EFFECT OF LAND-COVER ON AREAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION USING LANDSAT TM DATA WITH METEOROLOGICAL AND HEIGHT DATA - THE CASE OF KITAMI CITY, JAPAN

Land cover classification in Kitami, which covers an area of 12 km x 9 .6 km, was done using Landsat TM data immediately after geometric corr ection. For each of seven land cover categories, monthly mean albedo w as estimated based on field measurements obtained by the Cold Region M eteorological Observation System (CRMOS) of the Kitami Institute of Te chnology (KIT) and Kotoda's (1986) suggested values. The permeable zon e percentages for urban and residential areas were estimated using the normalized vegetation index obtained with Landsat TM data. The monthl y mean areal evapotranspiration for Kitami was obtained by Kojima's (1 979) equation in winter and by Morton's (1978) equation in other seaso ns. The annual variation in estimated monthly mean evapotranspiration, which reaches its maximum value in July, correlated reasonably well w ith the evapotranspiration in an observation field. The influences on evapotranspiration of land cover category, slope solar radiation and l and development were examined.