Reservoir evaporation in a Mediterranean climate: comparing direct methods in Alqueva Reservoir, Portugal

Rodrigues, Carlos Miranda; Moreira, Madalena; Guimarães, Rita Cabral; Potes, Miguel

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5973-2020

Articles | Volume 24, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5973-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5973-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 12

Research article

|

17 Dec 2020

Research article |

| 17 Dec 2020

Reservoir evaporation in a Mediterranean climate: comparing direct methods in Alqueva Reservoir, Portugal

Carlos Miranda Rodrigues, Madalena Moreira, Rita Cabral Guimarães, and Miguel Potes

Data sets

The ALEX2014 Alqueva hydro-meteorological database R. Salgado, M. Potes, A. Albino, J. Apolinário, S. Barbosa, S. Bárias, P. Beliche, D. Bortoli, P. Canhoto, M. J. Costa, R. M. Fernandes, G. Harrison, A. Ilhéu, P. Le Moigne, R. Lima, F. Lopes, T. Lopes, J. Marques, M. Melgão, P. M. Miranda, M. Morais, M. Murteira, K. Nicoll, M. H. Novais, M. C. Parrondo, S. Pereira, C. Policarpo, V. Prior, C. M. Rodrigues, J. Rosado, A. Sá, A. Serafim, H. Silva, P. M. M. Soares, M. Tlemçani, and A. Zavattieri http://www.alex2014.cge.uevora.pt/data/

Short summary

In Mediterranean environments, evaporation is a key component of reservoir water budgets. Prediction of surface evaporation becomes crucial for adequate reservoir water management. This study provides an applicable method for calculating evaporation based on pan measurements applied at Alqueva Reservoir (southern Portugal), one of the largest artificial lakes in Europe. Moreover, the methodology presented here could be applied to other Mediterranean reservoirs.