Evaporation in the uplands

Abstract

The book addresses the controversy concerning the effects of afforestation on evaporation and water resources. It deals with the historical background and continues by describing the comprehensive research programme which was initiated to resolve the controversy. The experimental techniques employed, including a new stochastic approach to interception modelling, are described. The study area was the uplands of the UK, but the models are considered to be relevant to other forested areas of the world, and have bearing on wider issues such as the global energy balance and the greenhouse effect. Chapters cover: physics and physiology of evaporation; the interception process; transpiration studies in the uplands; rainfall interception from short vegetation - the "wet surface' lysimeter experiment; attenuation studies of rainfall interception from forests; plastic-sheet net-rainfall gauge measurements of forest interception; evaporation from snow covered vegetation; predicting the effects of land use change - evaporation models; implications of upland afforestation - case study of the Crinan Canal. -after Publisher