Vol. 125, No. 3 * Pages 367–519 * July - September 2021

Evapotranspiration rate, ET_aand vegetation composition strongly influence the water budget of wetland impacting available water and water resource management. One of the goals of this study was to estimate the areal ET_a of the Kis-Balaton wetland, KBW (natural ecosystem) between 1997 and 2012. This time period was free of any human intervention. ET_a was accounted for different vegetation classes through the multiplication of the reference evapotranspiration, ET₀ by previously determined crop coefficients in each vegetation/open water classes. Besides common reed and cattail, five other groups were separated, including open water as an independent class. The evapotranspiration sums were strongly impacted by annual mean air temperature, T_a. One degree increment in annual average T_a will increase the yearly ET_a sums in about 100 mm. The yearly areal ET_aof KBW ranged from 737.08 mm to 896.63 mm with an average of 802.07 mm during the 16-year study.