Urban evapotranspiration of green spaces in arid regions through two established approaches: a review of key drivers, advancements, limitations, and potential opportunities. Issue 2 (7th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Saher, Rubab; Stephen, Haroon; Ahmad, Sajjad
• Is Part Of: Urban water journal. Volume 18:Issue 2(2021)
• Page Start: 115
• Page End: 127
• Publication Date: 2021-02-07
• Subjects: Urban evapotranspiration -- microclimate -- mixed landscape -- surface energy balance -- landscape coefficient; Municipal water supply -- Management -- Periodicals; Water-supply -- Planning -- Periodicals; 628.1
• DOI: 10.1080/1573062X.2020.1857796
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1573-062X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Urban Evapotranspiration (ET) plays a crucial role in controlling irrigation water demand. The estimation of urban ET is difficult because of high spatial variability of urban surfaces. This paper reviews the two most commonly used approaches pertaining to advancements, limitations, and opportunities in arid regions. The two approaches include the landscape coefficient and surface energy balance approach. The key advancements include the standardization of the basic models and consideration of the spatial variability of the atmospheric advection effects. Two key limitations have been highlighted including oversimplification of microclimate effects in the models and lack of precise estimation of water requirement for mixed landscapes. Furthermore, several opportunities to address the existing limitations are discussed including the coupling numerical models, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV)-based technologies for ET estimates, detection of mixed landscapes using various vegetation indices, and quantification of the atmospheric effects. This study highlights different dimensions and modeling techniques to estimate urban ET.