Advances in Evapotranspiration: A Historical Perspective.

Evapotranspiration and other surface energy balance fluxes play critical role in understanding the response of agro-ecosystems to changes in environmental and atmospheric/climatic parameters. Quantification of the fluxes is also necessary for assessing the impact of land use and management changes on water balances. These fluxes play crucial role in exploring the dynamics of water and energy use efficiencies of these systems. Evapotranspiration plays critical role in irrigation management, hydrologic studies, plant physiological and biophysical studies, and many other critical scientific research and practical/operational applications. Even though there’re might be a general belief that evapotranspiration advancement started with Penman’s development of novel equation for estimating potential evapotranspiration, studies related to quantification of evapotranspiration go back several centuries. This presentation will summarize historical advancement in measurement and modeling of evapotranspiration.