A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of surface film-forming material (SFFM), a mixture of 16-18-octadecanols by emulsification, on water evaporation. Air-dried soil with distilled water was incubated firstly for 7 days to reestablish soil biological activity and then for another 7 days after treated with SFFM at rates of 0, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 g m-2, respectively. Everyday during the 7-day incubation after addition of SFFM, water losses due to evaporation were ~measured by an electronic balance. The rate of water evaporation with the addition of SFFM was reduced significantly compared with the control treatment and the effectiveness of SFFM on water evaporation reduced with time. According to the equation expressions of the effect of SFFM on water evaporation, the half-life of electiveness of SFFM on water evaporation was introduced and calculated to analyze quantitative relationship between the effectiveness of SFFM on water evaporation and the addition rate of SFFM. The calculated half-life increased with the addition rate of SFFM and the confidence of the calculated values of the half-life was high, suggesting that the half-life of effectiveness of SFFM on water evaporation could be described quantitatively and may be helpful for ameliorating application method of SFFM and screening surface-film forming materials in order to improve nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency in flooded rice fields. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of surface film-forming material (SFFM), a mixture of 16-18-octadecanols by emulsification, on water evaporation. Air-dried soil with distilled water was incubated first for 7 days to reestablish soil biological activity and then for another 7 days after treated with SFFM at rates 0, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 g m-2, respectively. Everyday during the 7-day incubation after addition of SFFM, water losses due to evaporation were ~ measured by an electronic balance. The rate of water evaporation with the addition of SFFM was reduced significantly compared with the control treatment and the effectiveness of SFFM on water evaporation reduced with time. According to the equation expressions of the effect of SFFM on water evaporation, the half-life of electiveness of SFFM on water evaporation was introduced and calculated to analyze quantitative relationship between the effectiveness of SFFM on water evaporation and the addition rate o f SFFM. The calculated half-life increased with the addition rate of SFFM and the confidence of the calculated values ​​of the half-life was high, suggesting that the half-life of effectiveness of SFFM on water evaporation could be described quantitatively and may be helpful for ameliorating application method of SFFM and screening surface-film forming materials in order to improve nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency in flooded rice fields.