scholarly journals Runoff simulation by SWAT model using high-resolution gridded precipitation in the upper Heihe River Basin, Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Author(s):  
Hongwei Ruan ◽  
Songbing Zou ◽  
Zhentao Cong ◽  
Yuhan Wang ◽  
Zhenliang Yin ◽  
...  

Abstract. Precipitation stations are usually scarce and unevenly distributed in inland river basins, which restrict the application of the distributed hydrological model and spatial analysis of water balance component characteristics. This study regards the upper Heihe River Basin as a case, and daily gridded precipitation data with 3 km resolutions based on the spatial interpolation of gauged stations and the regional climate model is used to construct the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). This study aims to validate the superiority of high-resolution gridded precipitation for hydrological simulation in data scarce regions. A scale transformation method is proposed by building virtual stations and calculating the lapse rate to overcome the defects of the SWAT model using traditional precipitation station data. The gridded precipitation is upscale from the grid to the sub-basin scale and results in accurate representation of sub-basin precipitation input data. A satisfactory runoff simulation is achieved, and the spatial variability of the water balance components is analysed. Results show that the precipitation lapse rate ranges from 40 mm/km to 235 mm/km and decreases from the southeastern to the northwestern areas; its changes trend is consistent with precipitation. The SWAT model achieves monthly runoff simulation compared with gauged runoff from 2000 to 2014; the determination coefficients are higher than 0.71, the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiencies are higher than 0.76 and the percent bias are controlled within ±15 %. The meadow and sparse vegetation are the major water yield landscapes, and the elevation band at 3,500 m to 4,500 m is the major water yield area in this basin. Precipitation and evapotranspiration presented a slightly increasing trend, whereas water yield and soil water content presented a slightly decreasing trend. This finding indicates that the high-resolution gridded precipitation data well depicts its spatial heterogeneity, and scale transformation significantly promotes the application of the distributed hydrological model in inland river basins. The spatial variability of water balance components can be quantified to provide references for the integrated assessment and management of basin water resources in data scarce regions.

This study mainly focus on hydrological behavior of watersheds in The Manjira River basin using soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) and Geographical information system (GIS). The water balance components for watersheds in the Manjira River were determined by using SWAT model and GIS. Determination of these water balance components helps to study direct and indirect factors affecting characteristics of selected watersheds. Manjira River contains total 28 watersheds among them 2 were selected having watershed code as MNJR008 and MNJR011 specified by the Central Ground Water Board. The SWAT input data such as Digital elevation model (DEM), land use and land cover (LU/LC), Soil classification, slope and weather data was collected. Using these inputs in SWAT the different water balancing components such as rainfall, baseflow, surface runoff, evapotranspiration (ET), potential evapotranspiration (PET) and water yield for each watershed were determined. The evaluated data is then validated by Regression analysis, in which two datasets were compared. Simulated rain data from SWAT simulation and observed rain data from Global Weather Data for SWAT was selected for comparison for each watershed.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2901
Author(s):  
Davy Sao ◽  
Tasuku Kato ◽  
Le Hoang Tu ◽  
Panha Thouk ◽  
Atiqotun Fitriyah ◽  
...  

Many calibration techniques have been developed for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Among them, the SWAT calibration and uncertainty program (SWAT-CUP) with sequential uncertainty fitting 2 (SUFI-2) algorithm is widely used and several objective functions have been implemented in its calibration process. In this study, eight different objective functions were used in a calibration of stream flow of the Pursat River Basin of Cambodia, a tropical monsoon and forested watershed, to examine their influences on the calibration results, parameter optimizations, and water resources estimations. As results, many objective functions performed better than satisfactory in calibrating the SWAT model. However, different objective functions defined different fitted values and sensitivity rank of the calibrated parameters, except Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and ratio of standard deviation of observations to root mean square error (RSR) which are equivalent and produced quite identical simulation results including parameter sensitivity and fitted parameter values, leading to the same water balance components and water yields estimations. As they generated reasonable fitted parameter values, either NSE or RSR gave better estimation results of annual average water yield and other water balance components such as annual average evapotranspiration, groundwater flow, surface runoff, and lateral flow according to the characteristics of the river basin and the results and data of previous studies. Moreover, either of them was also better in calibrating base flow, falling limb, and overall the entire flow phases of the hydrograph in this area.


Water ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongwei Ruan ◽  
Songbing Zou ◽  
Dawen Yang ◽  
Yuhan Wang ◽  
Zhenliang Yin ◽  
...  

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Pulighe ◽  
Flavio Lupia ◽  
Huajin Chen ◽  
Hailong Yin

The consequences of climate change on food security in arid and semi-arid regions can be serious. Understanding climate change impacts on water balance is critical to assess future crop performance and develop sustainable adaptation strategies. This paper presents a climate change impact study on the water balance components of an agricultural watershed in the Mediterranean region. The restructured version of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT+) model was used to simulate the hydrological components in the Sulcis watershed (Sardinia, Italy) for the baseline period and compared to future climate projections at the end of the 21st century. The model was forced using data from two Regional Climate Models under the representative concentration pathways RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios developed at a high resolution over the European domain. River discharge data were used to calibrate and validate the SWAT+ model for the baseline period, while the future hydrological response was evaluated for the mid-century (2006–2050) and late-century (2051–2098). The model simulations indicated a future increase in temperature, decrease in precipitation, and consequently increase in potential evapotranspiration in both RCP scenarios. Results show that these changes will significantly decrease water yield, surface runoff, groundwater recharge, and baseflow. These results highlight how hydrological components alteration by climate change can benefit from modelling high-resolution future scenarios that are useful for planning mitigation measures in agricultural semi-arid Mediterranean regions.


Earth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-247
Author(s):  
Mateso Said ◽  
Canute Hyandye ◽  
Ibrahimu Chikira Mjemah ◽  
Hans Charles Komakech ◽  
Linus Kasian Munishi

This study provides a detailed assessment of land cover (LC) changes on the water balance components on data constrained Kikafu-Weruweru-Karanga (KWK) watershed, using the integrated approaches of hydrologic modeling and partial least squares regression (PLSR). The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model was validated and used to simulate hydrologic responses of water balance components response to changes in LC in spatial and temporal scale. PLSR was further used to assess the influence of individual LC classes on hydrologic components. PLSR results revealed that expansion in cultivation land and built-up area are the main attributes in the changes in water yield, surface runoff, evapotranspiration (ET), and groundwater flow. The study findings suggest that improving the vegetation cover on the hillside and abandoned land area could help to reduce the direct surface runoff in the KWK watershed, thus, reducing flooding recurring in the area, and that with the ongoing expansion in agricultural land and built-up areas, there will be profound negative impacts in the water balance of the watershed in the near future (2030). This study provides a forecast of the future hydrological parameters in the study area based on changes in land cover if the current land cover changes go unattended. This study provides useful information for the advancement of our policies and practices essential for sustainable water management planning.


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 1350-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donizete dos Reis Pereira ◽  
André Quintão de Almeida ◽  
Mauro Aparecido Martinez ◽  
David Rafael Quintão Rosa

The Brazilian East coast was intensely affected by deforestation, which drastically cut back the original biome. The possible impacts of this process on water resources are still unknown. The purpose of this study was an evaluation of the impacts of deforestation on the main water balance components of the Galo creek watershed, in the State of Espírito Santo, on the East coast of Brazil. Considering the real conditions of the watershed, the SWAT model was calibrated with data from 1997 to 2000 and validated for the period between 2001 and 2003. The calibration and validation processes were evaluated by the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient and by the statistical parameters (determination coefficient, slope coefficient and F test) of the regression model adjusted for estimated and measured flow data. After calibration and validation of the model, new simulations were carried out for three different land use scenarios: a scenario in compliance with the law (C1), assuming the preservation of PPAs (permanent preservation areas); an optimistic scenario (C2), which considers the watershed to be almost entirely covered by native vegetation; and a pessimistic scenario (C3), in which the watershed would be almost entirely covered by pasture. The scenarios C1, C2 and C3 represent a soil cover of native forest of 76, 97 and 0 %, respectively. The results were compared with the simulation, considering the real scenario (C0) with 54 % forest cover. The Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients were 0.65 and 0.70 for calibration and validation, respectively, indicating satisfactory results in the flow simulation. A mean reduction of 10 % of the native forest cover would cause a mean annual increase of approximately 11.5 mm in total runoff at the watershed outlet. Reforestation would ensure minimum flows in the dry period and regulate the maximum flow of the main watercourse of the watershed.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharad K. Jain ◽  
Sanjay K. Jain ◽  
Neha Jain ◽  
Chong-Yu Xu

Abstract. A large population depends on runoff from Himalayan rivers which have high hydropower potential; floods in these rivers are also frequent. Current understanding of hydrologic response mechanism of these rivers and impact of climate change is inadequate due to limited studies. This paper presents results of modeling to understand the hydrologic response and compute the water balance components of a Himalayan river basin in India viz. Ganga up to Devprayag. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied for simulation of the snow/rainfed catchment. SWAT was calibrated with daily streamflow data for 1992–98 and validated with data for 1999–2005. Manual calibration was carried out to determine model parameters and quantify uncertainty. Results indicate good simulation of streamflow; main contribution to water yield is from lateral and ground water flow. Water yield and ET for the catchments varies between 43–46 % and 57–58 % of precipitation, respectively. The contribution of snowmelt to lateral runoff for Ganga River ranged between 13–20 %. More attention is needed to strengthen spatial and temporal hydrometeorological database for the study basins for improved modeling.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 7223-7254
Author(s):  
Mary M. F. O'Neill ◽  
Danielle T. Tijerina ◽  
Laura E. Condon ◽  
Reed M. Maxwell

Abstract. Recent advancements in computational efficiency and Earth system modeling have awarded hydrologists with increasingly high-resolution models of terrestrial hydrology, which are paramount to understanding and predicting complex fluxes of moisture and energy. Continental-scale hydrologic simulations are, in particular, of interest to the hydrologic community for numerous societal, scientific, and operational benefits. The coupled hydrology–land surface model ParFlow–CLM configured over the continental United States (PFCONUS) has been employed in previous literature to study scale-dependent connections between water table depth, topography, recharge, and evapotranspiration, as well as to explore impacts of anthropogenic aquifer depletion to the water and energy balance. These studies have allowed for an unprecedented process-based understanding of the continental water cycle at high resolution. Here, we provide the most comprehensive evaluation of PFCONUS version 1.0 (PFCONUSv1) performance to date by comparing numerous modeled water balance components with thousands of in situ observations and several remote sensing products and using a range of statistical performance metrics for evaluation. PFCONUSv1 comparisons with these datasets are a promising indicator of model fidelity and ability to reproduce the continental-scale water balance at high resolution. Areas for improvement are identified, such as a positive streamflow bias at gauges in the eastern Great Plains, a shallow water table bias over many areas of the model domain, and low bias in seasonal total water storage amplitude, especially for the Ohio, Missouri, and Arkansas River basins. We discuss several potential sources for model bias and suggest that minimizing error in topographic processing and meteorological forcing would considerably improve model performance. Results here provide a benchmark and guidance for further PFCONUS model development, and they highlight the importance of concurrently evaluating all hydrologic components and fluxes to provide a multivariate, holistic validation of the complete modeled water balance.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rogier Westerhoff ◽  
Frederika Mourot ◽  
Conny Tschritter

<p>Global hydrological models often ingest remotely-sensed observations supported by ground-truthed data in attempts to better quantify water balance components, e.g. soil water content, evapotranspiration, runoff/discharge, groundwater recharge. However, the scaling up process from local observations to that global, coarse, scale contains large uncertainty, often undermining the relevance of water balance calculations.</p><p>With recent more advanced high-resolution satellite data, freely available at 10m spatial resolution and (sub-) weekly temporal resolution, there is a possibility to reduce uncertainty in that upscaling. However, there are two challenges in doing so when working with global models: exponential increase of computational effort, and the need for quantifying the yet unknown uncertainty of assumptions that coarse global model cells and their underlying equations bring.</p><p>This study hypothesises that a bottom-up approach with high-resolution satellite data and in situ observations will better constrain and quantify uncertainty. By using these more spatially-explicit data, we make the case that the estimation of water balance components should become more data-driven. We propose a more data-driven model that improves uncertainty of estimation and scalability by using more sophisticated, remotely-sensed interpolation layers.</p><p>Our case study shows New Zealand-wide estimates of evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge at two resolutions: 1km x 1km, using an earlier developed model and MODIS satellite data; and a novel approach at 10m x 10m using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data to better incorporate impervious areas (e.g., anthropogenic urbanised land covers) and small land patches (e.g., small forestry areas). We then study the implications of using different spatial scales and quantify the differences between 10m x 10m versus 1km x 1km model pixel estimates. Our method is applied in the Google Earth Engine, a free-for-research high performance cloud computing facility, hence providing powerful computational resources and making our approach easily scalable to global, regional and catchment scales. </p><p>Finally, we discuss what underlying model assumptions in traditional models could be changed to facilitate a method that works consistently at these different scales.</p>


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