Abstract
A lack of observations within watersheds can make the production of streamflow data via hydrologic models a big challenge. This study evaluates the model performance of the Watershed Environmental Hydrology Hydro-Climate Model (WEHY-HCM), reproducing streamflow in a sparsely gauged watershed. The fifth generation mesoscale model (MM5) is utilized within WEHY-HCM as an atmospheric module coupling with its process-based hydrologic module, WEHY. The WEHY-HCM is set up over a sparsely gauged watershed and the spatially downscaled reconstructed atmospheric data to a 3-km horizontal grid resolution with an hourly time increment, is obtained by the fifth generation mesoscale model (MM5) from NCAR/NCEP global reanalysis data (reanalysis I). Hydrologic simulations by WEHY-HCM were applied to the Upper Putah Creek watershed based on the reconstructed atmospheric data and the estimated WEHY model parameters. The simulation results of WEHY-HCM were evaluated by means of statistical tests for both calibration and validation periods. The results of statistical tests performed using observed and simulated values indicated that the model performance can be considered as exhibiting an acceptable accuracy during both calibration and validation periods. The spatial maps of the evapotranspiration rate and runoff volume showed that the WEHY-HCM can represent a sparsely gauged watershed with unique topography well. This study found that the WEHY-HCM can be a useful tool to simulate the hydrologic processes in a sparsely gauged watershed.
Highlights
In most watersheds, observations are not sufficient for watershed assessments due to sparsely located observation stations and observation records with a relatively coarse time scale
The coupling of a physically-based distributed model and a regional climate model (RCM) is appropriate for sparsely gauged or ungauged watersheds because RCMs can account for the physical interactions of the atmosphere and land surface processes in order to create various atmospheric variables at fine spatio-temporal resolutions considering the heterogeneity in topography, soil, vegetation, and atmospheric variables over a watershed [18,20,21]
This study evaluates the utility of WEHY-HCM through the estimation of runoff from a sparsely gauged watershed
Summary
Observations are not sufficient for watershed assessments due to sparsely located observation stations and observation records with a relatively coarse time scale (normally daily and monthly). The coupling of a physically-based distributed model and a regional climate model (RCM) is appropriate for sparsely gauged or ungauged watersheds because RCMs can account for the physical interactions of the atmosphere and land surface processes in order to create various atmospheric variables (e.g., temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind fields, radiation) at fine spatio-temporal resolutions considering the heterogeneity in topography, soil, vegetation, and atmospheric variables over a watershed [18,20,21]. It is important to deliberate the resolution spatial and temporal spatio-temporal variability of land surface properties in order to estimate runoff and the associated transport of nonpoint source contamination from this watershed
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