Author(s)

Xuexia Zhang^1*, Yu Fang¹, Yuepeng Gao¹, Xinxiao Yu¹, Dianjun Zhang²

¹College of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
²School of Marine Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.

Under the double impact of global climate change and human intervention, surface evapotranspiration (ET), as an important part of hydrological cycle, is affecting watershed land-use planning and economic development. The Loess Plateau is mostly arid and semi-arid areas and its ecological environment is fragile. Drought and soil erosion not only reflects the regional climate change, but also human social activities and ecosystems. In particular, these processes are directly related to the thermal and water gradients exchange in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system. Luoyugou watershed, a typical Loess Plateau watershed, is selected for this study. Estimating ET through SEBAL (Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land) model demonstrates that the SEBAL model in the watershed is more applicable. At the same time, ET seasonal variation is got, combined with the corresponding periods of the land-use changes for analysis. The results show that ET in the Northwest of the basin is higher than the East on the spatial distribution, especially in the high vegetation coverage area. Land use changes significantly in the watershed over the past 20 years, mainly transferring from sloping terraces to the terraces and woodland. ET significantly increased area accounts for 47.6% of the total area in the valley, however, conspicuously reduced area accounts for 13.2%. The daily ET of different land use types had significant differences with the ET of water land and wood land was the largest. It is important that this study on the ET distribution can aid policy and decision makers for land use planning and environmental construction in Luoyugou watershed.

Daily ET, SEBAL Model, Climate Change, The Loess Plateau of China

Zhang, X. , Fang, Y. , Gao, Y. , Yu, X. and Zhang, D. (2019) Study on Daily ET Based on SEBAL Model in a Typical Watershed of the Loess Plateau of China. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 11, 181-199. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2019.112011.