Evaluation of Evaporation Estimation Methods for Water Balance Modeling in Hypersaline Lakes: A Case Study of Lake Urmia

Accurate estimation of a lake's water balance is crucial for understanding lake hydrodynamics, particularly in hypersaline lakes such as Lake Urmia. The accurate performance of a hydrodynamic and water quality models depends on the accuracy of their water balance, and any difference between the model and observations can lead to errors. Evaporation, an important term of the water balance equation, is usually estimated using empirical methods or observational data obtained from a pan evaporation; however, these evaporation methods are prone to uncertainties due to a lack of data and their inherent limitations. In this study, a water balance model of Lake Urmia is developed to evaluate different evaporation methods, including COARE, BREB, Penman, modified Penman, Priestly-Taylor, and DeBruin-Keijman. The water level time series of Lake Urmia is compared with the simulated water level to identify the most appropriate method for estimating evaporation. Based on daily water level data in ۲۰۱۶, the modified Penman method is the best empirical method for calculating evaporation in Lake Urmia by estimating annual evaporation rate to be ۹۱۳ mm. This simple approach can be used to improve the accuracy of model inputs, including precipitation, evaporation, and river inflows, before running computationally intensive hydrodynamic models.

کلیدواژه ها:

Lake Urmia ، Water Balance ، Evaporation Estimation ، Hydrodynamic Modeling ، Hypersaline Lakes