Combining the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and MODIS imagery to estimate monthly flows in a data-scarce Chilean Andean basin

Stehr, Alejandra; Debels, P.; Arumí, José Luis; Romero, Francisco; Alcayaga, Hernán

doi:10.1623/hysj.54.6.1053

Cited by 42 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The model requires information on soils, land use, land management, topography, and climate (Arnold et al 2012). It is designed to calculate the route runoff, sediments, and contaminants from individual drainage units called Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs), throughout a river basin towards its outlet (Stehr et al 2009). …”

Section: The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (Swat)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of precipitation and temperature changes on hydrological responses of small-scale catchments in the Ethiopian Highlands

Lemann

Roth

Zeleke

2016

Hydrological Sciences Journal

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Hydrological response of catchments with different rainfall patterns was assessed to understand the availability of blue and green water and the impacts of changing precipitation and temperature in the Ethiopian Highlands. Monthly discharge of three small-scale catchments was simulated, calibrated, and validated with a dataset of more than 30 years. Different temperature and precipitation scenarios were used to compare the hydrological responses in all three catchments. Results indicate that runoff reacts disproportionately strongly to precipitation and temperature changes: a 24% increase in precipitation led to a 50% increase in average annual runoff, and an average annual rainfall-runoff ratio that was 20% higher. An increase in temperature led to an increase of evapotranspiration and resulted in a decrease in the rainfall-runoff ratio. But a comparison of combined results with different climate change scenarios shows that downstream stakeholders can expect a higher share of available blue water in the future.

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Section: The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (Swat)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of precipitation and temperature changes on hydrological responses of small-scale catchments in the Ethiopian Highlands

Lemann

Roth

Zeleke

2016

Hydrological Sciences Journal

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“…In this regard, remote sensing provides a promising opportunity to enhance the assessment and monitoring of the spatial and temporal variability of different variables involved in the precipitation-runoff processes in areas where data availability for hydrological modelling is scarce (Simic et al, 2004;Boegh et al, 2004;Melesse et al, 2007;Montzka et al, 2008;Milzowa et al, 2009, Er-Raki et al, 2010Stehr et al, 2009Stehr et al, , 2010.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Snow cover dynamics in Andean watersheds of Chile (32.0–39.5° S) during the years 2000–2016

Stehr¹,

Aguayo²

2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Andean watersheds present important snowfall accumulation mainly during the winter, which melts during the spring and part of the summer. The effect of snowmelt on the water balance can be critical to sustain agriculture activities, hydropower generation, urban water supplies and wildlife. In Chile, 25 % of the territory between the region of Valparaiso and Araucanía comprises areas where snow precipitation occurs. As in many other difficult-to-access regions of the world, there is a lack of hydrological data of the Chilean Andes related to discharge, snow courses, and snow depths, which complicates the analysis of important hydrological processes (e.g. water availability). Remote sensing provides a promising opportunity to enhance the assessment and monitoring of the spatial and temporal variability of snow characteristics, such as the snow cover area (SCA) and snow cover dynamic (SCD). With regards to the foregoing questions, the objective of the study is to evaluate the spatiotemporal dynamics of the SCA at five watersheds (Aconcagua, Rapel, Maule, Biobío and Toltén) located in the Chilean Andes, between latitude 32.0 and 39.5 • S, and to analyse its relationship with the precipitation regime/pattern and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Those watersheds were chosen because of their importance in terms of their number of inhabitants, and economic activities depending on water resources. The SCA area was obtained from MOD10A2 for the period 2000-2016, and the SCD was analysed through a number of statistical tests to explore observed trends. In order to verify the SCA for trend analysis, a validation of the MOD10A2 product was done, consisting of the comparison of snow presence predicted by MODIS with ground observations. Results indicate that there is an overall agreement of 81 to 98 % between SCA determined from ground observations and MOD10A2, showing that the MODIS snow product can be taken as a feasible remote sensing tool for SCA estimation in southern-central Chile. Regarding SCD, no significant reduction in SCA for the period 2000-2016 was detected, with the exception of the Aconcagua and Rapel watersheds. In addition to that, an important decline in SCA in the five watersheds for the period of 2012 and 2016 was also evident, which is coincidental with the rainfall deficit for the same years. Findings were compared against ENSO episodes that occurred during 2010-2016, detecting that Niña years are coincident with maximum SCA during winter in all watersheds.

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“…This finding seems a contradiction of the idea that shallow snowpacks such as those observed in the region should have a low thermal inertia. By comparison, Stehr et al (2009) obtained a value of zero for θ S after calibrating the SWAT model in a snowmelt-fed catchment of the more humid central Chile (38 • S). One possible explanation for this apparent contradiction is that mean daily temperatures in northerncentral Chile are rarely negative at low and mid elevations (< 4000 m a.s.l.).…”

Section: Snow Accumulation and Ablationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability of lumped hydrological modeling in a semi-arid mountainous catchment facing water-use changes

Hublart

Ruelland

Cortázar-Atauri

et al. 2016

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. This paper explores the reliability of a hydrological modeling framework in a mesoscale (1515 km 2 ) catchment of the dry Andes (30 • S) where irrigation water use and snow sublimation represent a significant part of the annual water balance. To this end, a 20-year simulation period encompassing a wide range of climate and water-use conditions was selected to evaluate three types of integrated models referred to as A, B and C. These models share the same runoff generation and routing module but differ in their approach to snowmelt modeling and irrigation water use. Model A relies on a simple degree-day approach to estimate snowmelt rates and assumes that irrigation impacts can be neglected at the catchment scale. Model B ignores irrigation impacts just as Model A but uses an enhanced degree-day approach to account for the effects of net radiation and sublimation on melt rates. Model C relies on the same snowmelt routine as Model B but incorporates irrigation impacts on natural streamflow using a conceptual irrigation module. Overall, the reliability of probabilistic streamflow predictions was greatly improved with Model C, resulting in narrow uncertainty bands and reduced structural errors, notably during dry years. This model-based analysis also stressed the importance of considering sublimation in empirical snowmelt models used in the subtropics, and provided evidence that water abstractions from the unregulated river are impacting on the hydrological response of the system. This work also highlighted areas requiring additional research, including the need for a better conceptualization of runoff generation processes in the dry Andes.

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Combining the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and MODIS imagery to estimate monthly flows in a data-scarce Chilean Andean basin

Cited by 42 publications

References 33 publications

Impact of precipitation and temperature changes on hydrological responses of small-scale catchments in the Ethiopian Highlands

Impact of precipitation and temperature changes on hydrological responses of small-scale catchments in the Ethiopian Highlands

Snow cover dynamics in Andean watersheds of Chile (32.0–39.5° S) during the years 2000–2016

Reliability of lumped hydrological modeling in a semi-arid mountainous catchment facing water-use changes

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Combining the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and MODIS imagery to estimate monthly flows in a data-scarce Chilean Andean basin

Cited by 42 publications

References 33 publications

Impact of precipitation and temperature changes on hydrological responses of small-scale catchments in the Ethiopian Highlands

Impact of precipitation and temperature changes on hydrological responses of small-scale catchments in the Ethiopian Highlands

Snow cover dynamics in Andean watersheds of Chile (32.0–39.5° S) during the years 2000–2016

Reliability of lumped hydrological modeling in a semi-arid mountainous catchment facing water-use changes

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Snow cover dynamics in Andean watersheds of Chile (32.0–39.5° S) during the years 2000–2016