Thermal structure and Energy Budget for Alghadir reservoir, Iran

Knowing the rate of evaporation from surface water resources such as channels and reservoirs is essential for precise management of the water balance. Few detailed evaporation studies exist for small lakes or reservoirs in arid regions of the world. In this study, monthly evaporation was determined by Bowen Ratio Energy Budget technique (BREB) for Alghadir reservoir (Saveh, Iran) from 1995–2007 and compared with class-A pan. Daily data were obtained from IMO (Iran Meteorological Organization) weather station, located near the reservoir, for all of these years. Some variations have been observed on the estimated evaporation of the energy budget at different years, ranging from 151 cm for 1997 to 174 cm for 2006. There is no specific evaporation pattern for all the years, but evaporation rates were low in winter (January and February) and highest during the summer (July and August). However, the times and month of highest evaporation rates varied during the study period. Surveying of reservoir thermal structure showed that, inflow and outflow energy fluxes to this water volume have large variations. In addition, incoming solar shortwave radiation, incoming atmospheric longwave radiation, and longwave atmospheric radiation emitted from the water surface are largest energy fluxes for this small and deep reservoir. Results of this study could explain the importance and sensible contribution of the evaporation rates as a fundamental parameter in the hydrological cycle of reservoirs ecosystem in the arid regions of Iran.