IMPROVEMENT OF THE TECHNIQUES FOR THE COMPUTATION OF EVAPOTRANSPIRATION MAPS

Abstract. The definition of a methodology for estimating suitable areas for new renewable sources needs to identify possible indexes that describe the fields. One interesting index is the Evapotranspiration (ET). This is usually determined from hydrological models, which however do not provide a real-time estimation. So, new different procedures have been tested to compute it, for example, the use of Satellite images. The Sen-ET project allows using the Copernicus data to compute daily evapotranspiration. An improvement in the automatization of methodology is presented within this work. The model is tested in two different Italian regions with different climates and geographical conditions, considering also different months to study the results in different seasons over the same area. Results are then compared with those obtained in the same areas and period with two hydrological models (BIGBANG and GlobWat). The different outputs are analysed according to their spatial resolutions and respect to agricultural land cover classes. The comparison between Sen-ET evapotranspiration maps and hydrological model results has shown, in the analysed areas, relevant differences and suggests interesting future insights for continuous monitoring of land subject to water stress.