Hydrological Modeling of Zarqa River Basin – Jordan Using the Hydrological Simulation Program – FORTRAN (HSPF) Model

Abstract

Jordan is an arid country with limited water resources, so there is a chronic need to study and understand its hydrology at the watershed scale which will eventually help in achieving good management for the existing scarce water resources. The studied watershed was the Zarqa River Basin which is considered as the largest watershed in Jordan. The objective of this study was to calibrate the hydrological component of the Hydrological Simulation Program – FORTRAN (HSPF) model for the Zarqa River Basin. The calibrated model could be used in a later stage to examine the impact of different management practices and climate change scenarios on the water resources in the basin. The calibration of the HSPF water quantity parameters was aided by GIS and by the automatic calibration model (PEST). The automatic calibration was done for the years 1988–1991 and the validation was done for the years 1996–1998. The coefficient of determination, R 2 for the calibration and verification years of the monthly flows was 0.81 and 0.76, respectively.