Thornthwaite Models for Estimating Potential evapotranspiration in Medan City

Abstract

Evapotranspiration plays a big role in the hydrology process. Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) always keeps soil moisture available, although an amount of water evaporates through evaporation and transpiration. The Thornthwaite equation uses air temperature and latitude from meteorological observations for estimating PET. Medan City is one of the biggest cities in Indonesia that have a problem with land-use change that affected water balance. This study is to estimate the PET and to learn the water balance in Medan City. The monthly temperature data for the period 2011-2020 is collected from three meteorological stations for estimating PET using the Thornthwaite equation. The highest monthly temperature is in Belawan Maritime Meteorological Station yet the lowest rainfall. The trends of PET depend on the month. The highest PET in Jan.-Apr. and Sep.-Dec. are in Belawan Maritime Meteorological Station, while the highest PET in May-Aug. is in Indonesia Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Region I Medan. The P-PET has shown negative and positive values. The lowest P-PET is found in Belawan Maritime Meteorological Station in March and the highest P-PET is found in Indonesia Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Region I Medan in October.