Topics

Evapotranspiration & soil moisture

- Evapotranspiration is the process of water loss in vapour form from a unit surface of land both directly by evaporation from the ground and by transpiration through leaf surfaces during a specific period of time.

- Soil moisture is defined as the water stored in or at the continental surface and available for evaporation.

Basics of evapotranspiration

By Keith Bellingham

Courtesy of Stevens Water Monitoring Systems, Inc.
Originally published Aug. 2008

Evapotranspiration (ET) represents the loss of water from the Earth’s surface from the combination of direct evaporation and plant transpiration. ET is usually expressed as a rate such as inches per day. Knowledge of ET is important for irrigation scheduling but it is also an important factor for other land use applications such as septic tank drain fields, water shed water budgeting, and climate and weather models. ET can be used as a historical tool but usually it is predicted or used in a forecast to help irrigators optimize irrigation.

Facts and figures about Evapotranspiration and soil moisture by UNESCO Water Portal.

ATOM RSS