Modelling Runoff on a Small Lowland Catchment, Hungarian Great Plains

Abstract

The lowland region of the South-Eastern Carpathian Basin faces extreme hydrological conditions, therefore the more detailed understanding, monitoring and predicting of the hydrological regime on catchments have high importance. However, in the region only few measured data are available in terms of evaporation, runoff, infiltration and water retention, and this is especially true concerning small catchments. In the meantime these areas support extensive agriculture, therefore more information is needed to manage future drying and irrigational demands. In the present research runoff and discharge were modelled for a ten year period and compared to at-a-station measurement data on the Fehértó-majsa Canal, a sub-catchment of the Tisza River, in order to test the predictability of hydrological changes related to future climate change. Modelling was made by applying a coupled MIKE SHE/MIKE 11 model and integrating all available topographic, pedologic, climatic, hydrologic and vegetation data. Consequently, another motivation of the research was to assess the suitability, data demand and limitations of the MIKE modelling environment on lowland catchments. As from all available data sources soil data seemed to be the least accurate, sensitivity tests were made by changing different soil parameter. Based on the results, the developed model is highly suitable for the estimation of annual and monthly runoff. Nevertheless, concerning daily data a general overestimation of discharge was experienced during low flow periods, and a time lag appeared between measured and modelled discharge peaks during high flow periods. In all, the results of the study can greatly support the realization of water management and planning projects in the drought prone sand land catchments where only a few directly measured data are available

Assessment of Runoff and Drainage Conditions in a North Banat Sub-Catchment, North-Eastern Serbia

“…During the calculation, contemporary databases on pedological soil characteristics (Benka and Salvai, 2006) and type of soil cover (CORINE Land Cover, 2012) were used. Different types of land cover are an important factor in modeling surface runoff (Právetz et al, 2015). The subject of this paper is the functional check of this drainage system in current conditions, taking into account that it was built more than half a century ago.…”

“…The lowland area of the southeastern part of the Carpathian Basin is exposed to extreme hydrological conditions, therefore the monitoring of the water regime is of great importance on the catchments of this region (Právetz et al, 2015). When it comes to excess water, the two most common forms of occurrence are the vertical type, which occurs as a result of the increase in the groundwater level and horizontal type, which is created by the accumulation of water in the lowest areas.…”

Water balance calculation capability of hydrological models

“…Some studies use integrated modelling of surface water and groundwater (Hughes and Liu, 2008). Other studies apply MIKE SHE and GIS to simulate hydrological processes for several basins (Paparrizos and Maris, 2015;Právetz et al, 2015) and assess the effects of land change and climate change on groundwater and the ecosystem by Keilholz et al (2015). The process of modelling inland excess water with MIKE SHE and using satellite imagery for validation by Van Leeuwen et al (2016).…”

Adaptive Water Management-land Use Practice for Improving Ecosystem Services – a Hungarian Modelling Case Study

“…To put these hampering factors into context, it's worth to note that most excess water modelling attempts focus only on one of the hydrological variables. [40] used the coupled MIKE SHE-MIKE 11 models to simulate runoff from a 290 km 2 drained Hungarian lowland catchment. Over a 10 years period they achieved R 2 = 0.63 on a monthly basis, while R 2 = 0.94 for yearly summation as best results.…”