Evapotranspiration Estimates at High Spatial and Temporal Resolutions from an Energy–Water Balance Model and Satellite Data in the Capitanata Irrigation Consortium

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 12; no. 24; p. 4083
• Main Authors: Corbari, Chiara, Skokovic Jovanovic, Drazen, Nardella, Luigi, Sobrino, Josè, Mancini, Marco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-12-2020
• Subjects: Calibration; Case studies; Consortia; Energy; energy–water balance model; Estimates; Evapotranspiration; Flash floods; Heat flux; Hydraulics; Hydrology; Irrigation; irrigation distribution; Land surface temperature; Latent heat; Pixels; Rainfall; Rainfall-runoff relationships; Remote sensing; Runoff; satellite land surface temperature; Satellites; Soil moisture; Soils; Spatial discrimination; Spatial resolution; Water balance; Italy
• ISSN: 2072-4292; 2072-4292
• DOI: 10.3390/rs12244083

The feasibility of combining remotely sensed land surface temperature data (LST) and an energy–water balance model for improving evapotranspiration estimates over time distributed in space in the Capitanata irrigation consortium is analysed. The energy–water balance FEST-EWB model (flash flood event-based spatially distributed rainfall–runoff transformation—energy–water balance model) computes continuously in time and is distributed in space soil moisture (SM) and evapotranspiration (ET) fluxes solving for a land surface temperature that closes the energy–water balance equations. The comparison between modelled and observed LST was used to calibrate the model soil parametres with a newly developed pixel to pixel calibration procedure. The effects of the calibration procedure were analysed against ground measures of soil moisture and evapotranspiration. The FEST-EWB model was run at 30 m of spatial resolution for the period between 2013 and 2018. Absolute errors of 2.5 °C were obtained for LST estimates against satellite data; while RMSE around 0.06 and 40 Wm−2 are found for ground measured soil moisture and latent heat flux, respectively.