Water monitoring in vegetation covers through multi-scale energy balance moddelling using time series of remotely sensed data
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Author
Andreu, Ana
Director/es
González Dugo, María P.Polo, María J.
Publisher
Universidad de Córdoba, Servicio de PublicacionesDate
2014Subject
Plant physiologyEarth Observation (EO)
Mediterranean ecosystems
Two source energy balance model (TSEB)
Water-controlled ecosystems
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This work has addressed the modelling of the energy balance, integrating thermal infrared data into
the Two Source Energy Balance model (TSEB, Norman et al., 1995; Kustas and Norman, 1999), over
two extended and valuable Mediterranean ecosystems, as the dehesa and the vineyard. Throughout
the Mediterranean region, particularly in Southern Spain, the main river basins suffer an imbalance
between the supply and demand for water, largely due to the variable climatic conditions and human
activities. Dealing with the water scarcity situation must rely on the ability to improve management
with timely and accurate information about the water status of the ecosystems, that would improved
predictions of resource availability and reduced the uncertainty in decision-making processes. The
integration of remote sensing data in energy balance modelling can provide this information at
different spatio-temporal scales.
In water-controlled ecosystems there are many interrelationships between climate, soil and
vegetation, with evapotranspiration (ET) as a key variable connecting energy and water budgets. ET has
been exhaustively studied in cropped systems and different models for estimating ET at medium-large
spatial scales have been developed, based on both soil water balance and surface energy balance.
Energy balance (EB) models based on thermal remote sensing data enable updated diagnoses of the
actual surface water condition. In general, these models do not require precipitation or soil properties
inputs and are mostly conditioned by surface radiometric temperature (TRAD) observations. The
methodology that best accounts for the effects of a non-homogeneous partial canopy cover is the twosource
approach (Shuttelworth and Wallace, 1985; Norman et al., 1995; Kustas and Norman, 1999), in
particular the TSEB, in which surface fluxes are divided into soil and canopy components. Previous
studies (Timmermans et al., 2007; González-Dugo et al., 2009) demonstrated the advantages of such...