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Geography Optional 300+ Score Pack · Model answer

What is Potential Evapotranspiration ? Explain how it is used in assessing the water balance in an area.

  • UPSC 2015
  • Climatology

Potential evapotranspiration (PE), a concept formalised by the American climatologist Charles Warren Thornthwaite (1948), is the water that would be lost by evaporation from the soil plus transpiration from a continuous cover of vegetation if soil moisture were never limiting.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the Geography Optional 300+ Score Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Concept of PE
  • The Water Balance as Bookkeeping
  • The Four Phases Through a Year
  • Using the Balance to Assess an Area
  • Current Debate: Is Rising PE Overstating Drying?

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