Chapter 3
EVAPORATION
Evaporation from free water surfaces and soil are of great importance in hydro-meterological
studies. Evaporation from water surfaces (Lake evaporation) The factors affecting evaporation
are air and water temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, surface area (exposed),
barometric pressure and salinity of the water, the last two having a minor effect. The rate of
evaporation is a function of the differences in vapour pressure at the water surface and in the
atmosphere, and the Dalton’s law of evaporation is given by E = K (ew – ea) ...(3.1)
Where E = daily evaporation ew = saturated vapour pressure at the temperature of water ea =
vapour pressure of the air (about 2 m above) K = a constant. i.e., the Dalton’s law states that the
evaporation is proportional to the difference in vapour pressures ew and ea. A more general form
of the Eq. (3.1) is given by E = K′ (ew – ea) (a + bV) ...(3.3) where K′, a, b = constants and V =
wind velocity. Higher the temperature and wind velocity, greater is the evaporation, while
greater the humidity and dissolved salts, smaller is the evaporation. The annual evaporation from
irrigation tanks in south India is of the order of 160 to 180 cm, the highest evaporation being in
the summer months of April and May.
Transpiration
Evapotranspiration
Methods of Estimating Lake Evaporation
Evaporation from water surfaces can be determined from the following methods:
(i) The storage equation P + I ± Og = E + O ± S ...(3.4)
Where P = Precipitation, I = surface inflow, Og = subsurface inflow or outflow, E =
evaporation, O = surface outflow, S = change in surface water storage
(ii) Auxiliary pans like land pans, floating pans, Colorado sunken pans, etc.
(iii) Evaporation formula like that of Dalton’s law
(iv) Humidity and wind velocity gradients
(v) The energy budget—this method involves too many hydro meteorological factors
(variables) with too much sophisticated instrumentation and hence it is a specialist
approach
(vi) The water budget—similar to (i)
(vii) Combination of aerodynamic and energy balance equations—Penman’s equation
(involves too many variables)
EVAPORATION PANS
(i) Floating pans (made of GI) of 90 cm square and 45 cm deep are mounted on a raft floating in
water. The volume of water lost due to evaporation in the pan is determined by knowing the
volume of water required to bring the level of water up to the original mark daily and after
making allowance for rainfall, if there has been any. (ii) Land pan. Evaporation pans are installed
in the vicinity of the reservoir or lake to determine the lake evaporation. The IMD Land pan
shown in Fig. 3.2 is 122 cm diameter and
Fig. 3.2 IMD land pan
25.5 cm deep, made of unpainted GI; and set on wood grillage 10 cm above ground to permit
circulation of air under the pan. The pan has a stilling well, vernier point gauge, a thermometer
with clip and may be covered with a wire screen. The amount of water lost by evaporation from
the pan can be directly measured by the point gauge. Readings are taken twice daily at 08.30 and
17.30 hours I.S.T. The air temperature is determined by reading a dry bulb thermometer kept in
the Stevenson’s screen erected in the same enclosure of the pan. A totalizing anemometer is
normally mounted at the level of the instrument to provide the wind speed information required.
Allowance has to be made for rainfall, if there has been any. Water is added to the pan from a
graduated cylinder to bring the water level to the original mark, i.e., 5 cm below the top of the
pan. Experiments have shown that the unscreened pan evaporation is 1.144 times that of the
screened one. (iii) Colarado sunken pan. This is 92 cm square and 42-92 cm deep and is sunk in
the ground such that only 5-15 cm depth projects above the ground surface and thus the water
level is maintained almost at the ground level. The evaporation is measured by a point gauge.
Pan coefficient—Evaporation pan data cannot be applied to free water surfaces directly but must
be adjusted for the differences in physical and climatological factors. For example, a lake is
larger and deeper and may be exposed to different wind speed, as compared to a pan. The small
volume of water in the metallic pan is greatly affected by temperature fluctuations in the air or
by solar raditions in contrast with large bodies of water (in the reservoir) with little temperature
fluctuations. Thus the pan evaporation data have to be corrected to obtain the actual evaporation
from water surfaces of lakes and reservoirs, i.e., by multiplying by a coefficient called pan
coefficient and is defined as
Lake evaporation
Pan coefficient=
Pan evaporation
and the experimental values for pan coefficients range from 0.67 to 0.82 with an average of 0.7.