International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-7/W2, 2013

ISPRS2013-SSG, 11 – 17 November 2013, Antalya, Turkey

EVAMAPPER: A NOVEL MATLAB TOOLBOX FOR EVAPOTRANSPIRATION

MAPPING

U. H. Atasevera, M. H. Kesikoğlua, C. Özkana

a
Dept. of Geomatic Engineering, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey-
(uhatasever, hayrikesikoglu,cozkan)@erciyes.edu.tr

Commission VII, WG VII/1

KEY WORDS: SEBAL, EvaMapper, Evapotranspiration (ET) Mapping

ABSTRACT:

Water consumption has been exceeding as the world population increases. Therefore, it is very important to manage water resources
with care as it is not an endless resource. The Water loss in regional scale is the key phenomena to accomplish this goal. One of the
main components of this phenomenon is evapotraspiration (ET) due to being one of the most important parameter for the
management of water resources. Until recent years, evapotranspiration calculations were performed locally, using data obtained from
weather stations. But for a successful water management, regional evapotranspiration maps are required. Different approaches are
used to compute regional ETs. Among them, the direct measurement methods are not cost-effective and regionalized. For cost-
effective and regional ET mapping, Surface Energy Balance Algorithm (SEBAL) is the most known and effective technique. In this
study, EvaMapper Toolbox which is based on SEBAL approach are developed for regional evapotranspiration mapping in
MATLAB. By this toolbox, researchers can apply SEBAL technique which has a very complex structure to their study area easily
through entering regional parameter values.

1. Introduction soil heat flux. In brief, In SEBAL, components of energy

balance is calculated then subtracted the components and lastly
For effective using of water and water resources whose computed the latent heat flux to be transformed to ET value.
importance has been increased over the past years, it is very
fundamental to be sustainable for water resources. For this 2.1 Net Radiation (Rnet)
purpose, it is necessary to identify the basin budget items. The
very beginning of basin budget items is evapotranspiration. Net radiation is calculated by subtracting outgoing radiation
Evapotranspiration has a very important place in identifying from incoming radiation. Net radiation is positive along the day
project, operating and directing of irrigation systems, also in and negative at nights. Net radiation can be expressed as
hydrological works, especially in reservoir operating works.
Because, ET directly plays a role in calculating the water need
of plant. It is necessary to measure ET correctly in irrigated Rnet  RS  RS   RL  RL  (1   sur ) RL  (2)
agriculture as it is a very important parameter for evaluating the
effects of changes of land use in wetlands, irrigation method,
In equation, RS  is incoming shortwave radiation (W m-2);
optimizing the growth of plant (Singh, 2008). Although there
are a lot of point source calculation methods such as Penman, RS  is outgoing shortwave radiation (W m-2); RL  is
Hargreaves to calculate ET, regional ET values are necessary incoming longwave radiation (W m-2); RL  is outgoing
for planning. SEBAL is an image processing algorithm that can
produce ET maps by using remote sensing technology. In this longwave radiation (W m-2) and  sur is surface emissivity.
model, ET values are calculated pixel by pixel (Bastiaanssen, Surface emissivity (  sur ) is calculated using NDVI and
1998a). empirically derived equation from (Van De Griend,1993;
Bastiaanssen, 1998a).
2. Surface Energy Balance Algorithm (SEBAL)
2.2 Soil Heat Flux (G)
SEBAL is an approach developed by Bastiansen for producing
actual ET maps belonging to wide areas by using satellite Soil heat flux can be defined as the rate of heat storage in the
images (Bastiaanssen, 1998a; Bastiaanssen 1998b). In this soil and vegetation through conduction (Allen, 2007).
approach, there is no need any information related to any kind Bastiaanssen has suggested an experimental equation that can
of soil or crop and land use. In the SEBAL technique, energy be used in agricultural areas for calculation of soil heat flux
balance should be applied for every pixel of satellite image. The (Bastiaanssen, 2000). This equation is:
basic energy balance is defined as:
Tsur
LE  Rnet  H  G (1) G  Rnet (0.0038  0.0074 2 )(1  0.98 NDVI 4 )(W / m2 ) (3)

In this equation, LE is latent heat flux to be transformed ET
value, Rnet is net radiation, H is sensible heat flux and lastly G is

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-7-W2-23-2013 23
 International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-7/W2, 2013
ISPRS2013-SSG, 11 – 17 November 2013, Antalya, Turkey

In this equation, Tsur is surface temperature (°C) calculated from of study area can be produced easily by entering necessary data
Landsat 6th Band, α is surface albedo, NDVI is NDVI value and parameters (Landsat 5 Image, Meteorological Data, etc.)
belonging to every pixel. Graphic User Interface of toolbox is presented in Figure 1.
Input parameters of EvaMapper Toolbox are
2.3 Sensible Heat Flux  Landsat TM Image
 Date of Image
Sensible heat flux is the general name of transfer of heat energy
derived from the temperature differences between surface and  Average Temperature
air. In calculating sensible heat flux, aerodynamic resistance is  Location of Study Area
one of the steps of operation so it is quite complex. Sensible  Average Wind Speed
heat flux is calculated as (Singh, 2008):  Delta T Parameters (a and b)

EvaMapper Toolbox has many show options. findings such as

T0  Ta NDVI map, SAVI Map, Emissivity Map and Surface
H  a * C p * (4)
rah Temperature Map can be investigated in addition to 24 Hour ET
Map by using these options, Also, EvaMapper can be used
In this formula,  a is air density (W m-2), C p is heat capacity of easily by the researchers who cannot use Matlab with Windows
Standalone application version compiled by using Matlab
air (J Kg-1K-1), T0 is air temperature in first reference height, Ta
Compiler.
is air temperature in second reference, rah is aerodynamic
resistance to heat transfer. rah value is calculated with Monin-
Obukhov Theory. Data such as wind speed and heat differences
are attended in this step. Also, height corrections for every pixel
are performed in this stage. Many sub-operations are necessary
for rah calculation. In this step, many parameters such as leaf
area index (LAI), soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) and
wind speed are used (Singh, 2008).

2.4 Calculation of Daily Actual Evapotranspiration

After calculating the instantaneous net radiation, soil heat flux Figure 1. Graphic User Interface (GUI) of EvaMapper Toolbox
and sensible heat flux, instantaneous latent heat flux (LE) is
calculated by using equation 1. Later, evaporative fraction
4. Sample Application Using EvaMapper Toolbox
directly related to soil humidity conditions is calculated as
(Bastiaanssen, 1998a): An application has been performed by using EvaMapper
toolbox prepared in the scope of this study. The selected study
area is South of Adana which is one of the most important
LE agriculture areas of Turkey. People can harvest three or four
 (5)
Rnet  G times in a year in Adana because of it is a very fertile region.
So, it is very important to determine actual evapotranspiration.
At last, daily actual ET is calculated as: The study area is shown in Figure 2.

86400    ( Rnet 24  G24 )

ETact  (6)
  w

where Rnet 24 =daily net radiation (Wm-2); G24 =daily soil heat
flux (Wm-2);  w =density of water (kg m-3) and  =latent heat
of vaporization (J kg-1)

3. EvaMapper Toolbox

Matlab is a technical language developed for programming and

high-level numerical calculation. Researchers can analyse the
data and develop new algorithms by using Matlab.
Programming process can be completed in a shorter time with
the help of existing functions that will be able to use in many
engineering problems. Due to the advantages like that, many Figure 2. Study Area (South of Adana)
researchers who works in remote sensing prefer Matlab.
Instantaneous net radiation map is shown in Figure 3, NDVI
In this action, SEBAL technique, one of the most used map is in Figure 4, surface temperature map is in Figure 5, soil
techniques for mapping evapotranspiration, is prepared as heat flux map is in Figure 6, sensible heat flux map is in Figure
toolbox and forming an user interface makes the using of 7, as a last, daily actual evapotranspiration map is in Figure 8
technique easier. By using this toolbox, the actual ET mapping which are generated by EvaMapper Toolbox.

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-7-W2-23-2013 24
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-7/W2, 2013
ISPRS2013-SSG, 11 – 17 November 2013, Antalya, Turkey

Figure 3. Instantaneous Net Radiation Map (W/m2) Figure 6. Soil Heat Flux Map (W/m2)

Figure 4. NDVI Map Figure 7. Sensible Heat Flux Map (W/m2)

Figure 5. Surface Temperature Map (Kelvin) Figure 8. Daily Actual Evapotranspiration Map (mm/day)

This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-7-W2-23-2013 25
 International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-7/W2, 2013
ISPRS2013-SSG, 11 – 17 November 2013, Antalya, Turkey

Conclusions

It is very difficult to calculate the real evapotranspiration in

basin-based with direct measurement methods. But actual
evapotranspiration can be calculated by using remote sensing
technologies. Remote sensing is a kind of science that can give
regular and objective information about study area. So, it is
basic source of information of many environmental and
agricultural applications belonging to wide areas. SEBAL is one
of the most important techniques using science of remote
sensing in producing real evapotranspiration maps. Many
scientist and researchers who works in public institutions can
easily generate actual ET maps by using EvaMapper Toolbox.
In this study, a toolbox named EvaMapper that is SEBAL
technique-based and an application has been performed as a
sample.

References

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Energy Balance for Mapping Evapotranspiration With
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This contribution has been peer-reviewed.

doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-7-W2-23-2013 26