 Evaporimeters:

 Evaporation is measured by evaporimeters.

 Common evaporimeters are piche evaporimeter, colorado sunken pan, US geological survey floating pan, ISI
standard pan and US weather bureau class pan (most used in India)

 US weather bureau class pan

 It is mainly made of 22 gauge galvanized iron sheet.

 A pan of diameter 120cm and depth 25cm and is painted white.

 The pan is placed on a wooden platform of height 15cm above ground level to allow free air circulation
below the pan

 Depth of water is maintained between 18 to 20cm.

 A hook gauge fixed on the stilling well of the pan is used to measure the water.

 Evaporation is measured daily as the depth of water (in inches) evaporates from the pan. The measurement
day begins with the pan filled to exactly two inches (5 cm) from the pan top. At the end of 24 hours, the
amount of water to refill the pan to exactly two inches from its top is measured

 A factors of 0.7 is taken for conversion of data of pan evaporation from a US weather bureau class A pan
evaporimeter to data of free surface.

 This relationship is stated as:

Lake evaporation

Pan evaporation

Cp = pan coefficient. Cp= 0.7

 A large no of empirical equations are available to estimate lake evaporation using commonly available
meteorological data. Most of the available empirical equations for estimating lake evaporation are a Dalton
type equation of the general form……..

 Two commonly used emperical evaporation formulae are:

1. MEYER’S FORMULA

2. ROHWER’S FORMULA: This formula considers for the effect of pressure in addition to the wind-speed effect
and is given by….

In using the empirical equations, the saturated vapour pressure at a given temperature (e w) is found from a
table of(ew),vs. temperature in ˚C,such as table 3.3.Often ,the wind –velocity data would be available at an
elevation other than that needed in the particular equation. However it is known that in the lower part of the
atmosphere, up to a height of about 500 m above the ground level, the wind velocity can be assumed to follow
the 1/7 power law as

uh =Ch1/7
Where uh=wind velocity at a height h above the ground and C= constant .This equation can be used to determine
the velocity at any desired level if uh is known.

• Evapotranspiration (ET) is the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth's land surface
to atmosphere. Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the soil,
interception, and water bodies. Evapotranspiration is an important part of the water cycle. An element (such
as a tree) that contributes to evapotranspiration can be called an evapotranspirator.

• If sufficient moisture is always available to completely meet the needs of vegetation fully covering the area,
the resulting evapotranspiration is called potential evpotranspiration (PET).

• PET no longer critically depends on the soil and plant factors but depends essentially on the climatic factors.
The real ET occurring in a specific situation is called actual ET.

• Field capacity: it is the maximum quantity of water that the soil can retain against the force gravity.

• Permanent wilting point: it is the moisture content of a soil at which the moisture is no longer available in
sufficient quantity to sustain the plants.

• The difference b/w these two moisture content is called available water, the moisture available for the plant
growth.

• For a catchment in a given period of time, the hydrologic budget can be written as

• P-Rs-Go-Eact = ΔS

Where p=pptn, Rs=surface runoff, Go=subsurface outflow, Eact=AET and ΔS= change in moisture storage.
Measurement of Evapotranspiration

Water – budget method: This method , also known as inflow outflow method , is suitable for evaluating
evaporation of large area such as watersheds over relatively long periods of time. The evaporation can be
evaluated provided all other constituent items of the following water balance equation are known

Water supply = water disposal

The items constituting the supply are : surface inflow , subsurface , precipitation , and imported water. The
items constituting the disposal are: surface outflow, subsurface outflow , evapotranspiration, domestic ,
municipal and industrial use , exported water , increase in surface storage , increase in ground water storage.

Field experimental plots: In this method a field plot is chosen and the amounts of water added to the
irrigation plot under observation by way of precipitation and irrigation are measured along with runoff. The
moisture content in various layers of the soil within the root zone depth are measured both at beginning and
end of the crop season. Then the evapotranspiration is computed as

ET = T – Q – ΔS

Where I is the total inflow in mm including precipitation and irrigation water, Q is the total surface runoff in
mm and ΔS is the increase in soil moisture in mm which is computed from the following equation

ΔS=

Where Mbi = Moisture content in per cent at the beginning of the season in ith layer.

Mei = Moisture content in per cent at the end of the season in ith layer

Gi = The apparent specific gravity of the ith layer of the soil

Di = Depth of ith layer of soil , in mm , within the root zone depth

n = The number of soil layers considered in the entire root zone.

Summation of the evapotranspiration values of all sampling intervals of the seasonal evapotranspiration or
seasonal consumptive use. Of course , due allowance can be made in the summation to account for the
evapotranspiration that occurred between the application and soil moisture sampling.

Soil moisture depletion studies. The studies involve measurement of soil moisture from various depths at as
frequent intervals of time as possible throughout the growth period of a crop. The method gives satisfactory
results for irrigated fields crops grown on fairly uniform soils and where the soil moisture variations within
the root zone are not influenced by groundwater. The evapotranspiration u, for any time period between
two successive samplings is obtained as
 u=

Where M1i = Soil moisture percentage at the time of first sampling in the ith layer

M2i = Soil moisture percentage at the time of second sampling in the

The terms Gi , Di and n have the same signification

Summation of the evapotranspiration values of all sampling intervals of the seasonal evapotranspiration or
seasonal consumptive use. Of course , due allowance can be made in the summation to account for the
evapotranspiration that occurred between the application and soil moisture sampling.

Lysimeter: A lysimeter (also known as evapotranspirometer) consists of a circular tank about 60 to 90 cm in

It is buried so that its top is in flush with the surrounding ground surface. The sides of the lysimeter are
impervious whereas the bottom is pervious. Water passing through the soil column is collected at the
bottom and conducted through a small tube to a measuring gauge in an adjacent pit.