Chapter Three

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Definition & types of evaporation

Factors affecting evaporation

Measurement of evaporation

Empirical Evaporation Equations

Evapotranspiration and its Estimation

 DEFINITION & TYPES OF EVAPORATION
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Evaporation is the process in which a liquid water

changes to the gaseous state at the free surface, below
the boiling point through the transfer of heat energy.
Evaporation – process by which liquid water changes
directly to the vapor phase
Transpiration ‐ process by which liquid water passes
from liquid to vapor through plant metabolism.
Evapotranspiration – evaporation from water bodies and
soil masses together with the transpiration from
vegetation.
Sublimation ‐ process by which water passes directly
from the solid phase to the vapor phase
 Factors affecting rate of evaporation
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• Vapor pressure
vapor pressure of a liquid is defined as the pressure exerted by the
molecules that escapes from the liquid to form a separate vapor phase
above the liquid surface.

• Evaporation is proportional to the difference between the saturation

vapor pressure at water temperature (es) and actual vapor pressure
of air (ea) : EL = C (es – ea)
 Factors affecting rate of evaporation…
Where EL is rate of evaporation (mm/day)
C is a constant
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es : For a given air temperature, there is a maximum moisture

content the air can hold and the corresponding vapor pressure is
called saturation vapor pressure.
over a water surface the saturation vapor pressure is related to
the air temperature with equation

Where : es is in Pascal (Pa = N/m2) and T is air temperature in

degree Celsius.
If temperature maximum and minimum are given, then es obtained

ea is vapour pressure of the air (about 2m above water surface)

 Factors affecting rate of evaporation…
• Temperature
– The rate of evaporation increases with an increase in water
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temperature. In summer seasons or in hot countries, the

evaporation will be more as compared to winter season or
cold countries.
• Wind
– Wind aids in removing the evaporated water vapor from the
zone and creates space for evaporation
– Thus the rate of Evaporation increases with the increase of
wind speed up to a critical speed
• Altitude
– At high altitudes, the atmospheric pressure is less and hence
the evaporation should normally be higher. However, this no
exactly so, because of the decrease of temperature at high
altitudes, which reduces the evaporations.
 Factors affecting rate of evaporation…
• Air humidity
– Amount of water vapor in the air
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– Is the ratio of actual amount of water vapor present in the air

to the maximum amount of water the air can hold at that temp.
– as the air becomes more and more saturated, less water is
able to evaporate into that air. Therefore, as the relative
humidity increases evaporation decreases.
• Soluble Salts
– When the solute is dissolved in water, the vapor pressure of
the solution is less than that of pure water, hence the rate of
evaporation decreases
• Heat storage in water Bodies / Size of water body
– Deep water bodies have more heat storage than shallows.
– A deep lake may store radiation energy in summer and
releases it in winter causing less evaporation in summer and
more evaporation in winter
 MEASUREMENT OF EVAPORATION
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• Estimation of Evaporation is important in many

hydrologic problems
– Associated with planning and operation reservoirs and
irrigation systems
– To conserve the scares water in the arid zone
• However, the exact measurement of water evaporates
from the large water body is the most difficult task
• The amount of water Evaporates from a water surface
is estimated by
– Using Evaporimeter ( Class A Evaporation Pan )
– Analytical Methods and
– Empirical Methods
 EVAPORATION FROM A PAN
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• 1210 mm diameter
• 255 mm depth
• made from unpainted galvanized
iron
• the pan placed on the wooden
platform of 15cm height from the
ground for free air circulation
• Evaporation measurement are
made by measuring the depth of
water with a hook gauge in a
stilling well.
 Class A Evaporation Pan
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 Class A Evaporation Pan
• Pan evaporation is used to estimate the evaporation
from water bodies (lake, reservoir, ocean and sea).
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• Evaporation from a natural body of water is usually at a

lower rate because the body of water does not have
metal sides that get hot with the sun; lake is larger and
deeper than evaporation pan, and exposed to different
wind speed.

• The volume of water lost due to evaporation = volume o

f water required to bring the level of water to the
original level.
• Allowance for rainfall is required
 EVAPORATION FROM A PAN
Example 3.1
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 Example 3.2
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• Compute the daily evaporation from a class A pan, if the

amounts of water added to bring the level to the fixed
point are as follows:
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Rainfall (mm) 14 6 12 8 0 5 6
Water added (mm) -5 3 0 0 7 4 3

what is the evaporation loss of water (m3) in this week

from a lake (surface area, A = 640 ha) in the vicinity,
assuming a pan coefficient of 0.75.
 METHODS OF ESTIMATING EVAPORATION
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• Water-Budget method
Evaporation from
• Energy Budget method Water
• Mass transfer method surfaces/bodies
 METHODS OF ESTIMATING EVAPORATION
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• Water-Budget Method
– It involves writing of the water balance equation of the lake
and determining the evaporation from the knowledge of
other variables

P  Vis  Vig  Vos  Vog  E L  S

Where P = daily precipitation
Vis = daily surface inflow into the lake
Vig = daily groundwater inflow
Vos = daily surface outflow from the lake
Vog = Daily seepage outflow
EL = daily lake evaporation
ΔS = increase in lake storage in a day
 METHODS OF ESTIMATING EVAPORATION
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• Energy- Budget Method

– This method is an application of the law of
conservation of energy
– The energy available for evaporation is
determined by considering the incoming,
outgoing, and stored energy in the water body
over time.
– Evaporation from open water surface is influenced
by two factors: energy input and vapor transport.
Energy (mainly solar energy) provides the latent
heat for the vaporization and vapor transport help
to move the vapor away from the water surface.
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Energy-Budget Method
 Energy – Budget Method
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Example 3.3
 METHODS OF ESTIMATING EVAPORATION
• Mass-Transfer Method
– It is based on the theories of turbulent mass transfer in the
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boundary layer to calculate the mass water vapor transferred from

the surface to the surrounding atmosphere
• Empirical Evaporation Equation
– Meyer’s Formula
 u9 
E  K
L m ( e w  e a )  1  
Where,  16 
• U9 = mean monthly wind velocity (km/hr) taken at 9m height
• ew = saturation vapor pressure at water surface temperature in mm of
Hg
• ea = actual vapor pressure of overlying air in mm of Hg at specified
height ( 9m ) above the ground
• EL = lake evaporation in mm/day
• Km = coefficient accounting the other factors
0.36 for large and deep; 0.5 for small and shallow
 Example 3.4
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A lake with a surface area of 250 hectares had the

following average values of parameters during a week

water temperature =20oC

Relative humidity = 40%

Wind speed = at 1.0m above the ground = 16km/h

Estimate the average daily evaporation from the lake

and the volume of evaporated water from the lake
during that one week using Meyer’s Formula
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 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION AND ITS ESTIMATION
• Is the sum of the water lost to the atmosphere by the plants
through transpiration, and the water evaporated from the soil or
water body, surrounding the plants.
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• potential and actual evapotranspiration

– Potential Evapotranspiration (PET)
• Is a measure of the ability of the atmosphere to remove
water from the surface through the process of evaporation
and transpiration assuming no control on water supply. Or
the amount of evaporation that would occur if a sufficient
water resources available.
• PET is a measure of the demand side.
• PET is critically depends upon climatological factors, rather
than on characteristics of plants and soils
• Governing factors
• Energy available to evaporate water
• Wind available to transport the water vapor
 EVAPOTRANSPIRATION AND ITS ESTIMATION
• Actual Evapotranspiration (AET)
• is the quantity of water that is actually removed from a surface
due to the process of evaporation and transpiration.
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• AET is largely affected by the characteristics of soil and

vegetation.
• PET = AET, when ample of water is available.
• Measurement of Evapotranspiration
– AET is in the field can be measured by an instrument called
Lysimeter .
– A Lysimeter is a special watertight tank containing a block of
soil and set in a field of growing plants.
– The plants grown in the lysimeter are the same as in the
surrounding field.
– ET is estimated in terms of the amount of water required to
maintain constant moisture conditions within the tank
measured either volumetrically or gravitymetrically through the
arrangement made in lysimeter.
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 Evapotranspiration
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• Evapotranspiration is measured using Lysimeters

 Estimation of Evapotranspiration
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• Methods

– Combination theory penman –monteith method

– Empirical formulations based on temperature – e.g

Hargreaves method

– Empirical formulations based on radiation – e.g.

Blaney –Criddle Formula
 Penman- Monteith method
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 Blaney –Criddle Formula
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ET  Kp(0.46Ta  8.13)
Purely empirical formula based on data from arid Western USA
assumes the PET is related to radiation (Sunshine hour and Temperature )

where ET = PET in a crop season (mm)

K = an empirical coefficient, depends on crop type ranges
0.5 to 1.2 the average is 0.85
p = monthly percent of annual day time hours, depends on
the latitude of the place
Ta = mean monthly temperature in oC
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Hargreaves method