Trend analysis of reference evapotranspiration in Northwest China: The roles of changing wind speed and surface air temperature

Reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) is an important element in the water cycle that integrates atmospheric demands and surface conditions, and analysis of changes in ET₀ is of great significance for understanding climate change and its impacts on hydrology. As ET₀ is an integrated effect of climate variables, increases in air temperature should lead to increases in ET₀. However, this effect could be offset by decreases in vapor pressure deficit, wind speed, and solar radiation which lead to the decrease in ET₀. In this study, trends in the Penman–Monteith ET₀ at 80 meteorological stations during 1960–2010 in the driest region of China (Northwest China) were examined. The results show that there was a change point for ET₀ series around the year 1993 based on the Pettitt's test. For the region average, ET₀ decreased from 1960 to 1993 by ?2.34 mm yr^?2, while ET₀ began to increase since 1994 by 4.80 mm yr^?2. A differential equation method based on the Food and Agriculture Organization Penman–Monteith formula was used to attribute the change in ET₀. The attribution results show that the significant decrease in wind speed dominated the change in ET₀, which offset the effect of increasing air temperature and led to the decrease in ET₀ from 1960 to 1993. However, wind speed began to increase, and the amplitude of increase in air temperature also rose significantly since the mid‐1990s. Increases in air temperature and wind speed together reversed the trend in ET₀ and led to the increase in ET₀ since 1994. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elevation-dependent changes in reference evapotranspiration due to climate change

The Food and Agriculture Organizations' (FAO) Penman–Monteith reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) is a crucial index in the research of water and energy balance. Temporal and spatial variations in ET₀ from 1981–2017 were investigated in the Hengduan Mountains, China_. The results showed a change point around the year 2000 in ET₀ series. ET₀ decreased and increased significantly by +3.200 mm/year (p < 0.01) from 1981–2000 and by +4.109 mm/year (p < 0.01) from 2001–2017, respectively. The contribution analysis shows that the positive significant contribution of air temperature (TA) was offset by negative effects of decreases in downward shortwave radiation (R_s) and wind speed (WS) and an increase in actual vapour pressure (e_a), causing the decrease in ET₀ from 1981 to 2000. WS was the largest contributing factor for the decrease in ET₀ from 1981 to 2000 during spring, winter and annually, while R_s and e_a were the largest negative contributors in summer and autumn, respectively. An increase in TA was responsible for the increase in ET₀ in all seasons except winter and the annual scale in 2001–2017. The sensitivity analysis shows that ET₀ was most sensitive to TA, and WS was the least sensitive variable. The trends of ET₀ increased with elevation; we denote this as the elevation-dependence of ET₀ changes. The elevation-dependence was also noted for the trends of WS and e_a, with higher elevations showing larger changes in WS and lower changes in e_a. Besides, the sensitivities of TA, R_s and e_a decreased with elevation, while that of WS increased slightly with elevation. A comprehensive investigation into the trends of climatic drivers and their sensitivities revealed complex trends of the contributions of climatic variables on ET₀ with elevation, with no uniform trend existed in seasons. The results will contribute to our understanding of the response of ET₀ to climate change in a mountainous area, and provide a guideline for the water resources management under climate change.     

Assessing the effect of climate change on reference evapotranspiration in China

Reference evapotranspiration (ET ₀ ) is a key parameter in hydrological and meteorological studies. In this study, the FAO Penman–Monteith equation was used to estimate ET ₀ , and the change in ET ₀ was investigated in China from 1960 to 2011. The results show that a change point around the year 1993 was detected for the annual ET ₀ series by the Cramer’s test. For the national average, annual ET ₀ decreased significantly (P < 0.001) by ?14.35 mm/decade from 1960 to 1992, while ET ₀ increased significantly (P < 0.05) by 22.40 mm/decade from 1993 to 2011. A differential equation method was used to attribute the change in ET ₀ to climate variables. The attribution results indicate that ET ₀ was most sensitive to change in vapor pressure, followed by solar radiation, air temperature and wind speed. However, the effective impact of change in climate variable on ET ₀ was the product of the sensitivity and the change rate of climate variable. During 1960–1992, the decrease in solar radiation was the main reason of the decrease in ET ₀ in humid region, while decrease in wind speed was the dominant factor of decreases in ET ₀ in arid region and semi-arid/semi-humid region of China. Decrease in solar radiation and/or wind speed offset the effect of increasing air temperature on ET ₀ , and together led to the decrease in ET ₀ from 1960 to 1992. Since 1993, the rapidly increasing air temperature was the dominant factor to the change in ET ₀ in all the three regions of China, which led to the increase in ET ₀ . Furthermore, the future change in ET ₀ was calculated under IPCC SRES A1B and B1 scenarios with projections from three GCMs. The results showed that increasing air temperature would dominate the change in ET ₀ and ET ₀ would increase by 2.13–10.77, 4.42–16.21 and 8.67–21.27 % during 2020s, 2050s and 2080s compared with the average annual ET ₀ during 1960–1990, respectively. The increases in ET ₀ would lead to the increase in agriculture water consumption in the 21st century and may aggravate the water shortage in China.     

The temporal trends of reference evapotranspiration and its sensitivity to key meteorological variables in the Yellow River Basin,China

The temporal trends of reference evapotranspiration (ET_ref) reflect the combined effects of radiometric and aerodynamic variables, such as global solar radiation (R_s), wind speed, relative humidity and air temperature. The temporal trends of annual ET_ref during 1961–2006 calculated by Penman‐Monteith method were explored and the underlying causes for these trends were analysed in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). The contributions of key meteorological variables to the temporal trend of ET_ref were detected using the detrended method and then sensitivity coefficients of ET_ref to meteorological variables were determined. For ET_ref, positive trends in the upper, middle and whole of YRB, and significant negative trend (P = 0·05) in the lower basin were obtained by the linear fitted model. Significant increasing trend (P = 0·05) in air temperature and decreasing trend in relative humidity were the main causes for the increasing trends of ET_ref in the upper, middle and whole basins. For the whole basin, the increasing trend of ET_ref was mainly caused by the significant increase (P = 0·05) in air temperature and to a lesser extent by a decrease in the relative humidity, decreasing trends of R_s and wind speed reduced ET_ref. The spatial distribution of sensitivity coefficients addressed that the sensitive regions for ET_ref response to the changes of the four meteorological variables are different in the YRB. The sensitive region lay in the upper basin for R_s, the northwest portion of the middle basin for wind speed, the south portion of YRB for relative humidity and the west portion of the upper basin and the north portion of the middle basin for air temperature. In general, R_s was the most sensitive variable for ET_ref, followed by relative humidity, air temperature and wind speed in the basin scale. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The application of multiple linear regression method in reference evapotranspiration trend calculation

Trend analysis of reference evapotranspiration (ET₀), as a key factor in irrigation programming, has an important role in water resources management. Many parameters affect ET₀ and their variations can change its values. In this paper, the effect of temporal variation of meteorological variables including wind speed, temperature, solar radiation and saturation vapor pressure deficit on temporal variations of ET₀ was analyzed. Trend analysis of ET₀ and its more effective meteorological parameters was accomplished in 30 synoptic stations which are located in Iran using Spearman’s Rho test. The multiple linear regressions were also used to determine the relationship between ET₀ trend and the trend of its more effective parameters. Increasing and decreasing trends in ET₀ were obtained at annual and seasonal scales. Many studied stations which had decreasing trend in the annual and seasonal periods have been located in the arid climates while all stations which have been located in humid and very-humid climates, had an increasing trend in annual and seasonal periods. The trend results in studied variables showed that annual and seasonal values of wind speed, temperature and saturation vapor pressure deficit decrease however the values of solar radiation increases in most studied stations. Multiple linear regressions results demonstrated that ET₀ trend can be calculated by the trend of two more effective variables including wind speed and saturation vapor pressure deficit.     

Changes in reference evapotranspiration over China during 1960–2012: Attributions and relationships with atmospheric circulation

This study investigates reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) trends in China from 1960 to 2012 based on the Penman–Monteith equation and gridded meteorological measurements. Under the combined impacts of factors influencing ET₀ (i.e., net radiation [RN], mean temperature [TAVE], vapour pressure deficit [VPD], and wind speed [WND]), both seasonal and annual ET₀ for the whole China and more than half of the grids decreased over the past 53 years. The attribution analyses suggest that for the whole China, the WND is responsible for annual and seasonal ET₀ decreases (excluding summer, where RN is responsible). Across China, the annual cause of WND with the largest spatial extent (43.1% of grids) mainly derives from north of the Changjiang River Basin (CJRB), whereas VPD (RN) as a cause is dispersedly distributed (within and to the south of the CJRB). In summer, RN is dominant in more than half of the grids, but the dominance of VPD and WND accounts for approximately 90% of grids during the remaining seasons. Finally, the correlation coefficients between ET₀ and the Atlantic Oscillation (AO), North AO, Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices with different lead times are calculated. For the whole China, annual and seasonal ET₀ always significantly correlate with these indices (excluding the IOD) but with varied lead times. Additionally, near half of the grids show significant and maximum (i.e., the largest one between ET₀ and a certain index with a lead time of 0–3 seasons) correlation coefficients of ET₀ with PDO in spring and summer, ENSO in autumn, and AO in winter. This study is not only significant for understanding ET₀ changes, but it also provides preliminary and fundamental reference information for ET₀ prediction.     

Spatiotemporal variation and driving forces of reference evapotranspiration in Jing River Basin,northwest China

Evapotranspiration is an important component of the hydrological cycle, which integrates atmospheric demands and surface conditions. Research on spatial and temporal variations of reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) enables understanding of climate change and its effects on hydrological processes and water resources. In this study, ET_o was estimated by the FAO‐56 Penman–Monteith method in the Jing River Basin in China, based on daily data from 37 meteorological stations from 1960 to 2005. ET_o trends were detected by the Mann–Kendall test in annual, seasonal, and monthly timescales. Sensitivity coefficients were used to examine the contribution of important meteorological variables to ET_o. The influence of agricultural activities, especially irrigation on ET_o was also analyzed. We found that ET_o showed a decreasing trend in most of the basin in all seasons, except for autumn, which showed an increasing trend. Mean maximum temperature was generally the most sensitive parameter for ET_o, followed by relative humidity, solar radiation, mean minimum temperature, and wind speed. Wind speed was the most dominant factor for the declining trend in ET_o. The more significant decrease in ET_o for agricultural and irrigation stations was mainly because of the more significant decrease in wind speed and sunshine hours, a mitigation in climate warming, and more significant increase in relative humidity compared with natural stations and non‐irrigation stations. Changes in ET_o and the sensitivity coefficient of meteorological variables in relation to ET_o were also affected by topography. Better understanding of ET_o response to climate change will enable efficient use of agricultural production and water resources, which could improve the ecological environment in Jing River Basin. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于CMIP5模式鄱阳湖流域未来参考作物蒸散量预估

预测未来气候情境下鄱阳湖流域参考作物蒸散量(Reference crop Evapotranspiration,ET0)的时空分布可为流域水资源的优化管理,为科学应对气候变化对农业生产的影响提供基础数据支撑.利用鄱阳湖流域14个气象站点1961-2014年逐日气象数据,采用Penman-Monteith公式计算出历史ET0;基于同期美国环境中心(NCEP)再分析数据及2006-2100年CMIP5中CNRM-CM5模式在RCP4. 5和RCP8. 5情景下的预测数据,经统计降尺度模型(statistical downscaling model,SDSM)模拟和偏差校正,预测流域未来ET0;通过Mann-Kendall检验、普通克里金插值和空间自相关法分析了流域1961-2100年ET0的时空演变特征.结果表明:NCEP再分析资料与流域ET0建立的逐步回归降尺度模型模拟效果较好,CNRMCM5模式降尺度模拟结果经偏差校正后,精度明显提高,适宜流域未来ET0的预估.鄱阳湖流域在基准期1961-2010年ET0整体上呈减小趋势,空间分布上呈南北高、中间低的特点,表现出明显的空间差异性.RCP4.5、RCP8.5情景下未来3个时期鄱阳湖流域ET0较基准期均呈不同程度的增加趋势,其空间分布整体表现为东高西低、局地略有突出;无论是在基准期或是未来情景下的3个时期,ET0均具有较强的空间自相关性.在RCP8.5情景下,鄱阳湖1961-2100年干旱指数呈现出较为明显的上升趋势,流域的干旱状况随时间加剧,2011-2100年间流域绝大部分地区由湿润区转为半湿润区,干旱指数自南向北递减,赣江流域将是鄱阳湖流域未来干旱风险的重点防范区.     

Analysis of trends in reference evapotranspiration data in a humid climate

Abstract

Statistically significant FAO-56 Penman-Monteith (FAO-56 PM) and adjusted Hargreaves (AHARG) reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) trends at monthly, seasonal and annual time scales were analysed by using linear regression, Mann-Kendall and Spearman’s Rho tests at the 1 and 5% significance levels. Meteorological data were used from 12 meteorological stations in Serbia, which has a humid climate, for the period 1980–2010. Web-based software for conducting the trend analyses was developed. All of the trends significant at the 1 and 5% significance levels were increasing. The FAO-56 PM ET₀ trends were almost similar to the AHARG trends. On the seasonal time scale, for the majority of stations significant increasing trends occurred in summer, while no significant positive or negative trends were detected by the trend tests in autumn for the AHARG series. Moreover, 70% of the stations were characterized by significant increasing trends for both annual ET₀ series.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor S. Grimaldi

Citation Gocic, M. and Trajkovic, S., 2013. Analysis of trends in reference evapotranspiration data in a humid climate. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (1), 165–180.     

Spatiotemporal trends of aridity index in Shiyang River basin of northwest China

Drought/wetness conditions are fundamental not only for agricultural production but also ecology, human health, and economic activity. Dryness/wetness is a function of precipitation, temperature, vegetation and potential evapotranspiration. Regions with low moisture are often characterized by aridity which, in turn, reflects the degree of meteorological drought. Observed climatic data from eleven meteorological stations in and around Shiyang River basin, China, were used to calculate the aridity index (AI) which was defined as the ratio of potential evapotranspiration (ET₀) to precipitation (P). ET₀ was calculated using the Penman–Monteith method. The ordinary kriging method was used to interpolate the spatial variability of ET₀, P and AI. The Mann–Kendall test with a pre-whitening method was employed using the Yue and Wang autocorrelation correction to detect temporal trends. The Theil–Sen estimator was used to estimate the slopes of trend lines. Results showed a higher AI in the north basin and a lower AI in the Qilian Mountain region. Annual ET₀ and P had increasing trends with a slope of 0.672 and 0.459 mm per year, respectively, but trends were not statistically significant for most stations. While annual AI had a slight decreasing trend with a slope of ?0.01 per year, the trend was not statistically significant for all stations. The decreasing trends in winter AI (at a rate of ?0.313/a) was more significant than that in other seasons. The study indicates that the Shiyang River basin is getting slightly wetter, especially in winter.     

Spatio‐temporal distribution of actual evapotranspiration in the Indus Basin Irrigation System

Strategic planning of optimal water use requires an accurate assessment of actual evapotranspiration (ET_a) to understand the environmental and hydrological processes of the world's largest contiguous irrigation networks, including the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) in Pakistan. The Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) has been used successfully for accurate estimations of ET_a in different river basins throughout the world. In this study, we examined the application of SEBS using publically available remote sensing data to assess spatial variations in water consumption and to map water stress from daily to annual scales in the IBIS. Ground‐based ET_a was calculated by the advection‐aridity method, from nine meteorological sites, and used to evaluate the intra‐annual seasonality in the hydrological year 2009–2010. In comparison with the advection‐aridity, SEBS computed daily ET_a was slightly underestimated with a bias of ?0.15 mm day^?1 during the kharif (wet; April–September) season, and it was overestimated with a bias of 0.23 mm day^?1 in the rabi (dry; October–March) season. Monthly values of the ET_a estimated by SEBS were significantly (P < 0.05) controlled by mean air temperature and rainfall, among other climatological variables (relative humidity, sunshine hours and wind speed). Because of the seasonal (kharif and rabi) differences in the water and energy budget in the huge canal command areas of the IBIS, ET_a and rainfall were positively correlated in the kharif season and were negatively correlated during the rabi season. In addition, analysis of the evaporation process showed that mixed‐cropping and rice–wheat dominated areas had lower and higher water consumption rates, respectively, in comparison with other cropping systems in the basin. Basin areas under water stress were identified by means of spatial variations in the relative evapotranspiration, which had an average value of 0.59 and 0.42 during the kharif and the rabi seasons, respectively. The hydrological parameters used in this study provide useful information for understanding hydrological processes at different spatial and temporal scales. Results of this study further suggest that the SEBS is useful for evaluation of water resources in semi‐arid to arid regions over longer periods, if the data inputs are carefully handled. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatiotemporal variations of reference evapotranspiration in recent five decades in the arid land of Northwestern China

Spatial and temporal variations of reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) are useful for regional agricultural and water resources management as well as required in most distributed hydrological modelling. In the current study, the Penman–Monteith estimated ET₀ in the arid land of Northwestern China has been explicitly explored using the Mann–Kendall test. Most stations in the study region exhibited significant decreasing trend of ET₀ (P < 0.05) with only few occasions showing significant increasing trend (P < 0.05), despite the increase of temperature in the entire region. Analysis results revealed that the overall decreasing wind speed contributed most to the decreasing trend of ET₀, whereas the contributions of relative humidity and sunshine duration were limited. Temperature played the second important role on determining ET₀ trend, but its effect was opposite to that of wind speed and was largely offset by the decreasing wind speed. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis suggested the impact of temperature to ET₀ was much larger than formerly reported if its effect on saturated vapour deficit was taken into account. The results obtained in the current study will help for better understanding of the effects of climate changes to water resource management in the arid land of northwest China. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial distribution and temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration in arid and semi‐arid regions of Iran

Analysis of spatial and temporal variations of reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) is important in arid and semi‐arid regions where water resources are limited. The main aim of this study was to analyse the spatial distribution and the annual, seasonal and monthly trends of the Penman–Monteith ET_o for 21 stations in the arid and semi‐arid regions of Iran. Three statistical tests the Mann‐Kendall, Sen's slope estimator and linear regression were used for the analysis. The analysis revealed that ET_o increased from January to July and deceased from July to December at almost all stations. Additionally, higher annual ET_o values were found in the southeast of the study region and lower values in the northwest of the region. Although the results showed both positive and negative trends in annual ET_o series, ET_o generally increased, significantly so in six (～30%) of the stations. Analysis of the impacts of meteorological variables on the temporal trends of ET_o indicated that the increasing trend of ET_o was most likely due to a significant increase in minimum air temperature, while decreasing trend of ET_o was mainly caused by a significant decrease in wind speed. At the sites where increasing ET_o trends were statistically significant, the rate of increase varied from (+)8·36 mm/year at Mashhad station to (+)31·68 mm/year at Iranshahr station. On average, an increasing trend of (+)4·42 mm/year was obtained for the whole study area during the last four decades. Seasonal and monthly ET_o have also tended to increase at the majority of the stations. The greatest numbers of significant trends were observed in winter on the seasonal time‐scale and in September on the monthly time‐scale. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitivity analysis of a Penman–Monteith type equation to estimate reference evapotranspiration in southern Spain

Sensitivity analysis is crucial in assessing the impact of climatic variables on reference evapotranspiration estimations. The sensitivity of the standardized ASCE–Penman–Monteith evapotranspiration equation for daily estimations to climatic variables has not yet been studied in Spain. Andalusia is located in southern Spain where almost 1 million ha are irrigated under quite different conditions; it has a high inter‐annual variability in rainfall. In this study, sensitivity analyses for this equation were carried out for temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and wind speed data from 87 automatic weather stations, including coastal and inland locations, from 1999 to 2006. Topography and Mediterranean climate characterize the heterogeneous landscape and vegetation of this region. Simulated random and systematic errors have been added to meteorological data to obtain ET₀ deviations and sensitivity coefficients for different time periods. BIAS and SEE (standard error of estimate) have been used to evaluate the effect of both types of errors. The results showed a large degree of daily and seasonal variability, especially for temperature and relative humidity. In general, the effect on ET₀ values of introduced random errors was larger than that of systematic errors. ET₀ overestimations were produced using positive errors in temperature, solar radiation and wind speed data, while these errors in relative humidity resulted in ET₀ underestimations. The sensitivity of ET₀ to the same climatic variables showed significant differences among locations. The geographical distribution of sensitivity coefficients across this region was also studied. As an example, during spring months, ET₀ equation was more sensitive to temperature in stations located along the Guadalquivir Valley. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reference evapotranspiration trends and their sensitivity to climatic change on the Tibetan Plateau (1970–2009)

Evapotranspiration is an important component of the water and energy balance. It is dependent on climate. Precipitation, solar radiation, temperature, humidity, and wind all contribute to the rate of evapotranspiration. In this study, the temporal trends of reference evapotranspiration (ET_ref) and four main ET_ref drivers, namely, mean air temperature (T_a), wind speed (u₂), net radiation (R_n) and actual vapour pressure (e_a) from 1970 to 2009, were calculated based on 75 meteorological stations on the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that the ET_ref on the Tibetan Plateau decreased on average by 0.6909 mm a^‐1a^‐1 from 1970 to 2009. T_a and e_a showed an increasing trend, whereas u₂ and R_n exhibited a decreasing trend. To explore the underlying causes of the ET_ref variation, an attribution analysis was performed to quantify the contribution of T_a, u₂, R_n and e_a, which showed that the changes in u₂, R_n and e_a produced the negative effect, whereas T_a produced the positive effect on ET_ref rates. The changes in u₂ were found to produce the largest decrease (?0.7 mm) in ET_ref, followed by e_a (?0.4 mm) and R_n (?0.1 mm). Although the significant increase in T_a had a large positive effect (0.51 mm) on ET_ref rates, changes in the other three variables each reduced ET_ref rates, resulting in an overall negative trend in ET_ref. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessment of reference evapotranspiration across an arid urban environment having poor data monitoring system

Estimation of reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) in urban areas is challenging but essential in arid urban climates. To evaluate ET₀ in an urban environment and non-urban areas, air temperature and relative humidity were measured at five different sites across the arid city of Isfahan, Iran, over 4 years. Wind speed and sunshine hours were obtained from an urban surrounding weather station over the same period and used to estimate ET₀. Calculated ET₀ was compared with satellite-based ET₀ retrieved from the MOD16A2 PET product. Although MODIS PET was strongly correlated with the Valiantzas equation, it overestimated ET₀ and showed average accuracy (r = 0.93–0.94, RMSE = 1.18–1.28 mm/day, MBE = 0.73–0.84 mm/day). The highest ET₀ differences between an urban green space and a non-urban area were 1.1 and 0.87 mm/day, which were estimated by ground measurements and MODIS PET, respectively. The sensitivity of ET₀ to wind speed and sunshine hours indicated a significant effect on cumulative ET₀ at urban sites compared to the non-urban site, which has a considerable impact on the amount of irrigation required in those areas. Although MODIS PET requires improvement to accurately reflect field level microclimate conditions affecting ET₀, it is beneficial to hydrological applications and water resource managers especially in areas where data is limited. In addition, our results indicated that using limited data methods or meteorological data from regional weather stations, leads to incorrect estimation of ET₀ in urban areas. Therefore, decision-makers and urban planners should consider the importance of precisely estimating ET₀ to optimize management of urban green space irrigation, especially in arid and semi-arid climates such as the city of Isfahan.     

Eddy covariance‐based evapotranspiration for a subtropical wetland

The eddy covariance (EC) method was used in a 30‐month study to quantify evapotranspiration (ET) and vegetation coefficient (K_CW) for a wetland on a ranch in subtropical south Florida. To evaluate the errors in ET estimates, the EC‐based ET (ET_C‐EC) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Penman–Monteith (PM) based ET (ET_C‐PM) estimates (with literature crop coefficient, K_C) were compared with each other. The ET_C‐EC and FAO‐PM reference ET were used to develop K_CW. Regression models were developed to estimate K_CW using climatic and hydrologic variables. Annual and daily ET_C‐EC values were 1152 and 3.27 mm, respectively. The FAO‐PM model underestimated ET by 25% with ET_C‐EC being statistically higher than ET_C‐PM. The K_CW varied from 0.79 (December) to 1.06 (November). The mean K_CW for the dry (November–April) season (0.95) was much higher than values reported for wetlands in literature; whereas for the wet (May–October) season, K_CW (0.97) was closer to literature values. Higher than expected K_CW values during the dry season were due to higher temperature, lower humidity and perennial wetland vegetation. Regression analyses showed that factors affecting the K_CW were different during the dry (soil moisture, temperature and relative humidity) and wet (net radiation, inundation and wind speed) seasons. Separate regression models for the dry and wet seasons were developed. Evapotranspiration and K_CW from this study, one of the first for the agricultural wetlands in subtropical environment, will help improve the ET estimates for similar wetlands. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial distribution and temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration during 1961–2006 in the Yellow River Basin,China

Abstract

To explore the spatial and temporal variations of the reference evapotranspiration (ET_ref) is helpful to understand the response of hydrological processes to climate changes. In this study, ET_ref was calculated by the Penman-Monteith method (P-M method) using air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and sunshine hours at 89 meteorological stations during 1961–2006 in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), China. The spatial distribution and temporal variations of ET_ref were explored by means of the kriging method, the Mann-Kendall (M-K) method and the linear regression model, and the causes for the variations discussed. The contribution of main meteorological variables to the variations of ET_ref was explored. From the results we found that: (1) the spatial distributions of ET_ref display seasonal variation, with similar spatial patterns in spring, summer and autumn; (2) temporal trends for ET_ref showed large variation in the upper, middle and lower regions of the basin, most of the significant trends (P?=?0.05) were detected in the middle and lower regions, and, in particular, the upward and downward trends were mainly detected in the middle region and lower region of the basin, respectively; and (3) sensitivity analysis identified the most sensitive variable for ET_ref as relative humidity, followed by air temperature, sunshine hours and wind speed at the basin scale.

Citation Yang, Zhifeng, Liu, Qiang & Cui, Baoshan (2011) Spatial distribution and temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration during 1961–2006 in the Yellow River Basin, China. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(6), 1015–1026.     

Comparison of the Penman‐Monteith method and regional calibration of the Hargreaves equation for actual evapotranspiration using SWAT-simulated results in the Seolma-cheon basin,South Korea

ABSTRACT

The Hargreaves method provides reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) estimates when only air temperature data are available, although it requires previous local calibration for an acceptable performance. This method was evaluated using the data from 71 meteorological stations in the Seolma-cheon basin (8.48 km²), South Korea, comparing daily estimates against those from the Penman‐Monteith (PM) method, which was used as the standard. To estimate reference ET_o more exactly, considering the climatological characteristics in South Korea, parameter regionalization of the Hargreaves equation is carried out. First, the modified Hargreaves equation is presented after an analysis of the relationship between solar radiation and temperature. Second, parameter (K_ET) optimization of the regional calibration of the Hargreaves equation (RCH) is performed using the PM method and the modified equation at 71 meteorological stations. Next, an application was carried out to evaluate the evapotranspiration methods (PM, original Hargreaves and RCH) in the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model by comparing these with the measured actual evapotranspiration (AET) in the basin. The SWAT model was calibrated using 3 years (2007–2009) of daily streamflow at the watershed outlet and 3 years (2007–2009) of daily AET measured at a mixed forest. The model was validated with 3 years (2010‐2012) of streamflow and AET. RCH will contribute to a better understanding of evapotranspiration of an ungauged watershed in areas where meteorological information is scarce.

EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis ASSOCIATE EDITOR Not assigned     

The potential of different ANN techniques in evapotranspiration modelling

The potential of three different artificial neural network (ANN) techniques, the multi‐layer perceptrons (MLPs), radial basis neural networks (RBNNs) and generalized regression neural networks (GRNNs), in modelling of reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) is investigated in this paper. Various daily climatic data, that is, solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity and wind speed from two stations, Pomona and Santa Monica, in Los Angeles, USA, are used as inputs to the ANN techniques so as to estimate ET₀ obtained using the FAO‐56 Penman–Monteith (PM) equation. In the first part of the study, a comparison is made between the estimates provided by the MLP, RBNN and GRNN and those of the following empirical models: The California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) Penman (1985), Hargreaves (1985) and Ritchie (1990). In this part of the study, the empirical models are calibrated using the standard FAO‐56 PM ET₀ values. The estimates of the ANN techniques are also compared with those of the calibrated empirical models. Mean square errors, mean absolute errors and determination coefficient statistics are used as comparing criteria for the evaluation of the models' performances. Based on the comparisons, it is found that the MLP and RBNN techniques could be employed successfully in modelling the ET₀ process. In the second part of the study, the potential of ANN techniques and the empirical methods in ET₀ estimation using nearby station data is investigated. Among the models, the calibrated Hargreaves model is found to perform better than the others. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.