TITLE:
Comparison and Assessment of Success of Models in Watershed Simulation and Management
AUTHORS:
Maisa’a W. Shammout
KEYWORDS:
Water Scarcity, Watershed Management, Watershed Modeling System, Water Resources Model, Watershed Simulation
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.6 No.6,
April
29,
2014
ABSTRACT: In
Jordan, Zarqa River Basin (ZRB) has been taken as a case study for applying
water management models because of its limited water resources and due to the
fact that the basin is dwelling with about 52% of Jordan’s population. The
surface water resources are mainly used for agriculture because they are mixed
with treated water and cannot be used for domestic purposes. This paper aims to
demonstrate the contributions of Models in watershed management that provide
indirect ways of assessing and confirming the success of models in water flow
simulation. The method includes transferring the computed hydrologic parameters
for Zarqa basin’s sub-catchments within Watershed Modeling System (WMS) into
Water Resources Model (WRM) and HEC-1 models. Then the results of the HEC-1 and
WRM models are compared according to their basin’s simulation with the real
basin. The study includes description of the HEC-1, WRM models philosophy, the
models representation, and simulation results and analysis of the Zarqa River
Basin. Comparing the results of WRM and HEC-1 models proved their simulation
efficiency in predicting the flow of Zarqa River Basin. Nevertheless, the
philosophy of HEC-1 is a single storm event and is based on values of curve
number, while WRM philosophy describes the water flow and availability, and
demand and supply balance on a daily basis across the basin. The models’
predictions for the real flow definitely establish the modeling certainty and
help the water resources’ developers to incorporate different basin features
for watershed representation, simulation, and management. Hence, the certainty
of the results in modeling provides indirect ways of assessing the success of
models’ simulations.