Analysis of the Performance of Base Flow Separation Methods Using Chemistry and Statistics in Sudano-Sahelian Watershed, Burkina Faso

Abstract

This research aims to determine appropriate methods for base flow separation under Sudano-Sahelian climate in West Africa. Four Recursive Digital Filtering (RDF) methods and the Conductivity Mass Balance (CMB) method were used. Daily streamflow of the Mouhoun River (formerly Black Volta River) at Samendeni gauge station has been separated into base flow and runoff. The RDF methods are easy to use but cannot take into account the actual hydrological processes within the watershed, while CMB method does it well. But, given that regular discharge measurement is rarely coupled with Electrical Conductivity measurements, it is therefore not possible to apply CMB method over time at each outlet. The CMB method is frequently used on a short time as a reference to assess the performance or to calibrate RDF methods. In the present study, CMB method was used for the year 2017, especially during the rainy season (from July to October) to produce more realistic base flow values. Statistical analysis was used to compare RDF and CMB methods. It was found that all the four RDF methods used are significantly different from the CMB method in the study area. Among the RDF methods, the Eckhardt method which is two parameters filtering method was successfully calibrated using CMB method Base Flow Index (BFI) as constraint. With the calibration process, the parameter BFImax of the Eckhardt method was adjusted to 0.32 in the study area context. The achievements of this study can have several implications such as adequate base flow estimation over time at Samendeni gauge station and at other similar gauges of the Mouhoun watershed which will be particularly beneficial to the critical issue of assessment of climate change impact on base flow in the study area.