Towards an improved mapping of evapotranspiration in semi-arid regions

Mustafa Gokman, Christiaan van der Tol, Zoltan Vekerdy, Wouter Verhoef, Okke Batelaan, Hasan Sarikaya

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

    Abstract

    In drylands, evapotranspiration is mainly limited by soil moisture, but current surface energy balance models do not directly make use of this fact. We tested the single-source energy balance model SEBS in a semi-arid region and showed that SEBS is significantly overestimating the evaporative fraction for sparsely vegetated drylands. As an alternative for such conditions, we derived an empirical function of soil moisture, temperature gradient and NDVI, which performed significantly better. This was then integrated with the evaporative fraction output of SEBS for an improved mapping of evapotranspiration in a semi-arid region. Ground measurements of the evaporative fraction from five Bowen ratio energy balance systems were used first to test SEBS and then to calibrate the empirical equation. The resulting method uses remote sensing data and in situ air temperature measurement.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages149-153
    Number of pages5
    Publication statusPublished - 2012
    EventRemote Sensing and Hydrology Symposium -
    Duration: 27 Sept 2010 → …

    Conference

    ConferenceRemote Sensing and Hydrology Symposium
    Period27/09/10 → …

    Keywords

    • Bowen ratio
    • Evaporative fraction
    • Evapotranspiration
    • Remote sensing
    • SEBS
    • Soil moisture

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