Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Effects of surface runoff and infiltration partition methods on hydrological modeling: A comparison of four schemes in two watersheds in the Northeastern US

Journal Article · · Journal of Hydrology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. University of Maryland at College Park
  2. University of Maryland
  3. BATTELLE (PACIFIC NW LAB)
  4. USDA
  5. USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing laboratory
+ Show Author Affiliations
The ratio according to which the precipitation/snowmelt is divided into surface and subsurface water is of primary importance to watershed scale hydrological modeling. The present study compared four different surface runoff and infiltration partition methods in the Richards-equation-based SWAT model (RSWAT), i.e., daily curve number method (DC-RSWAT), hourly curve number method (HC-RSWAT), Green-Ampt method (GA-RSWAT), and effective infiltration capacity method (EIC-RSWAT). These four versions of RSWAT and a daily-curve-number-based SWAT (DC-SWAT) were used to simulate daily flow rate (from 2001 to 2015) at the outlets of the Tuckahoe Creek Watershed (TCW) and Greensboro Watershed (GW) of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Parameter sensitivity analysis, calibration, and prediction uncertainty analysis were conducted. The results indicate that surface runoff and infiltration partition methods have pronounced impacts on model performance. Comparative analysis showed that DC-RSWAT outperformed other versions of RSWAT for both calibration (from 2001 to2007) and validation (from 2008 to 2015) periods in the two test watersheds. In general, DC-RSWAT achieved more accurate deterministic flow simulation and reliable uncertainty estimation than other versions. As such, daily-curve-number method is recommended for surface runoff and infiltration partition in RSWAT for simulating stream flow.
Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1728587
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-137303
Journal Information:
Journal of Hydrology, Journal Name: Journal of Hydrology Vol. 581
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

An AGNPS-based runoff and sediment yield model for two small watersheds in Germany
Journal Article · Tue Nov 30 23:00:00 EST 1999 · Transactions of the ASAE · OSTI ID:20080239
Knowledge techniques for the analysis of urban runoff using SWMM
Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1987 · OSTI ID:6969363
Surface hydrology of drainage basins disturbed by surface mining and reclamation, central Pennsylvania
Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1989 · OSTI ID:6251809

Related Subjects

hydrology
modeling
streamflow