Simulation of the hydrological regime of a small semi-arid mountainous watershed in Morocco
Abstract
The « SudMed project » aims at characterising the surface fluxes (evaporation, percolation, drainage, ..) on the Tensift watershed, situated in Morocco. In this project our work deals with the following underlying question : which complexity is needed in our modelling to reach the required level of precision in the outputs (which depends on the available inputs)? The goal of the presented study is to estimate the different reservoirs contribution (snow, surface runoff, subsurface flow, groundwater flow) to the runoff in a small semi-arid mountainous sub-watershed : the Rehraya watershed. The Rehraya watershed, 225km2, is situated in the Atlas range. Its altitudes range from 1068 to 4084m.. Its hydrological regime is characterised by an important snow contribution. The watershed is instrumented with two precipitation/runoff stations and one complete meteorological station. The spatial variability of snow heights and precipitation have been ground-characterised during one season (winter 2003). We used satellite data to monitor the evolution of snow areal extend in the watershed. All these informations have been implemented in the “Soil and Water Assessment Tool” (Arnold et al., 1994) and resulted in a realist reproduction of the watershed’s hydrological regime. These encouraging results allow for further investigation of the combined effect of landuse and climate changes on hydrological cycle and thus water resources in semi-arid zones.
- Publication:
-
EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly
- Pub Date:
- April 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003EAEJA.....9261C