COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CLIMATIC PARAMETERS AFFECTING EVAPORATION IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN COASTAL AREAS IN IRAN

Hossein Malekinezhad

Associate professor, Faculty of Natural Resources, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Abstract

Evaporation is one of the most important variables influencing on water resources management and agricultural activities. In this study, the most important factors affecting evaporation using Factor Analysis (FA) was identified by considering the climatic data of 14 stations in warm and humid southern coastal areas and arid central part of Iran. At first, Cluster Analysis technique (CA) was used to separate the Homogeneous Regions (HRs) at the study areas. Then, the relationship between climatic factors and evaporation for monthly time scale was derived in each region. Finally, by the regional regression equations, evaporation was calculated and MAE or RMSE statistics were applied to determine the validity of each equation. It was found that, in each month, one of the climatic parameters had a more prominent role on the amount of evaporation. At the coastal warm and humid regions the temperature related parameters (Tmax – Tmin, Tmax, and Tmean) were the main variables. In spite of the other homogenous regions located at arid areas, due to the high relative humidity at southern coastal parts of Iran, wind speed is not an important variable on evaporation rate. At the arid regions, wind speed, Tmax and Hmax – Hmin were identified as the main parameters.

Keywords: Evaporation, Cluster Analysis, Multiple regression, Evapotranspiration, Factor Analysis, Central Iran

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