Abstract
Predicting the runoff from snowpack accumulated in mountainous basins during the melting periods is very important in terms of assessing issues such as water supply and flood control. In this study, the Hydrological Engineering Center–Hydrological Modeling System (HEC-HMS) was used to simulate snowmelt runoff in the Kırkgöze–Çipak Basin that has a complex topography where altitude differences range from 1823 m to 3140 m above the sea level. The Kırkgöze–Çipak Basin, located in eastern Turkey, is a basin where snowfall is highly effective during the cold season. There are three automatic meteorology and snow observation stations and three stream gauge stations in the basin, which are operated especially for the calibration and validation of hydrological parameters at different altitudes and exposures. In this study, the parameters affecting snow accumulation–melting and runoff were investigated using the simulations on an hourly basis carried out over a three-year period for temporal and spatial distribution at the basin scale. Different from previous studies focusing on the rate of snowmelt, the temperature index method, which is calculated with physically-based parameters (R2 = 0.77~0.99), was integrated into the runoff simulations (R2 = 0.84) in the basin. The snowmelt-dominated basin is considered to be the source of the headwaters of the Euphrates River.
Highlights
IntroductionWithin this perspective, the history of water management is nothing less than the history of humankind
The fact that the basin has altitude and exposure differences due to its complex topographical structure, and because the HEC–Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) has to simulate the entire basin with a single meteorological model, snow–water equivalent (SWE) simulations needed to be performed spatially while normally point simulations are performed for SWE simulations
The outputs obtained were used as inputs for the hydrological simulation program HEC-HMS
Summary
Within this perspective, the history of water management is nothing less than the history of humankind. From the inception of our species, coping with the availability—or unavailability—of water resources has been an essential element of human beings’ strategies for survival and wellbeing [1]. The two largest rivers in Western Asia, the Euphrates and Tigris, flow in Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. The Euphrates and Tigris basins are fed predominantly by snow precipitation. Two-thirds of this occurs in winter, and the snow may remain for half a year [2]. Where water supplies are under stress, such as the semiarid regions of the Mediterranean basins, the activity of snowmelt-derived streamflows are extremely important [3]
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