DRI:
Drought Research Initiative

DRI EVAPORATION WORKSHOP

Location: Room 1E79, Agriculture Building (click here for map), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK
Date and Time: 17 May 2007, 0800h - 1600h
Accommodations: Park Town Hotel


Rationale:
Drought is ubiquitous and severe in the Prairie region of Canada and a common occurrence in other regions of the country. Much of the connection between meteorological drought and agricultural and hydrological drought lies in the process of evaporation (defined as water vapour flux from soil, water, vegetation, snow and including stomatal release due to transpiration). Evaporation is notoriously poorly defined and difficult to calculate and measure as it occurs at the interface of the atmospheric, hydrological, soil and plant systems and has a high spatial variability. Evaporation estimates have considerable variance due to uncertainty and differences in calculation scheme, definition of the process, parameter estimation, tracking of state variables, available forcing meteorology, advection and atmospheric feedbacks. Uncertainty in estimating evaporation as a region such as the Canadian Prairies enters and leaves drought is particularly large.

Goals, to:
i) review the current biophysical understanding of the process of evaporation from various surfaces as it relates to drought conditions (including onset and cessation of drought);
ii) evaluate numerical methods for calculating actual evaporation from unsaturated and saturated, frozen and unfrozen surfaces under a variety of atmospheric conditions with particular attention to the purpose, scale, performance and parameter needs of various methods;
iii) examine alternative means of estimating evaporation parameters and rates using remote sensing, data assimilation, novel model strategies, improved theory and biophysical methods;
iv) recommend a course for DRI and allied evaporation research that will reduce uncertainty and improve accuracy in evaporation estimates for atmospheric and hydrological models.

Format:
i) Scientific talks/posters and subsequent discussion sessions relating to each of the four Goals above;
ii) Focussed discussion session on Goal iv): recommending a course for DRI and allied evaporation research that will reduce uncertainty and improve accuracy in evaporation estimates for atmospheric and hydrological models.