Assessment of Some Water Balance Indices in Nigeria

This book focuses on the assessment of spatio-temporal pattern of some water balance indices in Nigeria. This work adopted a method that could be used to calculate water balance indices with just the available mean monthly air temperature and monthly rainfall data. The method was based on the estimation of potential evapotranspiration by Thornwaite (1948) with the aid of his monograph. The mean monthly air temperature data was used to estimate the PE while the monthly rainfall data in conjunction with the PE was subjected to the Climatic water budgeting procedure to calculate the other water balance indices. The data used for this book was obtained from the archives of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet). The information in this book is useful to identify places that suffer from water deficit and runoff in Nigeria. It will serves as as useful guide in efficient application of irrigation water to ensure optimum crop growth. The information in this book will also be of tremendous use for proper planning in several disciplines like: agronomy, soil science, hydrology, ecology and meteorology.