Evapotranspiration in the basins of the Northern Dvina and the Western Dvina rivers and its variability

Abstract

Considered is a possibility of using the previously developed method for estimating the evapotranspiration from the river basin based on the observations at the network of water- and soil-evaporation stations and on the data on the land use dynamics for the Northern Dvina and Western Dvina river catchments. It is demonstrated that the method enables to obtain rather realistic and reliable estimates both of evapotranspiration over the basin and of the contribution of different landscapes to its value. The value of evapotranspiration and its interannual variability depend not only on the trends in the fluctuations of evaporation from the water surface and the land surface, but also on the changes in landscape characteristics. The present paper is a continuation of the papers dealing with the study of the basins of the Volga and Don rivers started under V.S. Golubev’s leadership and participation.