Open AccessTemperature index based snowmelt runoff modelling for the S atluj R iver basin in the w estern H imalayas
Author(s) -
Tiwari Sarita,
Kar S. C.,
Bhatla R.,
Bansal R.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1002/met.1692
Subject(s) - snowmelt , surface runoff , environmental science , streamflow , precipitation , structural basin , hydrology (agriculture) , water year , drainage basin , meteorology , geology , geography , ecology , paleontology , cartography , geotechnical engineering , biology
The Satluj R iver is one of the main rivers in the western H imalayas. Snowmelt runoff substantially contributes to the streamflow of the river in the spring and summer months. The unavailability of observed meteorological data (precipitation, surface temperature) spread across the S atluj basin is a major problem for modelling snowmelt runoff there. Researchers have used station observations available at certain points in the basin for modelling snowmelt and rainfall runoff in S atluj and have obtained mixed results. For this study, a new meteorological dataset was prepared by merging gridded precipitation from I ndia M eteorological D epartment ( IMD ) and A phrodite as well as station observations of B hakra B eas Management B oard ( BBMB ) in the basin. Maximum and minimum temperatures from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis were also used for the entire basin. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool ( SWAT ) hydrology model was run using the new dataset to simulate runoff in the S atluj R iver and to evaluate the streamflow characteristics. Sensitivity experiments were carried out using temperature and precipitation lapse rates, routing methods (travel time vs Muskingum) and degree day factors to identify best suitable parameters for simulations. Three sets of calibration (1982–1992) and validation (1993–2003) simulations were carried out to estimate the performance of the SWAT model in simulating runoff in the S atluj basin. The experiment with precipitation data prepared using IMD , Aphrodite and BBMB stations provided the best performance with a N ash− S utcliffe efficiency ( NS ) of 0.60 and R 2 = 0.70, which is a major improvement on the use of A phrodite data only ( NS = 0.13 and R 2 = 0.51). However, the model underestimates the streamflow in all seasons in all the simulations. It was found that the model is able to simulate the extreme streamflow cases in S atluj with reasonable skill.