Papa Malick Ndiaye^1*, Ansoumana Bodian¹, Lamine Diop², Koffi Djaman³

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¹ Laboratoire Leïdi “Dynamique des Territoires et Développement”, Université Gaston Berger (UGB), Saint Louis, Senegal.
² UFR S2ATA Sciences Agronomiques, de l’Aquaculture et des Technologies Alimentaires, Université Gaston Berger, Saint-Louis, Senegal.
³ NMSU: Agricultural Science Center at Farmington, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Farmington, USA.
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Abstract: Sensitivity analysis is important in understanding the effect of each climatic input variable on the variation of the evapotranspiration which is a significant element for hydrological modelling, irrigation programs, and water resources management. This study investigates the responses of evapotranspiration to the variation of maximum and minimum temperature, solar radiation, wind speed and maximum and minimum relative humidity. Daily data from 1998 to 2012 of eight stations are used. For each climatic variable, a variation of 5% up to ±25% was performed in order to evaluate the sensitivity of the evapotranspiration to the input variables. Results show that evapotranspiration is more sensitive to the variation of solar radiation, maximal temperature and wind speed, respectively.

Keywords: Evapotranspiration, Penman-Monteith, Sensitivity Coefficient, Burkina Faso

Cite this paper: Ndiaye, P. , Bodian, A. , Diop, L. and Djaman, K. (2017) Sensitivity Analysis of the Penman-Monteith Reference Evapotranspiration to Climatic Variables: Case of Burkina Faso. Journal of Water Resource and Protection, 9, 1364-1376. doi: 10.4236/jwarp.2017.912087.

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