Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 70
Estimation of Evapotranspiration in Libya under the Impact of Plausible Global Climate Change
Geographia Polonica (1997) vol. 70, pp. 25-41 | 
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Abstract
The effects of global warming on reference évapotranspiration are investigated and discussed in this report. There are numerous methods for estimating évapotranspiration in the literature. However, we chose to use two acceptable methods for an arid climate: the "Penman method" proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and the second one after Budyko-Zubenok, for the purpose of comparison.The amount of water needed for agriculture with and without climate change is estimated and discussed. A computer program based on Penman's method is used, with the necessary data, provided by a separate computer program. To compare results of different models, two climate scenarios were used in these analyses. The results show that the évapotranspiration will increase from north to south, due to an increase in temperature which is the result of the increase in the content of CO2, as well as of other greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.
Keywords: water scarcity, climate change, évapotranspiration, Libyan case study
, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences ul. Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland