Current and Prospective Applications of Zero Flux Plane (ZFP) Method

Abstract

Zero flux plane (ZFP) method has been used to measure and estimate the evaporation, evapotranspiration, some hydrological process etc. However, no systematic discussion has been made concerning the ZFP method itself or its application to monitor and control the salt and contamination movement. In this study, comprehensive analysis on existing data sets have been performed to examine ZFP method applications and to give comments for further applications in future. First, ZFP method definition and its mathematical derivation were stated. Second, the application of ZFP to evaporation, evapotranspiration and ground water recharge process were discussed and analyzed. The difficulties that affect the application of ZFP method such as depth of soil, preciseness of measurements etc. have been listed and compared. Finally the potentialities of ZFP method were discussed. The discussion showed that, the development of new techniques related to measurement instruments, required experiments and simulations to implement ZFP in effective way is very important to monitor and control salt transportation and accumulation control.