Abstract
Landform classification is important for representing soil physical properties varying continuously across the landscape and for understanding many hydrological processes in watersheds. Considering it, this study aims to use a geomorphology map (Geomorphons) as an input to a physically based hydrological model (Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model (DHSVM)) in a mountainous headwater watershed. A sensitivity analysis of five soil parameters was evaluated for streamflow simulation in each Geomorphons feature. As infiltration and saturation excess overland flow are important mechanisms for streamflow generation in complex terrain watersheds, the model’s input soil parameters were most sensitive in the “slope”, “hollow”, and “valley” features. Thus, the simulated streamflow was compared with observed data for calibration and validation. The model performance was satisfactory and equivalent to previous simulations in the same watershed using pedological survey and moisture zone maps. Therefore, the results from this study indicate that a geomorphologically based map is applicable and representative for spatially distributing hydrological parameters in the DHSVM.
Highlights
Hydrological models have been widely used in the literature to study watersheds and to predict future impacts caused by environmental changes [1,2,3,4]
The Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model (DHSVM) was chosen to test this hypothesis based on the fact that it considers the spatial variability of soil parameters and can simulate small headwater watersheds considering spatial heterogeneity
The objective of this study is to investigate a fully distributed physically based model (DHSVM) performance when using a landform map from Geomorphons as an input for a headwater watershed in the Lavrinha Creek Watershed
Summary
Hydrological models have been widely used in the literature to study watersheds and to predict future impacts caused by environmental changes [1,2,3,4]. The hypothesis that the Geomorphons map should improve a fully distributed physically based model performance can be tested by representing landform heterogeneity in soil parametrization This is an attempt to maintain large-scale patterns in the landscape while modelling a small headwater watershed. The DHSVM was chosen to test this hypothesis based on the fact that it considers the spatial variability of soil parameters and can simulate small headwater watersheds considering spatial heterogeneity In this context, the objective of this study is to investigate a fully distributed physically based model (DHSVM) performance when using a landform map from Geomorphons as an input for a headwater watershed in the Lavrinha Creek Watershed.
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