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Hydrological modeling of Upper Ribb watershed, Abbay Basin, Ethiopia.

  • Authors (legacy)
    Corresponding: Mithas Ahmad Dar
    Co-authors: Tesfa Gebrie Andualem, Adebabay Guadie, Gizew Belay, Imran Ahmad, Mithas Ahmad Dar
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  • gnest_03152_published.pdf
  • Paper ID
    gnest_03152
  • Paper status
    Published
  • Date paper accepted
  • Date paper online
Graphical abstract
Abstract

Hydrological modeling of a watershed is necessary for water resources planning and management. The hydrology of upper Ribb watershed has been analyzed using spatially semi-distributed Soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model. This study aimed to determine the water balance components and its relation with the rainfall which reaches to the surface of the earth. Different spatio-temporal (land use, soil, digital elevation model, climate data, river discharge) data were used for hydrological modelling of Upper Ribb watershed. The applicability of SWAT model in Upper Ribb watershed has been evaluated using coefficient of determination (R2) and Nash Sutcliff efficiency (NSE) parameters. The calibration results revealed the observed data showed a very good agreement with the simulated data with the R2 and NSE values of 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Similarly, the validation results of streamflow were acceptable with the R2 and NSE values of 0.80 and 0.82 respectively. The monthly average streamflow from Upper Ribb watershed were found 13.39 m3/s. The major portion of the rainfall contributes to the surface runoff due to the major percentage of the watershed is covered with agricultural lands. The groundwater flow was high in forested areas, while evapotranspiration was found very high in water bodies (Ribb reservoir). In this study area the rainfall showed a direct relationship with the streamflow. The ratio of streamflow and evapotranspiration with rainfall was 0.61 and 0.36 respectively. Due to the presence of high amount of surface runoff and evapotranspiration the deep recharge which contributes to the ground water is not that much significant.

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Tesfa, G. et al. (2020) “Hydrological modeling of Upper Ribb watershed, Abbay Basin, Ethiopia”., Global NEST Journal, 22(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.30955/gnj.003152.