An Open-Source Approach to Multi-Basin Hydrologic Modeling in Tanzania using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model
Abstract
SERVIR-Eastern & Southern Africa, a joint initiative of NASA and USAID partnering with the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), builds services, products, and tools that promote informed and sustainable decision-making for critical environmental issues— related to or in focus areas of (?) climate resilience, food security, water resources, land use change, and natural disasters. The focus countries of SERVIR Eastern & Southern Africa include Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Tanzania depends on water for agriculture, human health and sanitation. Hydrologic modeling can improve water resource management by using historical observations for current and future projections. This study uses the open-source Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model and freely-available geospatial data to develop a clearly-defined and repeatable process to model, calibrate, and route streamflow in three Tanzania basins: Little Ruaha River (station 1KA31), Kisigo River (station 1KA42), and the Great Ruaha River (station 1KA59). Supporting freely-available data sourced from NASA Earthdata (MODIS Land Cover Type product), Climate Data Store (ERA5 climate variables), HydroSHEDS (for basin delineation), GIOVANNI (for precipitation data), and FAO Soils (for soils information). Open-source tools used include QGIS, Python, VIC, GDAL, and Panoply. A self-guided, modular training is provided to create and replicate a hydrologic modeling framework using free and open-source data over traditionally data-sparse regions.- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.H53A..03T
- Keywords:
-
- 1804 Catchment;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1805 Computational hydrology;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1807 Climate impacts;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring;
- HYDROLOGY