Abstract
Watershed simulation software used for operational purposes must possess both dependability of results and flexibility in parameter selection and testing. The UBC watershed model (UBCWM) contains a wide spectrum of parameters expressing meteorological, geological, as well as ecological watershed characteristics. The hydrological model was coupled to the MapInfo GIS and the software created was named Watershed Mapper (WM). WM is endowed with several features permitting operational utilization. These include input data and basin geometry visualization, land use/cover and soil simulation, exporting of statistical results and thematic maps and interactive variation of disputed parameters. For the application of WM two hypothetical scenarios of forest fires were examined in a study watershed. Four major rainfall events were selected from 12-year daily precipitation data and the corresponding peak flows were estimated for the base line data and hypothetical scenarios. A significant increase was observed as an impact of forest fires on peak flows. Due to its flexibility the combined tool described herein may be utilized in modeling long-term hydrological changes in the context of unsteady hydrological analyses.
Highlights
The objective of Operational Hydrology is to control the operation of water systems and to provide aid in dealing with problems of water use and water management
Watershed simulation software used for operational purposes must possess both dependability of results and flexibility in parameter selection and testing
The UBC watershed model (UBCWM) source code has been recently rewritten in a Visual Basic 6 environment and subsequently the hydrological model was coupled to MapInfo geographic information system (GIS), via a code written in MapBasic, the programming language associated to MapInfo
Summary
The objective of Operational Hydrology is to control the operation of water systems and to provide aid in dealing with problems of water use and water management. The UBC watershed model (UBCWM), created initially at the University of British Columbia [1], has been extensively applied and tested in watersheds around the world, under a great variety of climatic conditions and physiographic characteristics [2,3,4]. It contains a wide spectrum of parameters expressing meteorological, geological, as well as ecological watershed characteristics. WM is endowed with several features permitting full operational utilization These include input data and basin geometry visualization, exporting of statistical results and thematic maps, and interactive variation of disputed parameters. The UBCWM + WM may be utilized in unsteady hydrological modeling, such as detection of trends or changes in hydrologic time series that are due to changing conditions in the studied watershed
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