Watershed modeling as a tool for sustainable water resources management: SWAT model application in the Awash River Basin, Ethiopia (original) (raw)

Sustainability of Integrated Water Resources Management, 2015

Abstract

Tessema, S.M., Setegn, S.G., Mörtberg, U., 2015. Watershed modeling as a tool for sustainable water resources management: SWAT model application in the Awash River Basin, Ethiopia. 30 in: Setegn, S.G., Donoso, M.C. (eds.), Sustainability of Integrated Water Resources Management. Springer International Publishing, pp. 579-606. Improving the reliability of streamflow prediction under limited data conditions is a vital step to achieve a sustainable water management system. In many areas, when planning for balancing water demands for hydropower, irrigation, and ecosystem services as well as preventing flood risk, major gaps exist on baseline information of water resources. The prediction of streamflow requires adequate understanding of the characteristics of the river basin. Awash River basin has been a subject of large-scale flooding for several years mainly due to heavy rains and inadequate water resource management. The lack of decision support tools and limitation of available data hinder research and development in the area. The main objective of this study was to characterize the hydrological components of the upper part of Awash River basin under limited data condition. The optimal approach for this purpose was considered to be statistical analysis of the time series hydrometeorological data and to adapt existing hydrological models. The physically based Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was successfully calibrated and validated in the watershed. The performance of the model was evaluated based on the streamflow prediction at four subbasin outlets and the main outlet of the river basin. Model validation indicated that daily streamflows were predicted reasonably which was verified by Nash-Sutcliffe values ranging from 0.55 to 0.71. The evaluations from tributary rivers indicate that the drainage area is one of the important factors that affect the direct transferring of parameter values from one watershed to another. The catchment characteristics and its different hydrological components of the water balance are discussed.

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