29-11-2015 15-12-2015 17-02-2016
176/39 29-11-2015 15-12-2015 01-02-2016
177/38 20-11-2015 06-12-2015 24-02-2016
177/39 17-11-2015 06-12-2015 24-02-2016
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for one satellite overpass. These images have specific paths and rows
according to their geographic locations. Landsat 8 overpasses the same
point every 16 days. Hence for one month, there are two Landsat 8
images with 30 m resolution. For this study, one image was selected
every month according to the cloud ratio. For one month, the four
images for the region of the Nile delta were captured in a different day
so the daily ETc map must be analyzed separately. Fig. 1 illustrates the
four images and their represented regions where 1 and 2 represent the
south of the Nile delta while 3 and 4 indicate the coastal area. More-
over, Table 2 illustrates the differences between the regions in terms of
their location, climate conditions, and irrigation techniques.
2.2.2. Meteorological data
Regarding field data, the meteorological data were collected from
four weather stations located in the study area as shown in Fig. 1. These
data were temperature (maximum, minimum, and average), wind
speed, relative humidity (RH), surface pressure, precipitation and solar
radiation which were recorded hourly for the Nile delta during the
winter season 2015–2016. Additionally, the required data for water
balance estimation (water supplies and demands) in the study area
were obtained from the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Ir-
rigation (MWRI).
2.3. SEBAL algorithm
The processes of SEBAL algorithm produces many maps like net
surface radiation (Rn), soil heat flux (G) and sensible heat flux to the air
(H) using the satellite images, meteorological data. The final map of the
SEBAL algorithm is a spatial distribution of the ETc (Bastiaanssen et al.,
1998). The derived ETc from the SEBAL algorithm were estimated using
a series of computations for Rn, G and, H. It is calculated as a residual of
the surface energy balance equation as shown in Eq. (1). The Rn was
calculated using Eq. (2),
Rn = G +H + λETc (1)
Rn = (1-α) Rs↓ + RL↓ - RL↑ - (1- ° ) * RL↓ (2)
Where α is the surface albedo, ° is the surface emissivity, Rs↓ is the
incoming shortwave radiation (watt/m²), RL↑ is the outgoing longwave
radiation (watt/m²) and RL↓ is the incoming longwave radiation (watt/
m²) (Sun et al., 2011).
The surface albedo (α) was calculated using the corrected radiance
of the satellite images. Normalized Differences of Vegetation Index
(NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SVAI) and Leaf Area Index
(LAI) were used to calculate the ° . After that, the near-surface tem-
perature (Ts) and the RL↑ were estimated based on the ° (Li et al.,
2005). The inputs for the G module are the Rn, Ts, NDVI, and α as shown
in Eq. (3). The main equation for the H estimation is Eq. (4).
G = Rn * (Ts / α (0.0038 α + 0.0074 α²) (1- 0.98 NDVI4)) (3)
H = (ρ* Cp * dT) / rah (4)
Where ρ is the air density (kg/m3), Cp is the air specific heat (1004
J/kg/K), dT (K) is the temperature difference (T1 – T2) between two
heights (Z1 and Z2) respectively, and rah is the aerodynamic resistance
March April May
04-03-2016 05-04-2016 05-05-2016
04-03-2016 21-04-2016 05-05-2016
11-03-2016 28-04-2016 30-05-2016
11-03-2016 28-04-2016 30-05-2016
A. Elnmer et al. Agricultural Water Management 213 (2019) 682–692

Table 2
Description of the four regions of the Nile delta.
Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4

location 30º 00ʹ -30º 45ʹ N 30º 00ʹ -30º 45ʹ N 30º 45ʹ -31º 45ʹ N 30º 45ʹ -31º 45ʹ N
30º 00ʹ – 31º 00ʹ E 31º 00ʹ – 32º 00ʹ E 31º 00ʹ – 32º 00ʹ E 30º 00ʹ – 31º 00ʹ E
Climate conditions Arid –semi Arid conditions Arid – semi Arid conditions Mediterranean condition in the north of the Nile Mediterranean condition in the north of
delta the Nile delta
Irrigation techniques Flooding technique in the Flooding technique in the Flooding technique and Sprinkler and dripping Sprinkler and dripping techniques in the
center of the Nile delta center of the Nile delta techniques in the far east of the Nile delta far west of the Nile delta

to heat transport (s/m) (Singh et al., 2008). n

i=1
(ET _ FAO _ i ET _ sat _ i )2
The land use map and the LAI were used to calculate the momentum NSE = 1 n
i=1
( ET _ FAO _ i ET _¯FAO _ i )2 (8)
roughness length (Zom). Subsequently, the Zom was used to calculate the
friction velocity (U*). The U* was used to calculate the wind speed at a Where ET _ FAO
¯ _ i is the average of the considered parameter. The
height of 200 m. The rah was estimated based on the modified U*. The coefficient of determination, R2 is calculated using Eq. (9). It indicates
rah was corrected for the weather instability using five iterations and the the relative fit between the ETc_Sat and ETc_FAO values.
Monin Obukhov length formula (Venkatram, 1980). Two anchor pixels n
(ET _ FAO _ i ET _ sat _ i ) 2
(hot and cold pixels) were selected and their ETc, G and Rn were used to R2 = 1 i=1
n
estimate the H. The dT and Ts were estimated to establish a regression i=1
(ET _ FAO _ i ) 2 (9)
model for each pixel in the study area. Thereafter, the Instantaneous
The correlation coefficient is a measure of how well the trends in the
evapotranspiration (ETinst) was calculated by Eq. (5). The daily ETc (ETc-
ETc_Sat values follow the trends in the ETc_FAO values. The correlation
24) was computed by Eq. (6).
coefficient is calculated using Eq. (10):
ETinst = 3600 * (λETc / λ) (5) n ( ET _ FAO _ i ) (ET _ sat _ i )
i=1
ET _ FAO _ i*ET _ sat _ i n
Cr =
Where λ is the latent heat of vaporization (J/kg). n 2 n 2
n ( i = 1 ET _ FAO _ i ) n ( i = 1 ET _ sat _ i )
i=1
ET _ FAO _ i2 n i=1
ET _ sat _ i 2 n
ETc-24 = ETr-f * ETo-24 (6)
(10)
Where ETo-24 is the cumulative 24-hour ETo for the day of the image,
ETr-f is the evapotranspiration fraction which is defined as the ratio The RMSE is the square root of the variance of the residuals. It in-
between the ETinst (mm/hr) to the ETo (mm/hr) (Abrishamkar and dicates the absolute fit of the model to the data. It indicates how close
Ahmadi, 2017). ETr f is relatively constant throughout the day so it is the ETc_Sat values are to the ETc_FAO values. RMSE is calculated as fol-
considered the same as the 24-hour average. lows, Eq. (11). However, The Normalized Root Mean Square Error
Fig. 2 shows the schematic diagram for estimating the ETc using (NRMSE) is a dimensionless measure and is calculated as shown in
SEBAL algorithm and an application of the water balance and irrigation Eq.12
efficiency estimates in the center of the Nile delta. n
i=1
(ET _ FAO _ i ET _ sat _ i ) 2
RMSE =
n (11)
2.4. Validation of the SEBAL algorithm performance
NRMSE = RMSE / (ETc_FAO_max - ETc_FAO_min) % (12)
The ETo was estimated using the FAO Penman-Monteith formula
and the collected metrological data for the Nile delta during the winter To investigate whether there is a significant difference between the
season 2015–2016 (Allen et al., 1998a). The daily ETc of twenty-one mean from the ETc_FAO and ETc_Sat, a Z-test for the means was employed
wheat fields were estimated based on Eq. (7) during the growing and in the analysis. The Z-test had two hypothesizes; i.e. the null hypothesis
harvesting seasons. and alternative hypothesis. The null hypothesis was that the mean from
the ETc_FAO and ETc_Sat are equal while the alternative hypothesis was
ETc = ETo* Kc (7) that there is a significant difference between the mean from the ETc_FAO
and ETc_Sat.
Where Kc is the crop factor which depends on the crop growth
phase, type, and the climate conditions. The simulated daily ETc of the 2.5. Assessment of the water balance and irrigation efficiency
wheat fields using the SEBAL algorithm (ETc_Sat) was compared with the
values obtained from Eq. (7) (ETc_FAO) using Five performance measure The derived ETc from the SEBAL algorithm and satellite images was
criteria (i.e., Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), Root Mean Square Error implemented in the estimates of the water balance and irrigation effi-
(RMSE), Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE), coefficient of ciency for a district located in the central portion of the Nile Delta,
determination (R2), and the correlation coefficient (Cr) (Cole and Egypt during the winter season 2015–2016. The district is located be-
Tillman, 2001; Willmott and Matsuura, 2005; Khadr, 2016)). However, tween latitude of 30°43ʹ43.75ʺ - 30°57ʹ40ʺ N and longitudes of
the validation of the SEBAL algorithm at regional and seasonal scales 30°54ʹ42.15ʺ - 31°1ʹ37.35ʺ E with an area of 215.775 Km². The water
could not be performed in this study due to the limitation of the field balance in the central part of the Nile delta consists of three terms;
data about the spatial distribution of the crops type in the four regions water supplies, water demands and water losses. The water supplies in
of the Nile delta. the study area are the surface water from main and branch canals fol-
The efficiency NSE, proposed by Nash and Sutcliffe (Lehner et al., lowed by small amounts of groundwater and rainfall. The data about
2001), is defined as one minus the sum of the absolute squared differ- surface water supplies were collected from the MWRI. Moreover, the
ences between the ETc_Sat and ETc_FAO values normalized by the variance rainfall data were collected from the weather station in the study area.
of the ETc_FAO values during the period under investigation. NSE is The water supplies satisfy the water demands of the domestic and the
calculated using Eq. (8). agriculture sectors. However, the water consumption of the industrial
sector in the study area is almost negligible (Khadr et al., 2016). The

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A. Elnmer et al.
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram for estimation of the ETc, water balance and irrigation efficiency.
domestic water requirements were met by four water treatment plants
in the study area with a daily consumption of 62,030 m3/day (Khadr
et al., 2016). The water demands of the agriculture sector are expressed
by the crop water consumptions. The crop water consumptions in the
study area were estimated using the derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm.
The water losses can be categorized into surface run off losses, con-
veyance losses and percolation losses. Surface runoff losses and perco-
lation losses could not be assessed in the study area due to the lack of
field measurements. The conveyance losses was estimated in this study
as described earlier by Khadr (Khadr et al., 2016). Furthermore, the
evaporation losses from the soil and water surfaces were included in the
ETc estimation (Liu et al., 2003). Thereafter, the irrigation efficiency
(Ei) was estimated based on the water balance calculations in the study
area during the winter season 2015–2016. The Ei is the ratio between
the ETc_sat to the surface water and groundwater supplies. It depends on
the water allocation, crop type, and metrological data (i.e., tempera-
ture, precipitation, wind speed, etc.)
3. Results and discussion
3.1. SEBAL algorithm results
3.1.1. Daily actual evapotranspiration (ETc)
Daily ETc represents the most important process for the determi-
nation of the surface and mass-energy interaction for both water re-
sources management and agriculture practices (Sellers et al., 1996).
However, the ETc is regionally and daily varied based on the environ-
mental and climatic conditions in terms of temperature, humidity, and
wind speed (Su et al., 2003). Understanding the temporal and spatial
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Agricultural Water Management 213 (2019) 682–692
variations of the ETc is essential to efficiently manage the limited water
resources in the Nile delta. Figs. 3(a – f) show the daily distribution of
the derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm along the Nile delta during the
winter season (starting from November 2015 to May 2016).
The SEBAL algorithm results showed that the ETc was quite low and
highly varied from 1.3 to 3.0 mm/day during November 2015 as shown
in Fig. 3-A. This was mainly due to the existing of unplanted areas and
the vegetation cover was temporarily absent during the beginning
season (Bastiaanssen et al., 2009). This was not the case in December
2015 to April 2016 where the simulated ETc was slightly increased and
ranged from 1.85 to 3.56 mm/day in December 2015 (Fig. 3B). Due to
the growth of plants in the growing season, the ETc was largely in-
creased and varied from 2.5 to 4.2 mm/day and from 2.8 to 4.5 mm/
day in February and March 2016 respectively as shown in Fig. 3(C and
D). Nevertheless, the ETc was significantly dropped in the harvesting
season. It ranged from 1.5 to 4.2 mm/day in April 2016 and from 0.5 to
2.3 mm/day in May 2016 as shown in Fig. 3(E and F).
3.1.2. Seasonal actual evapotranspiration
The SEBAL algorithm was efficiently used for assessing the seasonal
ETc distribution along the Nile Delta as shown in Fig. 4. The results
showed that the seasonal ETc was quite low and amounted to 0–81 mm/
season in the far west (Alexandra governorate) where most of the new
reclaimed lands exist. This could be attributed to the using of the drip
and sprinkler irrigation techniques which affect adversely on the ETc.
The situation of the seasonal ETc in the center of the Nile delta is fully
different as shown in Fig. 4. The ETc was varied from 81 to 200 mm/
season due to the high abstraction of the groundwater which sub-
stantially reduced the ETc. These results are consistent with (Chen et al.,
A. Elnmer et al. Agricultural Water Management 213 (2019) 682–692

Fig. 3. Distribution of daily evapotranspiration over the Nile delta in November 2015.
(A), December 2015 (B), February 2016 (C), March 2016 (D), April 2016 (E), and May 2016(F)

2014) who found that the groundwater abstraction could significantly
affect the ETc. The moderate seasonal ETc was recorded in the east
(Port-Said governorate) and west (El-Behira governorate) as shown in
Fig. 4. However, the seasonal ETc was substantially increased and
varied from 430 to 700 mm/season in the Far East where the aqua-
culture practices are the most activities of the region and the presence
of the water bodies. The water bodies have high evaporation rates
compared to the cultivated areas. These results are comparable with
those obtained by (Bastiaanssen, Pelgrum et al. 2009) who used the
SEBAL algorithm to calculate the daily and seasonally ETc for the center
of the Nile Delta during 2008–2009. They reported that the highest and
lowest values of the ETc were in July 2008–2009 and December
2008–2009 respectively.
The TIRS banding artifacts in the satellite images were observed in
Fig. 4 which should be avoided to provide an accurate estimation for
the ETc. This problem was due to the TIRS stray light problem in the
Landsat 8 satellite. It started after launching of the Landsat 8 satellite in
March 2013 and several approaches have been pursued to correct the
TIRS stray light but they are in the early exploratory stages (Montanaro
et al., 2014).
Fig. 5 shows the frequency distribution of the seasonal ETc which
was derived from the SEBAL algorithm. The results revealed that the

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Fig. 4. Distribution of the seasonal evapotranspiration over the Nile delta during the winter season (from November 2015 to May 2016).
ETc of 274 mm/season was taken place in the most of the Nile delta.
This strongly indicates that the crops in these areas consumed moderate
irrigation water quantities during the growing season. The high values
of the ETc in Fig. 5 were due to the presence of TIRS stray light in the
satellite images. Moreover, inaccurate classification of the aquatic
plants on the water surface in the far east of the Nile delta resulted in
the high values of the ETc. Higher results were obtained by (Elhag et al.,
2011) who found that the frequency distribution of the daily ETc over
the Nile delta exceeded 2.5 mm/day in August 2007. This was attrib-
uted to the temperature differences between the summer and winter
seasons in the Nile delta which significantly influence the ETc.
Fig. 6 illustrates the derived monthly ETc from SEBAL algorithm and
the rainfall over the study area during the winter season 2015–2016.
The results showed that about 93% of the ETc was met by the surface
water and groundwater. Whereas, the remaining portion of 7% was
gained from the rainfall. The rainfall was a maximum of 13.91 mm/
month in November 2015 followed by 10.51 mm/month in February
Fig. 5. Frequency distribution of the seasonal evapotranspiration over the Nile
delta during the winter season (from November 2015 to May 2016).
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Agricultural Water Management 213 (2019) 682–692
2016. There was no rainfall in April and May 2016 as shown in Fig. 6.
Moreover, the ETc was maximized at a level of 123.75 mm/month in
March 2016 due to the growth of the plants in the growing season.
However, the ETc was quite low in April and May 2016 (86.25 and
84 mm/month respectively) which was due to the harvesting season. A
similar trend was observed in the beginning season where the ETc was
73.13 mm/month in November 2015.
3.1.3. Regional actual evapotranspiration (ETc)
The daily ETc, temperature (T) and precipitation (P) over the four
regions of the Nile delta were extensively assessed in Fig. 7. The me-
teorological data (i.e., T and P) highly fluctuated from region 1 to 2, 3
and 4. This spatial variation has significant influences on the ETc in the
Nile delta. (Allen et al., 1998a) reported that the main factors affecting
the ETc are the T and P. Additionally, the irrigation techniques, and
water availability would influence the ETc. The flooding irrigation
technique could increase the ETc while the sparkling and dripping ir-
rigation techniques would adversely affect the ETc (Dehghanisanij and
Kosari, 2011). The ETc was slightly decreased from 3.0 to 2.8 mm/day
in regions 1 and 2 respectively in November 2015. This could be at-
tributed to the decrease in the T from region 1 to 2 (19 to 17℃ re-
spectively) and the existing of the P events in region 2. A similar trend
was observed in March 2016, the ETc and T decreased from 4.5 to
4.2 mm/day and from 21 to 20 °C in regions 1 and 2 respectively in
March 2016. Additionally, the P in region 2 was 3.0 mm. However, The
ETc was quite high in March regarding November by a value of 50% due
to the growth of crops and prevailed high T in the regions 1 and 2
respectively as shown in Fig. 7. The ETc significantly dropped in region
2 by a value of 50% in April as compared to region 1 where the tem-
perature fluctuated highly between 20 and 25℃. This can be attributed
to the P event in region 2 by 5.0 mm. The ETc decreased in May 2016
and amounted to 3.1, 2.0 mm/day in regions 1 and 2 respectively as
shown in Fig. 5. Additionally, the T decreased from 24 to 19℃ in
A. Elnmer et al.
Fig. 6. Monthly evapotranspiration and precipitation over the Nile delta during the winter season (from November 2015 to May 2016).
absence of the P (0.0 mm) in regions 1 and 2 respectively.
The situation for coastal areas (regions 3 and 4) was extremely
different where the ETc was low in the north of the Nile delta regarding
the south. This could be attributed to continuous precipitation events
and the low temperatures in the north of the Nile delta. Similar results
were obtained by (El-Shirbeny et al., 2014) who estimated the daily ETc
and observed that the ETc values increase from the north to the south of
the Nile delta. They concluded that the increases in the T and the de-
creases in the relative humidity were the main deriving factors for the
ETc spatial variation.
The results in Fig. 7 revealed that the ETc increased from 2.0 to
2.5 mm/day in regions 3 and 4 in November and December 2015 re-
spectively. This could be attributed to the increase in the T from region
3 to 4. An adverse trend was observed in February 2016 where the ETc
decreased from 4.0 to 3.2 mm/day in regions 3 and 4 respectively. This
may be due to the decrease in the T from 14 to 11℃ in addition to the P
event in region 4 by 2.09 mm. A similar trend was observed in April
2016 where the ETc decreased from 3.0 to 2.5 mm/day and the T de-
creased from 19 to 17℃ in regions 3 and 4 respectively. However, in
March 2016, the T increased from 15 to 16℃ in regions 3 and 4 re-
spectively and the ETc decreased from 4.0 to 3.8 mm/day. This could be
due to the P event in region 4 by 2.03 mm.
3.2. Validation of the SEBAL algorithm performance
The derived ETc from the SEBAL algorithm (ETc_Sat) was validated at
Fig. 7. Assessment of the regional temperature, ETc and precipitation over the Nile delta during the winter season (from November 2015 to May 2016).
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Agricultural Water Management 213 (2019) 682–692
field scale using field data of the ETc (ETc_FAO) to assess the capability of
the SEBAL algorithm in estimating of the ETc over the Nile delta. It can
be clearly seen from Table 4 that the SEBAL model performs satisfactory
and the overall evaluation results are fairly good from the R2, RMSE, Cr,
NSE, and NRMSE viewpoints. A significant positive correlation (Cr) with
0.98 was detected between the ETc_FAO, and ETc_Sat. Additionally, The
large value of R2 (Fig. 8) is an indication of a perfect relationship be-
tween the ETc_FAO and ETc_sat values. According to Eq. (8), the range of
NSE lies between 1.0 (perfect fit) and −∞. High values of NSE is an
indication of a more efficient model however, values of NSE in the
range of (−∞, 0) indicate unacceptable performance. The value of NSE,
which is presented in Table 4, is greater than 0.9 which indicates that
ETc_Sat has a perfect fit for the ETc_FAO. The RMSE indicate that the ETc_Sat
values were close to the values of the ETc_FAO with 0.469 mm/day error.
Moreover, the NRMSE was 15.98% which indicate that the ETc_Sat va-
lues fit the values of the ETc_FAO. The validation process was performed
using 21 fields of wheat crop. Hence, the validation results were high
due to the insignificant differences between the ETc of different wheat
fields.
Similar results were obtained by (dos Santos et al., 2010) where the
derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm had a good agreement with the field
data of the ETc with 95% accuracy in Brazil. Additionally, (Du et al.,
2013) reported that the daily ETc from SEBAL algorithm was mis-
estimating at an average range of 10.52% with the field data from the
eddy covariance system in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China.
The value of the test static, P, almost equals 0.0 as shown in Table 4
A. Elnmer et al. Agricultural Water Management 213 (2019) 682–692

Table 3
Water budget in the study area during the winter season (from November 2015
to May 2016).
Sector Water volume Ratio
(Mm³/season)

Input Surface water supply 171.87 96.91%

precipitation 5.48 3.09%
Sum 177.346 100%
Output Crop water consumptions 86.23 48.62%
Domestic water treatment plants 11.54 6.51%
Losses Conveyance losses in the irrigation canals 76.21 42.97%
Other losses (surface run off and evaporation NC NC
losses ect).

NC: Calculated values are not expressed due to lack of measurements.

Fig. 8. Correlation between the derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm (ETc_Sat.)
Table 4
And the derived ETc from FAO-Penman Monteith formula (ETc_FAO) over the
Performance measures for the comparison between the ETc_Sat and ET_FAO.
Nile delta.
R2 Cr RMSE (mm/day) NRMSE % NSE p

which indicates that Z-test does not reject the null hypothesis that the 0.9783 0.98 0.469 15.9 0.982 ≈ 0.0
ETc_FAO and ETc_Sat come from a distribution with the same mean, at a
significance level of 5%. In addition, all calculated z values are located
between Z-critical values ( ± 1.96 for two-tailed at a 5% significance 3.3. Assessment of the water balance
level).
The water balance for a district in the center of the Nile delta was
analyzed to assess the irrigation water performance during the winter

Fig. 9. Location of the study area and the distribution of the seasonal evapotranspiration over the center of the Nile delta during the winter season (from November
2015 to May 2016).

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Fig. 10. Relationship between the water supply, ETc and irrigation efficiency in the center of the Nile delta during the winter season (from November 2015 to May
2016).

season (from November 2015 to May 2016). The district is located at a
latitude of 30°43ʹ - 30°57ʹ N and a longitude of 30°54ʹ - 31°1ʹ E as shown
in Fig. 9. The water balance for the district in the center of the Nile
delta is shown in Table 3,. The surface water supplies were about
171.87 Mm3/season and represented about 96.91% of the total water
supplies in the study area. It is controlled by the MWRI to satisfy the
domestic and agricultural water demands. However, the rainfall was
about 3.09% of total water supplies. This was due to the aridity of the
study area. The water supplies meet the agricultural demand according
to the crop water requirements. Hence, the summer season has higher
surface water supplies than the winter season where the rice is the
dominated crop in the summer crop pattern.
The agricultural water demand was represented by the crop water
consumptions. It was the largest water consumer in the study area. The
crop water consumptions were estimated by the derived seasonal ETc
from the SEBAL algorithm. The seasonal ETc was largely varied from
125 to 650 mm/winter season with an average value of 400 mm/winter
season as shown in Fig. 9. The total crop water consumptions in the
study area were about 86.23 Mm3/winter season (48.62%). The ab-
straction of the four water treatment plants was estimated in the water
balance by 11.54 Mm3/winter season. The industrial demands in the
study area were neglected where the surface water was used in the
cooling process and drain again to the irrigation network (Elnmer et al.,
2018).
The conveyance losses in the irrigation canals were estimated by
4.92 m³/sec in the study area. It represented about 42.97% of the total
water consumptions in the study area. However, the surface run-off
losses and evaporation losses could not be estimated in the study area
due to the lack of field measurements.
3.4. Assessment of the irrigation efficiency
The irrigation efficiency (Ei) was estimated based on the water
balance of the district during the winter season (from November 2015
to May 2016). The seasonal Ei in the center of the Nile delta was about
50.05%. It is classified as a “poor” performance (i.e., Ei ≤70%) ac-
cording to the standard irrigation performance (Molden and Gates,
1990). This could be attributed to the oversupplies of the irrigation
water regarding the crop water consumptions. Similar results are ob-
tained by (Khadr et al., 2016) where they reported that the seasonally Ei
in the center of the Nile delta was about 45% during the winter season
of 2012. Hence, reducing the conveyance losses should be highly ad-
dressed in the water policies in the Nile delta to improve the irrigation
water performance.
The monthly water supplies, ETc, and Ei in the study area during the
winter season (from November 2015 to May 2016) are shown in Fig. 10.
The monthly Ei was fluctuated due to the variations in the water sup-
plies and crop water requirements according to the growth phases.
The Ei was gradually increased from November 2015 to March 2016
(from 39.44% to 60.18%). This could be attributed to the high crop
water requirements during the growing season where the ETc increased
from 9.86 to 20.70 Mm3/month as shown in Fig. 10. However, the Ei
was dropped in April and May 2016 resulting values of 42.0% and
39.11% respectively. This could be due to the lowest values of the ETc
during harvesting season. The ETc experienced the lowest values by
12.61 and 12.13 Mm3/month in April and May 2016 respectively.
4. Conclusions
Effective water resources management requires an accurate esti-
mation for the water uses and availability to face the water scarcity’s
challenges particularly in arid and semi-arid areas such as Egypt.
Therefore, in this study the daily and seasonally actual evapo-
transpiration (ETc) were estimated using 24 Landsat 8 images. The
Surface Energy Balance for Land (SEBAL) algorithm was used to com-
pute the ETc using Landsat 8 images and the meteorological data. The
ETc derived from SEBAL algorithm was validated, through a comparison
the ETc derived from FAO-Penman-Monteith formula under the same
conditions. Results showed that the SEBAL algorithm with Landsat 8
images are efficient tools in estimating the daily and seasonal ETc in the
Nile delta with reasonable accuracy. The water balance in the central
part of the Nile delta was then analyzed to assess the irrigation effi-
ciency using the derived ETc from SEBAL algorithm. The calculated
water balance for the study area revealed that the major portion of the
water supplies was consumed by crops (86.23 mm3/season) (48.62%).
The results strongly displayed that the irrigation efficiency was quite
low (50.05%) and classified as “poor” performance. Moreover, the
Conveyance losses in the irrigation canals were relatively high
(42.97%). Hence, Future efforts are needed to save much irrigation
water from the Conveyance losses in the center of the Nile delta.
Moreover, irrigation water policies in the Nile delta should focus on
using a consistent methodology across years to have a sustainable ir-
rigation management.
Acknowledgements
The first author would like to thank the Egyptian Ministry of Higher
Education for the support of this research and Egypt-Japan University
of Science and Technology (E-JUST) for providing the tools needed for
this research. The authors would like to express their appreciation to

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Prof. Haarstrick Andreas, EXCEED’s project scientific coordinator, for
his support. We would like to express our gratitude to Prof. Wolfgang
Niemeier, head of Institute for Geodesy and Photogrammetry- TU
Braunschweig, for professional and technical assistance. The authors
would thank the ministry of irrigation and water resources-Egypt
(MWRI) for providing the required data.
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