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Document Type
Dissertation - University Access Only
Award Date
2015
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department / School
Geospatial Science and Engineering
First Advisor
Gabriel Senay
Second Advisor
Micahel Wimberley
Abstract
The Nile Basin is one of the most water-limited major river basins in the world. Water availability, distribution and allocation in this region are major challenges as more than 40% of the basin is arid or semi-arid, and only a quarter of the basin area contributes water to the rest of the basin. While water resources are heavily consumed for irrigation, municipal and industrial purposes, water losses either through direct open water evaporation from lakes and artificial reservoir, and through seepage and evapotranspiration (ET) from irrigated cropfields are considerable. In the absence of additional water supply, as yet, the only viable option to augment supply for water use in the basin is through reducing water loss by managing open-water evaporation and ET. Hence, there is a need to understand spatiotemporal ET dynamics basin wide, and identify major water loss spots and their drivers. Satellite-based remote sensing provides a great capability for basin scale ecohydrological monitoring studies, particularly for data poor regions such as the Nile. Using remotely sensed data for the period (2002-2011), this dissertation contributes to our understanding of basin-scale ET changes and its drivers by addressing three hypotheses on: (i) quantitative characterization of spatiotemporal ET dynamics, (ii) analysis for the presence of trends in ET and their regional distribution, and (iii) the relationship of these dynamics and trends in ET with xi corresponding changes in climatic and non-climatic drivers over both natural and managed ecosystems.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Evapotranspiration--Nile River Watershed--Remote sensing
Description
Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-99)
Format
application/pdf
Number of Pages
143
Publisher
South Dakota State University
Recommended Citation
Alemu, Henok T., "Contemporary Evapotranspiration Changes and Drivers in the Nile Basin" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1750.
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/1750
Rights Statement
