Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Extending a Large-scale Model to Better Represent Water Resources without Increasing the Model Complexity

Robyn Horan
* ,
Nathan J. Rickards
* ORCID logo ,
Alexandra Kaelin
,
Helen E. Baron
ORCID logo ,
Thomas Thomas
,
Virginie D.J. Keller
ORCID logo ,
Prabhas K. Mishra
,
Manish K. Nema
ORCID logo ,
Sekhar Muddu‬
,
Kaushal K. Garg
ORCID logo ,
Rishi Pathak
ORCID logo ,
Helen A. Houghton-Carr
,
Harry Dixon
,
Sharad K. Jain
ORCID logo ,
Gwyn Rees
Version 1 : Received: 10 September 2021 / Approved: 13 September 2021 / Online: 13 September 2021 (09:17:28 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Horan, R.; Rickards, N.J.; Kaelin, A.; Baron, H.E.; Thomas, T.; Keller, V.D.J.; Mishra, P.K.; Nema, M.K.; Muddu, S.; Garg, K.K.; Pathak, R.; Houghton-Carr, H.A.; Dixon, H.; Jain, S.K.; Rees, G. Extending a Large-Scale Model to Better Represent Water Resources without Increasing the Model’s Complexity. Water 2021, 13, 3067. Horan, R.; Rickards, N.J.; Kaelin, A.; Baron, H.E.; Thomas, T.; Keller, V.D.J.; Mishra, P.K.; Nema, M.K.; Muddu, S.; Garg, K.K.; Pathak, R.; Houghton-Carr, H.A.; Dixon, H.; Jain, S.K.; Rees, G. Extending a Large-Scale Model to Better Represent Water Resources without Increasing the Model’s Complexity. Water 2021, 13, 3067.

Abstract

A robust hydrological assessment is challenging in regions where human interference, within all aspects of the hydrological system, significantly alters the flow regime of rivers. The challenge was to extend a large-scale water resources model, GWAVA, to better represent water resources without increasing the model complexity. A groundwater and a regulated reservoir routine were incorporated into GWAVA using modifications of the existing AMBHAS-1D and Hanasaki methodologies, respectively. The groundwater routine can be varied in complexity when sufficient input data is available but fundamentally is driven by three input parameters. The reservoir routine was extended to account for the presence of large, regulated reservoirs using two calibratable parameters. The additional groundwater processes and reservoir regulation was tested in two highly anthropogenically influenced basins in India: the Cauvery and Narmada. The inclusion of the revised groundwater routine improved the simulation of streamflow in the headwater catchments and was successful in improving the representation of the baseflow component. In addition, the model was able to produce a time series of daily groundwater levels, recharge to groundwater and groundwater abstraction. The regulated reservoir routine improved the simulation of streamflow in catchments downstream of major reservoirs, where the streamflow was largely reflective of reservoir releases, when calibrated using downstream observed streamflow records. The model was able to provide a more robust representation of the annual volume and daily outflow released from the major reservoirs and simulate the major reservoir storages adequately. The addition of one-dimensional groundwater processes and a regulated reservoir routine proved successful in improving the model performance and traceability of water balance components, without excessively increasing the model complexity and input data requirements.

Keywords

large-scale model; hydrology; groundwater; reservoirs; Cauvery; Narmada.

Subject

Environmental and Earth Sciences, Environmental Science

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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