Using Eddy Covariance and Over-Lake Measurements from Two Prairie Reservoirs to Inform Future Evaporation Estimates
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USING EDDY COVARIANCE AND OVER-LAKE MEASUREMENTS FROM TWO PRAIRIE RESERVOIRS TO INFORM FUTURE EVAPORATION ESTIMATES A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science In the Department of Civil, Geological and Environmental Engineering University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Jennifer Baergen Attema © Copyright Jennifer Baergen Attema, February 2020. All rights reserved. Permission to Use In presenting this thesis as partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, the author agrees that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. The author further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor who supervised this thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which this thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying, publication, or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to the author and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in this thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of Civil, Geological and Environmental Engineering University of Saskatchewan 3B48 Engineering Building, 57 Campus Drive Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A9 Canada OR Dean of the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Saskatchewan 116 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C9 Canada Reference in this thesis to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the University of Saskatchewan. The views and opinions of the author expressed herein do not state or reflect those of the University of Saskatchewan and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. i Abstract Improved evaporation estimates are required to aid water management decisions. Current estimates are limited by the availability of driving meteorological data; estimates are routinely made using land-based data to model over-lake conditions. Collecting evaporation measurements and over-lake meteorological data to validate models in existing use is the first step toward improving future evaporation estimates. This study presents the first direct open-water evaporation measurements for the southern Prairie Provinces using the eddy covariance technique. Instrumentation for evaporation and meteorological measurements were mounted on moored buoys near the centre of Val Marie and Shellmouth Reservoirs during the 2016 and 2017 open-water seasons (May to October). Relationships between the measured evaporation and potential controls were examined. In addition, four common estimation approaches were evaluated using a combination of land-based and over-lake inputs at various time steps. Daily evaporation at Val Marie Reservoir averaged 3.0 mm/d during the spring and fall of 2016 and 4.0 mm/d during the full 2017 open water season. Conditions at Shellmouth suggest fluxes of similar magnitude, but evaporation data could not be confidently presented due to technical errors with equipment. Short-term evaporation at Val Marie Reservoir was aerodynamically driven with a minor seasonal influence from heat storage. Bulk Transfer methods using over-lake data performed best of four methods evaluated at Val Marie and were used to estimate missing evaporation at Shellmouth. More work is required to improve models of land-lake relationships and determine the best procedure for future data limited situations. It is hoped that the dataset created during this study will provide ample opportunity for future work toward improving evaporation estimates. ii Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Warren Helgason for providing me with the opportunity to pursue this research. His knowledge, patience and constant encouragement throughout the entire process was invaluable. I am grateful to my committee members, Dr. Jim Kells and Dr. Chris Spence, for their helpful suggestions and genuine interest in the project. Thank you also to the Prairie Provinces Water Board for contributing funding for this research. I would like to acknowledge all those who provided technical support during the data collection phase, particularly Bruce Johnson, Jay Bauer, Newell Hedstrom, Steve Auger, and Braden Magnowski. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to all my family and friends for their continued support throughout this journey. I could not have done this without you. iii Table of Contents Permission to Use ............................................................................................................................ i Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 2 Literature Review....................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Importance of Quantifying Evaporation ..................................................................... 3 2.2 Limits of Practical Estimation Approaches ................................................................ 4 2.2.1 Water Balances ................................................................................................ 4 2.2.2 Energy Balances............................................................................................... 6 2.2.3 Mass Transfer Approaches .............................................................................. 8 2.2.4 Penman Combination Method ....................................................................... 10 2.2.5 Priestley-Taylor Method ................................................................................ 11 2.2.6 Morton’s Complementary Relationship Evaporation .................................... 12 2.3 Case for Eddy Covariance Measurements at Prairie Reservoirs ............................... 14 2.4 Recent Observations of Evaporation Controls over Open Water ............................. 16 2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................... 18 3 Methods.................................................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Objective 1: Create Prairie Reservoir Evaporation Dataset ...................................... 19 3.1.1 Data Collection .............................................................................................. 19 3.1.2 Data Processing .............................................................................................. 27 3.2 Objective 2: Examine Evaporation Controls ............................................................ 29 3.2.1 Temperature and Moisture Gradients ............................................................ 29 3.2.2 Aerodynamic Effects ..................................................................................... 29 3.2.3 Heat Storage ................................................................................................... 31 3.3 Objective 3: Evaluate Practical Estimation Approaches .......................................... 31 3.3.1 Application of Selected Approaches .............................................................. 31 iv 3.3.2 Modelling Missing Data ................................................................................ 33 3.4 Summary ................................................................................................................... 34 4 Evaporation Measurements and Meteorological Controls ....................................................... 36 4.1 Background Meteorology ......................................................................................... 36 4.2 Measured Evaporation and Its Drivers ..................................................................... 39 4.2.1 Daily Evaporation and Meteorological Conditions ....................................... 39 4.2.2 Gradients of Temperature and Water Vapour Pressure ................................. 45 4.2.3 Aerodynamic Forcing .................................................................................... 52 4.2.4 Surface Energy Partitioning and Heat Storage .............................................. 55 4.3 Driving Meteorological Data: Measurement Over Land