Prof.  Mirka  Mobilia
Italian Ministry of Public Education,  Italy

Title: Modelling evapotranspiration: methods and accuracy

Abstract:

Evapotranspiration is one of the most important components of the water cycle, so a correct estimate of this variable is crucial for the hydrological studies. The present work aims at assessing the montly scale accuracy of six models (Penman, Priestley-Taylor and Blaney-Criddle models, the Advection-Aridity, the Granger and Gray and the Antecedent Precipation Index method) in predicting the evapotranspiration (ET) fluxes around several sites which differ for the biome. The evapotranspiration volumes estimated using the models, are compared to the ones measured by eddy covariance stations located within the study areas. The comparison has been performed using four goodness-of-fit indices. Subsequently,  in order to optimize the ET estimates, the models have been subjected to a calibration procedure. The results show that the Advection-Aridity model is the most effective in reproducing ET fluxes without the calibration procedure and it reaches minimum error of 0.18. On the other side, the Granger and Gray model is the most accurate if the calibration is performed and it returns minimum values of error of 0.13.

Biography:

Ing. Mirka Mobilia earned a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering at University of Salerno, Italy in 2011. In 2014 she earned Master's degree in Environmental Engineering, at University of Salerno. In November 2014, she started a Ph.D. course in “Risk and sustainability in civil, environmental and construction engineering”, at the University of Salerno (UNISA). She is currently a Research Fellow at the department of civil engineering (UNISA). Her research interest is about the sustainable stormwater management for urban drainage systems, with a particular focus on urban greening.