The effect of a black insulation sheet on the evaporation rate from a shallow salt pond

A transient computer model has been developed to investigate the effect of a black plastic bubble sheet on the evaporation process in a shallow salt p ond. The transient behaviour of the evaporation process and the influence o f various parameters such as the depth of the brine layer, weather, and win d speed are discussed and compared for ponds with and without a black plast ic bubble layer. The results show that the influence of soil properties on the evaporation process is small for a pond with a plastic bubble sheet, an d that the evaporation rate may be higher with the black sheet. Copyright ( C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.