ABSTRACT
The evapotranspirative loss of moisture from a soil surface (e g the surface of a landfill or waste dump) is one of the most difficult components of a water balance to estimate. The radiation balance method is a powerful, rational, though indirect technique to estimate evaporative losses, but requires specialized instrumentation and calculations to apply (e g Blight and Blight, 1998). The microlysimeter method, however, is simple and requires only rudimentary apparatus and experimental skills.
The paper will present the microlysimeter method, originally suggested by Boast and Robertson (1982) and compare results obtained by this method with those obtained by parallel measurements of the radiation balance.
