Using fuzzy logic for estimating monthly pan evaporation from meteorological data in Emara/ South of Iraq

Evaporation is one of the major components of the hydrological cycle in the nature, thus its accurate estimation is so important in the planning and management of the irrigation practices and to assess water availability and requirements. The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of fuzzy inference system for estimating monthly pan evaporation form meteorological data. The study has been carried out depending on 261 monthly measurements of each of temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), and wind speed (W) which have been available in Emara meteorological station, southern Iraq. Three different fuzzy models comprising various combinations of monthly climatic variables (temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity) were developed to evaluate effect of each of these variables on estimation process. Two error statistics namely root mean squared error and coefficient of determination were used to measure the performance of the developed models. The results indicated that the model, whose input variables are T, W, and RH, perform the best for estimating evaporation values. In addition, the model which is dominated by (T) is significantly and distinctly helps to prove the predictive ability of fuzzy inference system. Furthermore, agreements of the results with the observed measurements indicate that fuzzy logic is adequate intelligent approach for modeling the dynamic of evaporation process