Simulation of flows in ungauged basins / Simulation d'écoulement sur les bassins versants non jaugés

Abstract

Abstract There are two ways in which a hydrological simulation model can be used to estimate flows in an ungauged basin. The first method, and the only one generally used so far, is to calibrate the model to a similar basin and use the parameter values thus obtained. The second is to use parameters based on measured basin characteristics. The author describes a model for which most of the parameters are of the second type. This model was applied using measured basin characteristics to obtain the parameter values and without reference to the gauged flows. The accuracy of the model was good, the correlation coefficient for daily flows being 0.86 and for monthly flows being 0.97. The model was then calibrated to the basin using a version of the Rosenbrock method. Comparison of measured and calibrated parameter values demonstrated the viability of this approach.