Lake and Reservoir Evaporation Estimation: Sensitivity Analysis and Ranking Existing Methods

آب و خاک

Article 4, Volume 29, Issue 2, May 2015, Pages 350-373   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jsw.v0i0.33253

Authors

maysam majidi^* ; a. Alizade¹; m. vazifedoust²; a. faridhosseini¹

¹Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

²Guilan University

Abstract

Introduction: Water when harvested is commonly stored in dams, but approximately up to half of it may be lost due to evaporation leading to a huge waste of our resources. Estimating evaporation from lakes and reservoirs is not a simple task as there are a number of factors that can affect the evaporation rate, notably the climate and physiography of the water body and its surroundings. Several methods are currently used to predict evaporation from meteorological data in open water reservoirs. Based on the accuracy and simplicity of the application, each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages. Although evaporation pan method is well known to have significant uncertainties both in magnitude and timing, it is extensively used in Iran because of its simplicity. Evaporation pan provides a measurement of the combined effect of temperature, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation on the evaporation. However, they may not be adequate for the reservoir operations/development and water accounting strategies for managing drinking water in arid and semi-arid conditions which require accurate evaporation estimates. However, there has not been a consensus on which methods were better to employ due to the lack of important long-term measured data such as temperature profile, radiation and heat fluxes in most lakes and reservoirs in Iran. Consequently, we initiated this research to find the best cost−effective evaporation method with possibly fewer data requirements in our study area, i.e. the Doosti dam reservoir which is located in a semi-arid region of Iran.
Materials and Methods: Our study site was the Doosti dam reservoir located between Iran and Turkmenistan borders, which was constructed by the Ministry of Water and Land Reclamation of the Republic of Turkmenistan and the Khorasan Razavi Regional Water Board of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Meteorological data including maximum and minimum air temperature and evaporation from class A pan were acquired from the Doosti Dam weather station. Relative humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and precipitation were acquired from the Pol−Khatoon weather station. Dew point temperature and sunshine data were collected from the Sarakhs weather station. Lake area was estimated from hypsometric curve in relation to lake level data. Temperature measurements were often performed in 16−day periods or biweekly from September 2011 to September 2012. Temperature profile of the lake (required for lake evaporation estimation) was measured at different points of the reservoir using a portable multi−meter. The eighteen existing methods were compared and ranked based on Bowen ratio energy balance method (BREB).
Results and Discussion: The estimated annual evaporation values by all of the applied methods in this study, ranged from 21 to 113mcm (million cubic meters). BREB annual evaporation obtained value was equal to 69.86mcm and evaporation rate averaged 5.47mm d-1 during the study period. According to the results, there is a relatively large difference between the obtained evaporation values from the adopted methods. The sensitivity analysis of evaporation methods for some input parameters indicated that the Hamon method (Eq. 16) was the most sensitive to the input parameters followed by the Brutsaert−Stricker and BREB, and radiation−temperature methods (Makkink, Jensen−Haise and Stephen−Stewart) had the least sensitivity to input data. Besides, the air temperature, solar radiation (sunshine data), water surface temperature and wind speed data had the most effect on lake evaporation estimations, respectively. Finally, all evaporation estimation methods in this study have been ranked based on RMSD values. On a daily basis, the Jensen−Haise and the Makkink (solar radiation, temperature group), Penman (Combination group) and Hamon (temperature, day length group) methods had a relatively reasonable performance. As the results on a monthly scale, the Jensen−Haise and Makkink produced the most accurate evaporation estimations even by the limited measurements of the input data.
Conclusion: This study was carried out with the objective of estimating evaporation from the Doosti dam reservoir, and comparison and evaluation of conventional method to find the most accurate method(s) for limited data conditions. These examinations recognized the Jensen−Haise, Makkink, Hamon (Eq. 17), Penman and deBruin methods as the most consistent methods with the monthly rate of BREB evaporation estimates. The results showed that radiation−temperature methods (Jensen−Haise and Makkink) have appropriate accuracy especially on a monthly basis. Also deBruin, Penman (combination group), Hamon and Papadakis (temperature group) methods produced relatively accurate results. The results revealed that it is necessary to calibrate and adjust some evaporation estimation methods for the Doosti dam reservoir. According to the required input data, sensitivity and accuracy of these methods, it can be concluded that Jensen−Haise and Makkink were the most appropriate methods for estimating the lake evaporation in this region especially when measured data were not available.

Keywords

Doosti dam reservoir; Energy balance; Lake evaporation; sensitivity analysis

References

1- Abtew W. 2001. Evaporation estimation for Lake Okeechobee in South Florida. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 127, 140–147.

2- Alizadeh A., Izady A., Davary K., Ziaei A.N., Akhavan S., and Hamidi Z. 2013. Estimation of Actual Evapotranspiration at Regional – Annual scale using SWAT. Iranian Journal of lrrigation and Drainage, 7:243-258. (in Persian with English abstract).

3- Alizadeh A., Khanjani M.J., Taraz H., Rahnavard M.R. 2006. The study of the effects of temperature data corrections on the accuracy of evaporation and perspiration calculations. Journal Of Geography and Regional Development Research Journal, 6:91-100. (in Persian with English abstract).

4- Anderson E.R. 1954. Energy−budget studies. In: Water Loss Investigations: Lake Hefner Studies. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper (269), 71−119.

5- Arasteh P.D., Tajrishy M., Mirlatifi M., and Saghafian B. 2005. Statistical model of free water surface evaporation using the volume balance method in Chahnimeh reservoir, Sistan-Iran. Pajouhesh & Sazandegi, 68:2-14. (in Persian with English abstract).

6- Assouline S., and Mahrer Y. 1993. Evaporation from Lake Kinneret: 1 Eddy correlation system measurements and energy budget estimates. Water Resources Research, 29, 901−910.

7- Blaney H.F., and Criddle W.D. 1950. Determining Water Requirements in Irrigated Areas fromClimatological Irrigation Data. Technical Paper No. 96, US Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Washington, D.C., 48 pp.

8- Bowen I.S. 1926. The ratio of heat losses by conduction and by evaporation from any water surface. Physical Review. 27, 779–787.

9- Brutsaert W. 1982. Evaporation Into the Atmosphere: Theory, History and Applications. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht.

10- Brutsaert W., and Stricker H. 1979. An Advection−Aridity Approach to Estimate Actual Regional Evapotranspiration. Water Resources Research. 15 (2), 443–450.

11- Brutsaert W., and Yu S.L. 1968. Mass transfer aspects of pan evaporation. Journal of Applied Meteorology. 7, 563−566.

12- Calder I.R., and Neal C. 1984. Evaporation from saline lakes: a combination equation approach. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 29(1), 89–97.

13- Cogley J.G. 1979. The albedo of water as a function of latitude. Monthly Weather Review, 107, 775−781.

14- Dalton J. 1802. Experimental essays on the constitution of mixed gases; on the force of steam or vapor from water and other liquids in different temperatures, both in a Torricellian vacuum and in air; on evaporation and on the expansion of gases by heat. Mem. Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 5–11, 535–602.

15- de Bruin H.A.R., and Stricker J.N.M. 2000. Evaporation of grass under non–restricted soil moisture conditions, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 45(3), 391–406.

16- de Bruin H.A.R. 1978. A simple model for shallow lake evaporation. Journal of Applied Meteorology. 17, 1132–1134.

17- de Bruin H.A.R., and Keijman J.Q. 1979. The Priestley−Taylor evaporation model applied to a large shallow lake in the Netherlands. Journal of Applied Meteorology. 18, 898–903.

18- Delclaux F., Coudrain A., and Condom T. 2007. Evaporation estimation on Lake Titicaca: a synthesis review and modelling. Hydrological Processes, 21, 1664–1677.

19- dos Reis R.J., and Dias N.L. 1998. Multi−season lake evaporation: energy−budget estimates and CRLE model assessment with limited meteorological observations. Journal of Hydrology. 208, 135–147.

20- Gallego−Elvira B., et al. 2010. Energy balance and evaporation loss of an agricultural reservoir in a semi−arid climate (south−eastern Spain), Hydrological Processes. 24, 758–766

21- Hamon W.R. 1961. Estimating potential evapotranspiration. Journal of Hydraulics Devision of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 87(HY3), 107–120.

22- Hamon W.R. 1963. Computation of direct runoff amounts from storm rainfall. International Association of Scientific Hydrology Publication. 63, 52–62.

23- Harbeck G.E. 1962. A practical field technique for measuring reservoir evaporation utilizing mass−transfer theory. USGS Professional Paper 272–E, 101–105. US Geological Survey.

24- Hassani A., Tajrishy M. and Abrishamchi A. “Evaporation Study of Saveh Dam Reservoir Using Modifiesd Energy Budget Method”. Sharif Civil Engineering Journal. 29:115-127. (in Persian with English abstract)

25- Henderson−Sellers B. 1986. Calculating the surface−energy balance for lake and reservoir modeling − a review. Reviews of Geophysics. 24, 625–649.

26- Hoy R.D., and Stephens S.K. 1977. Field study of evaporation, Research Project 6815. Canberra, A.C.T., Australian Water Resources Council, Department of Natural Resources.

27- Jensen M.E., and Haise H.R. 1963. Estimating evapotranspiration from solar radiation. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering Division ASCE. 89, 15–41.

28- Keskin M.E., and Terzi O. 2006. Evaporation estimation models for Lake Egirdir, Turkey. Hydrological Processes, 20, 2381–2391.

29- Lenters J.D., Kratz T.K., and Bowser C.J. 2005. Effects of climate variability on lake evaporation: results from a long−term energy budget study of Sparkling Lake, northern Wisconsin (USA). Journal of Hydrology. 308, 168–195.

30- Linacre E.T., 1993. Data−sparse estimation of lake evaporation, using a simplified Penman equation. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 64, 237–256.

31- Lu J.B., Sun G., McNulty S.G. and Amatya D.M. (2005), A comparison of six potential evapotranspirationmethods for regional use in the southeastern United States. American Water Resources Association. 41(3), 621–633.

32- Majidi M., Alizadeh A., and Kaffi M. 2011. Estimation of plant transpiration by leaf temperature measurement. Iranian Journal of lrrigation and Drainage. 5:145-157. (in Persian with English abstract)

33- Majidi M., and Alizadeh A. 2012. “Analysis of the Effect of Missing Weather Data and Alternative Methods to Estimate the Refrence Evapotranspiration and Ranking ETo Equations for Different Climatic Conditions (Case Study: Khorasan Razavi Provinces)”. Journal of Water and Soil. 25:1503-1519. (in Persian with English abstract)

34- Makkink G.F., 1957. Ekzameno de la formulo de Penman. Netherlands. Journal of Agricultural Science. 5, 290–305.

35- McJannet D.L., Webster I.T., and Cook F.J., 2012. An area−dependent wind function for estimating open water evaporation using landbased meteorological data. Environmental Modelling & Software. 31, 76–83.

36- McMahon T. A.; Peel M. C.; Lowe L.; Srikanthan, R.; McVicar, T. R. 2013. Estimating actual, potential, reference crop and pan evaporation using standard meteorological data: a pragmatic synthesis. Hydrology & Earth System Sciences Discussions. 17, 1331–1363.

37- McMillan W., 1973 Cooling from open water surfaces. Final Report: Part 1; Lake Trawsfynydd cooling investigation. NW/SSD/RR/1204/73, pp.1–55.

38- Mosner M.S., and Aulenbach B.T., 2003. Comparison of methods used to estimate lake evaporation for a water budget of Lake Semnole, southwestern Georgia and northwestern Florida. in Proceedings of the 2003 Georgia Water Resources Conference, Athens, Georgia, USA.

39- Papadakis J., 1961. Climatic tables for the world. Buenos Aires, (Original not seen, cited in Grassi, 1964).

40- Penman H.L., 1948. Natural evaporation from open water, bare soil and grass. Proceedings of the Royal Society. A193, 120−145.

41- Penman H.L., 1963. Vegetation and Hydrology. Tech. Comm. No. 53, Commonwealth Bureau of Soils, Harpenden, England, 125 pp.

42- Priestley C.H.B., and Taylor R.J., 1972. On the assessment of the surface heat flux and evaporation using large−scale parameters. Monthly Weather Review. 100, 81–92.

43- Rasmussen A.H., Hondzo M., and Stefan H.G., 1995. A test of several evaporation equations for water temperature simulations in lakes. Water Resources Bulletin. 31 (6), 1023–1028.

44- Rosenberry D.O., Winter T.C., Buso D.C., and Likens G.E. 2007. Comparison of 15 evaporation methods applied to a small mountain lake in the northeastern USA, Journal of Hydrology. 340, 149–166.

45- Ryan P.J., and Harleman D.R.F., 1973. An Analytical and Experimental Study of Transient Cooling Pond Behavior," R.M. Parsons Laboratory, Technical Report No. 161, MIT.

46- Saadatkhah N., Sarang S.A., Tajrishi M., Abrishamchi A. 2002. Evaluation of Chahnimeh Reservoirs Evaporation. Journal of Water & Wastewater. 40:12-24. (in Persian with English abstract)

47- Sadek M.F., Shahin M.M., and Stigter C.L., 1997. Evapora–tion from the reservoir of the High Aswan Dam, Egypt: A new comparison of relevant methods with limited data. Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 56, 57–66.

48- Schertzer W.M., and Taylor B., 2008. Report to the Okanagan Water Supply and Demand Study on Lake Evaporation: Assessment of the Capability to Compute Lake Evaporation from Lake Okanagan and its Mainstem Lakes using the Existing Database (Draft Report). Prepared for the Okanagan basin Water Board.

49- Sene K.J., Gash J.H., and McNeil D.D., 1991. Evaporation from a tropical lake: comparison of theory with direct measurements. Journal of Hydrology. 127, 193–217.

50- Sharifan H., Ghahreman B., Alizadeh A. and Mirlatifi S.M. 2006. Comparison of the different method of estimated refrence evapotranspiration (compound and temperature) with standard method and analysis of aridity effects. Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. 13(1):19-31. (in Persian with English abstract)

51- Shuttleworth W. J., 1993. Evaporation. In: Maidment, D.R., (ed.) Handbook of Hydrology, New York: McGraw−Hill, 4.1–4.53.

52- Simon E., Mero and F., 1985. A simplified procedure for the evaluation of the Lake Kinneret evaporation. Journal of Hydrology. 78, 291–304.

53- Singh V.P., and Xu C.–Y., 1997. Evaluation and generalization of 13 mass–transfer equations for determining free water evaporation. Hydrological Processes, 11, 311– 323.

54- Stannard D.I., and Rosenberry D.O., 1991. A comparison of short−term measurements of lake evaporation using eddy correlation and energy budget methods. Journal of Hydrology. 122, 15–22.

55- Stauffer R.E., 1991. Testing lake energy budget models under varying atmospheric stability conditions. Journal of Hydrology. 128, 115–135.

56- Stephens J.C., and Stewart E.H., 1963. A comparison of procedures for computing evaporation and evapotranspiration. Publication 62, international association of scientific hydrology. International Union of Geodynamics and Geophysics, Berkeley, CA, pp 123–133

57- Stets E.G., Striegl R.G., Aiken G.R., Rosenberry D.O., and Winter T.C. 2009. Hydrologic support of carbon dioxide flux revealed by wholelake carbon budgets. Journal of Geophysical Research. 114, G01008.

58- Stewart R.B., and Rouse W.R., 1976. A simple method for determining the evaporation from shallow lakes and ponds. Water Resources Research. 12, 623–628.

59- Stewart R.B., and Ruose W.R., 1977. Substantiation of the priestley−taylor parameter alpha = 1.26 for potential evaporation in high latitudes. Journal of Applied Meteorology. 16, 649–650.

60- Sturrock A.M., Winter T.C., and Rosenberry D.O., 1992. Energy budget evaporation from Williams Lake − a closed lake in North Central Minnesota. Water Resources Research. 28, 1605–1617.

61- Sweers H.E., 1976. Anomogram to estimate the heat−exchange coefficient at the air−water interface as a function of wind speed and temperature; a critical survey of some literature. Journal of Hydrology. 30, 375–401.

62- Torres E.A., and Calera A., 2010. Bare soil evaporation under high evaporation demand: a proposed modification to the FAO–56 model. Hydrological Sciences Journal. 55(3), 303–315.

63- Vallet – Coulomb C., Legesse D., Gasse F., Travi Y. and Chernet T. 2001. Lake evaporation estimates in tropical Africa (Lake Ziway, Ethiopia). Journal of Hydrology, 245: 1 −18.

64- Winter T.C., Buso, D.C., Rosenberry D.O., Likens G.E., Sturrock A.M. Jr., Mau D.P. 2003. Evaporation determined by the energy budget method for Mirror Lake, New Hampshire. Limnology and Oceanography, 48 (3), 995–1009.

65- Winter T.C., Rosenberry D.O., and Sturrock A.M., 1995. Evaluation of 11 equations for determining evaporation for a small lake in the north central United States. Water Resources Research. 31 (4), 983–993.

66- Xu C.–Y., and Singh V.P., 2000. Evaluation and generalization of radiation–based methods for calculating evaporation. Hydrological Processes. 14, 339–349.

67- Yao H., and Creed I.F., 2005. Determining spatially–distributed annual water balances for ungauged locations on Shikoku Island, Japan: a comparison of two interpolators. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 50, 245–263.

68- Zareabayneh H., Varkeshi M.B., Sabziparvar A.A., Marofi S., and Ghasemi A. 2011. Evaluation of Different Reference Evapotranspiration Methods and their Zonings in Iran. Physical Geography Research Quarterly. 42:95-109. (in Persian with English abstract)