Long-Term Study of Lake Evaporation and Evaluation of Seven Estimation Methods: Results from Dickie Lake, South-Central Ontario, Canada ()
Abstract
Establishing satisfactory calculation methods of lake evaporation has been crucial for research and manage-ment of water resources and ecosystems. A 30 year dataset from Dickie Lake, south-central Ontario, Canada added to the limited long-term studies on lake evaporation. Evaporation during ice-free season was calcu-lated separately using seven evaporation methods, based on field meteorology, hydrology and lake water temperature data. Actual evaporation determined during a portion of a year was estimated using a lake en-ergy budget model, and the estimation was used as reference evaporation for evaluation of the seven methods. The deviation of method-induced evaporation from the reference evaporation was compared among the seven methods, and a performance rank was proposed based on the root mean squared deviation and coeffi-cient of efficiency. As for the whole ice-free season (roughly May to November), the water balance was the best method, followed by Makkink, DeBruin-Kejiman, Penman, Priestley-Taylor, Hamon, and Jensen-Haise methods. As for shorter duration (a week to a month), the DeBruin-Kejiman was the best method, followed by Penman, Priestley-Taylor, Makkink, Hamon, Jensen-Haise, and water balance method. Annual and sea-sonal changes of energy budget terms and the compensation function of lake heat storage in evaporation flux were also analyzed.
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H. YAO, "Long-Term Study of Lake Evaporation and Evaluation of Seven Estimation Methods: Results from Dickie Lake, South-Central Ontario, Canada," Journal of Environmental Protection, Vol. 1 No. 1, 2009, pp. 1-19.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.