Evaporation and Evaluation of Seven Estimation Methods: Results from Brullus Lake, North of Nile Delta, Egypt

Variations in lake evaporation have a significant impact on the energy budget and water budget of lake. Understanding these variations and the role of climate is important for water resource management as well as predicting future changes in Lake Hydrology as a result of climate change. This study presents a comprehensive of 10 years dataset (2003 -2012) from Lake Brullus (Nile Delta Lake) North-Egypt for monthly and annually variations in lake evaporation. Evaporation during this interval was calculated using six evaporation methods, based on field meteorology, and lake water temperature data. Actual evaporation determined during a month of a year was estimated using a lake energy budget model, and the estimation was used as reference evaporation for evaluation of the six methods. The deviations of method carried out evaporation results from the reference evaporation were compared among the six methods, and an execution rank was suggested based on the root mean squared deviation and coefficient of efficiency. Makkink method was the best method for the whole data interval, followed by DeBruin-Kejiman method and the poor one is Penman method.