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A BTOP model to extend TOPMODEL for distributed hydrological simulation of large basins
Author(s) -
Takeuchi Kuniyoshi,
Hapuarachchi Prasantha,
Zhou Maichun,
Ishidaira Hiroshi,
Magome Jun
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.6910
Subject(s) - hydrology (agriculture) , flow routing , drainage basin , distributed element model , water balance , hydrological modelling , groundwater , catchment hydrology , hydrograph , groundwater flow , environmental science , grid , evapotranspiration , precipitation , geology , aquifer , meteorology , geography , geotechnical engineering , cartography , ecology , physics , geodesy , quantum mechanics , climatology , biology
Topography is a dominant factor in hillslope hydrology. TOPMODEL, which uses a topographical index derived from a simplified steady state assumption of mass balance and empirical equations of motion over a hillslope, has many advantages in this respect. Its use has been demonstrated in many small basins (catchment areas of the order of 2–500 km 2 ) but not in large basins (catchment areas of the order of 10 000–100 000 km 2 ). The objective of this paper is to introduce the Block‐wise TOPMODEL (BTOP) as an extension of the TOPMODEL concept in a grid based framework for distributed hydrological simulation of large river basins. This extension was made by redefining the topographical index by using an effective contributing area af ( a ) (0⩽ f ( a )⩽1) per unit grid cell area instead of the upstream catchment area per unit contour length and introducing a concept of mean groundwater travel distance. Further the transmissivity parameter T 0 was replaced by a groundwater dischargeability D which can provide a link between hill slope hydrology and macro hydrology. The BTOP model uses all the original TOPMODEL equations in their basic form. The BTOP model has been used as the core hydrological module of an integrated distributed hydrological model YHyM with advanced modules of precipitation, evapotranspiration, flow routing etc. Although the model has been successfully applied to many catchments around the world since 1999, there has not been a comprehensive theoretical basis presented in such applications. In this paper, an attempt is made to address this issue highlighted with an example application using the Mekong basin. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.