Abstract:
Evapotranspiration (ET) plays a major role in maintaining water balance
and studying its spatial and temporal variations. It helps in irrigation planning and
water resource management. It is very difficult to measure ET in field, and is
estimated by indirect methods. Satellite remote sensing data in this respect is
helpful for estimation of ET at large scales. In this study, the actual
evapotranspiration was estimated using METRIC model employing Landsat 5 TM,
Landsat 8 and meteorological data in Peshawar basin for time period 1998-2000
and 2009-2013. The land use land cover classification was carried out for the basin
using ISODATA clustering. The model was validated against the reference ET
calculated using FAO-56 Penman-Monteith equation and the estimates agreed well
with R2
= 0.70. The ET of tehsils were calculated by overlaying tehsils boundary
and the ET of agricultural land use was also calculated.
