Quantifying water evaporation from large reservoirs: Implications for water management in water-stressed regions.

Dam reservoirs are at the core of local water storage and supply, especially in water-stressed regions of the world with acute water shortage problems. However, evaporative losses from these reservoirs and their storage efficiency are often overlooked in water budgeting. We offer a mechanistic approach that combines physically-based modeling with remote sensing information of reservoir characteristics to reliably predict evaporative losses from dam reservoirs.