Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2023
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Water and Climate Change
Abstract
Actual evapotranspiration (ET) is perhaps the most difficult quantity to directly measure among the major water balance components. Because of the high cost and labor constraints associated with the direct measurement of ET, empirical data-driven modeling has frequently been used to estimate ET. Beyond the widely used traditional type regression that has the effect of producing ‘global’ parameter estimates, assumed to be uniform throughout an area, we utilized a more localized spatially non-stationary technique - the geographically weighted regression (GWR) - to estimate mean monthly ET in the Passaic River Basin (PRB). We identified the key environmental controls of ET and developed new sets of spatially varying empirical ET models based on variable combinations that produced the best-fit model. The analysis showed that temporal and spatial variabilities in ET over the PRB are driven by climatic and biophysical factors. We found that the key controlling factors were different from month to month, with wind speed being dominant throughout the year in the study basin. A monthly mean ET index map was further generated from the model to illustrate areas where ET exceeds precipitation. This will among others enable water loss due to evapotranspiration to be accounted for in future water supply plans for the basin.
DOI
10.2166/wcc.2022.111
Journal ISSN / Book ISBN
85149114388 (Scopus)
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Mensah, Felix Oteng and Alo, Clement Aga, "Modeling monthly actual evapotranspiration: an application of geographically weighted regression technique in the Passaic River Basin" (2023). Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 729.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/earth-environ-studies-facpubs/729
Published Citation
Oteng Mensah, F., & Alo, C. A. (2023). Modeling monthly actual evapotranspiration: an application of geographically weighted regression technique in the Passaic River Basin. Journal of Water and Climate Change, 14(1), 17-37.
Comments
© 2023 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).