Estimation of actual evapotranspiration by remote sensing: Application in Thessaly Plain, Greece

A. Tsouni, C. Contoes, D. Koutsoyiannis, P. Elias, and N. Mamassis, Estimation of actual evapotranspiration by remote sensing: Application in Thessaly Plain, Greece, Sensors, 8 (6), 3586–3600, 2008.

[doc_id=861]

[English]

Remote sensing can assist in improving the estimation of the geographical distribution of evapotranspiration, and consequently water demand in large cultivated areas for irrigation purposes and sustainable water resources management. In the direction of these objectives, the daily actual evapotranspiration was calculated in this study during the summer season of 2001 over the Thessaly plain in Greece, a wide irrigated area of great agricultural importance. Three different methods were adapted and applied: the remote-sensing methods by Granger (2000) and Carlson and Buffum (1989) that use satellite data in conjunction with ground meteorological measurements and an adapted FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) Penman-Monteith method (Allen at al. 1998), which was selected to be the reference method. The satellite data were used in conjunction with ground data collected on the three closest meteorological stations. All three methods, exploit visible channels 1 and 2 and infrared channels 4 and 5 of NOAA-AVHRR (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) sensor images to calculate albedo and NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index), as well as surface temperatures. The FAO Penman-Monteith and the Granger method have used exclusively NOAA-15 satellite images to obtain mean surface temperatures. For the Carlson-Buffum method a combination of NOAA-14 and ΝΟΑΑ-15 satellite images was used, since the average rate of surface temperature rise during the morning was required. The resulting estimations show that both the Carlson-Buffum and Granger methods follow in general the variations of the reference FAO Penman-Monteith method. Both methods have potential for estimating the spatial distribution of evapotranspiration, whereby the degree of the relative agreement with the reference FAO Penman-Monteith method depends on the crop growth stage. In particular, the Carlson-Buffum method performed better during the first half of the crop development stage, while the Granger method performed better during the remaining of the development stage and the entire maturing stage. The parameter that influences the estimations significantly is the wind speed whose high values result in high underestimates of evapotranspiration. Thus, it should be studied further in future.

PDF Full text (188 KB)

See also: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s8063586

Our works that reference this work:

1. A. Tegos, A. Efstratiadis, and D. Koutsoyiannis, A parametric model for potential evapotranspiration estimation based on a simplified formulation of the Penman-Monteith equation, Evapotranspiration - An Overview, edited by S. Alexandris, 143–165, doi:10.5772/52927, InTech, 2013.

Works that cite this document: View on Google Scholar or ResearchGate

Other works that reference this work (this list might be obsolete):

1. #Coronel, C., E. Rosales, F. Mora, A.A. López-Caloca, F.-O. Tapia-Silva, and G. Hernández, Monitoring evapotranspiration at landscape scale in Mexico: Applying the energy balance model using remotely-sensed data, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 7104, art. no. 71040H, 2008.
2. #Agapiou, A., G. Papadavid and D.G.Hadjimitsis, Integration of wireless sensor network and remote sensing for monitoring and determining irrigation demand in Cyprus, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 7472, art. no. 74720F, 2009.
3. #Spiliotopoulos, Μ., A. Loukas and L. Vasiliades, Actual evapotranspiration estimation from satellite-based surface energy balance model in Thessaly, Greece, Proceedings of the EYE-EEDYP Conference “Integrated Water Resource Management in Climate Change Conditions” (eds. A. Liakopoulos, V. Kanakoudis, E. Anastasiadou-Partheniou and V. Tsihrintzis), Volos, Greece, 789-796, 2009.
4. Gao, G., C.-Y. Xu, D. Chen and V. P. Singh, Spatial and temporal characteristics of actual evapotranspiration over Haihe River basin in China, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 26 (5), 655-669, 2012.
5. #Lund, J. R., Water accounting issues in California, Water Accounting: International Approaches to Policy and Decision-Making, Edward Elgar Pub., Cheltenham, UK, 244-269, 2012.
6. Ali, R. R., and M. Abd El-hady, Use of remote sensing and soils database for sustainable management of irrigation water in desert landforms, International Journal of Environmental Sciences, 1 (2), 77-84, 2012.
7. Ali, R. R., and A. Shalaby, Sustainable agriculture in the arid desert west of the Nile Delta: A Crop suitability and water requirements perspective, International Journal of Soil Science, 7, 116-131 2012.
8. Nouri, H., S. Beecham, F. Kazemi and A. M. Hassanli, A review of ET measurement techniques for estimating the water requirements of urban landscape vegetation, Urban Water Journal, 10 (4), 247-259, 2013.
9. #Petropoulos, G. P., Remote sensing of surface turbulent energy fluxes, Remote Sensing of Energy Fluxes and Soil Moisture Content 49-84, 2013.
10. Paparrizos, S., F. Maris and A. Matzarakis, Estimation and comparison of potential evapotranspiration based on daily and monthly data from Sperchios Valley in Central Greece, Global NEST Journal, 16 (2), 204-217, 2014.
11. Finca, A., A.R. Palmer and V. Kakembo, Exploring ground-based methods for the validation of remotely sensed evapotranspiration, African Journal of Range and Forage Science, 32 (1), 41-50, 2015.

Tagged under: Students' works