Evapotranspiration units in the Basin and Range carbonate-rock aquifer system, White Pine County, Nevada, and adjacent parts of Nevada and Utah

Accurate estimates of ground-water discharge are crucial in the development of a water budget for the Basin and Range Carbonate-rock Aquifer System (BARCAS) study area. One common method used throughout the southwest United States is to estimate ground-water discharge from evapotranspiration (ET). ET is a process by which water from the Earth's surface is transferred to the atmosphere. The volume of water lost to the atmosphere by ET can be computed as the product of the ET rate and the acreage of vegetation, open water, and moist soil through which ET occurs. The procedure used in the study, groups areas of similar vegetation, water, and soil conditions into different ET units and assigns an average annual ET rate to each unit. The data sets and the procedures used to delineate the ET-unit map are described in this metadata.

精准估算地下水排泄量，对于盆地与山脉碳酸盐岩含水层系统（Basin and Range Carbonate-rock Aquifer System，BARCAS）研究区的水平衡构建至关重要。目前美国西南部广泛应用的一种常规方法，是通过蒸散发（evapotranspiration，ET）估算地下水排泄量。蒸散发是将地球表面水分输送至大气的过程，通过该过程损失至大气的水量可通过蒸散发速率与发生蒸散发的植被、开阔水域及湿润土壤的面积的乘积计算得到。本研究采用的方法是将植被、水域及土壤条件相似的区域划分为不同的蒸散发单元，并为每个单元赋予年均蒸散发速率。本元数据将对用于绘制蒸散发单元图的数据集及相关流程进行说明。