Potential Alternative Evapotranspiration Estimation Methods for Batu Pahat Climatic Condition: A Quantitative Comparison

Abstract

Urbanisation had replaced the vegetation and soil cover, increasing heat retention by reducing the benefits of natural cooling mechanisms provided by evapotranspiration. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential of the alternative estimation performance for selected evapotranspiration (ET) methods for Batu Pahat station; for further prediction on the changes of future climatic parameters. Since the data is limited, ET0 estimation using temperature-based used are the Thornthwaite, Blaney-Criddle (original) and FAO Blaney-Criddle methods. Standard data formulation based on Batu Pahat latitude for meteorological parameters were used to estimate ET0 using basic radiation-based, the Penman (original) and Turc methods. Correlation results show that all three temperature-based methods estimated a similar range of ET0. For the radiation-based method, the Turc method seems slightly overestimated than the other four methods. However, these estimation needs to be explored further using the benchmark method, i.e., the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith, for the accuracy and reliabilities of these methods. Apart from temperature, it was found that ET0 did not correlate with rainfall and evaporation.