| dc.description.abstract | Knowledge of hydrological processes acting in the water balance is
determinant for a rational water resources management plan. Among
these, the water losses as vapour, in the form of evapotranspiration, play
an important role in the water balance and the heat transfers between the
land surface and the atmosphere. Mass and energy interactions between
soil, atmosphere and vegetation, in fact, influence all hydrological
processes modificating rainfall interception, infiltration,
evapotraspiration, surface runoff and groundwater recharge.
A numbers of methods have been developed in scientific literature for
modelling evapotranspiration. They can be divided in three main groups:
i) traditional meteorological models, ii) energy fluxes balance models,
considering interaction between vegetation and the atmosphere, and iii)
remote sensing based models.
The present analysis preliminary performs a study of fluxes directions
and an evaluation of energy balance closure in a typical Mediterranean
short vegetation area, using data series recorded from an eddy covariance
station, located in the Campania region, Southern Italy. The analysis was
performed on different seasons of the year with the aim to assess
climatic forcing features impact on fluxes balance, to evaluate the smaller
imbalance and to highlight influencing factors and sampling errors on
balance closure. The present study also concerns evapotranspiration
fluxes assessment at the point scale. Evapotranspiration is evaluated both
from empirical relationships (Penmann-Montheit, Penmann FAO,
Prestley&Taylor) calibrated with measured energy fluxes at mentioned
experimental site, and from measured latent heat data scaled by the latent
heat of vaporization. These results are compared with traditional and
reliable well known models at the plot scale (Coutagne, Turc,
Thorthwaite). [edited by author] | en_US |
