Evaluation of Runoff Components by SWAT Model in Taleghan Catchment

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Research scarcity and drought

2 Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute

3 University of Tabriz

Abstract

One of the main concerns in recent years with regard to climate change and global warming is how to efficiently manage the water resources of the world. Insufficient or unavailable hydroclimatological data further aggravate the difficulty of good water management. Hence the use of hydrologic and hydraulic models is a possible solution to ease the job of the water managers. In this research, Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT) are used to predict and validate the discharge in Taleghan Watershed of Iran. The inputs required include soil, land use and DEM layers with hydroclimatological data. Statistical methods were used for calibration and validation of the SWAT model. The results indicate that the observed and predicted discharge have the least mean absolute relative error both in the annual and monthly periods. From the SPSS analysis, these values were found to be not significant at 95% probability for the annual and monthly discharges for the calibration and validation periods. The study illustrates the usefulness of the SWAT Model in predicting runoff components in a watershed. The annual results in Taleghan catchments during 1987 and 2007 indicate an increasing 7.3% surface runoff and decreasing 11.3% and 11% interflow and groundwater flow respectively.

Keywords

References

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