Abstract
Many catchments in developing countries are poorly gauged/totally ungauged which hinders water resource management and flood prediction in these countries. This study explored the application of the PyTOPKAPI model to South African (Mhlanga) and Ethiopian (Gilgel Ghibe) case study catchments to test its suitability for simulating stream flows from ungauged catchments. The aim is to extend the model application to poorly gauged/totally ungauged catchments in developing countries. The model uses digital elevation data and other spatial data sources to set up the model parameters and the forcing files. To generate reliable stream flows, models generally need to be calibrated, which typically relies on the availability of reliable stream flow data. We show how application of simple lumped models for average runoff ratios, such as that proposed by Schreiber in 1904, can be used as an alternative to detailed calibration with gauged flows. This approach seems to be new; and we show how the proposed method, together with the PyTOPKAPI model, can be used to predict runoff responses in ungauged catchments for water resource applications and flood forecasting in developing countries.
Highlights
Flooding is one of the natural disasters that can lead to loss of life and property
The present study demonstrates the implementation of the PyTOPKAPI model (Sinclair and Pegram, 2012; Vischel et al, 2008) in South African (Mhlanga) and Ethiopian (Gilgel Ghibe) ungauged catchments, for streamflow simulation
We investigate the use of the runoff-ratio formula proposed by Schreiber in 1904 (Arora, 2002; Fraedrich, 2010; Fraedrich and Sielmann, 2011; Fraedrich et al, 2015) to calibrate the PyTOPKAPI model, as an alternative to detailed model calibration procedures, which can be used when there is plentiful data
Summary
Flooding is one of the natural disasters that can lead to loss of life and property. Accurate streamflow modelling and forecasting is a key issue in hydrology for flood management (Kamruzzaman et al, 2014; Saeidifarzad et al, 2014; Zhao et al, 2014; Wu and Lin, 2015; Liu et al, 2017) and is vital for water resource applications (Blöschl, 2013; Ries III, 2007; Sanborn and Bledsoe, 2006). The modelled streamflow from ungauged catchments may have errors when basin characteristics such as geography, land use and soil type are significantly different from those of gauged catchments (Jeon et al, 2014; Vis et al, 2015). This issue of streamflow predictions in ungauged catchments remains an area of active research. We investigate the use of the runoff-ratio formula proposed by Schreiber in 1904 (Arora, 2002; Fraedrich, 2010; Fraedrich and Sielmann, 2011; Fraedrich et al, 2015) to calibrate the PyTOPKAPI model, as an alternative to detailed model calibration procedures, which can be used when there is plentiful data This approach seems to be a new method proposed in this work as an alternative model calibration procedure
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