The Influence of Dam Construction on the Catchment Hydrologic Behavior and its Effects on a Discharge Forecast in Hydrological Models

Abebe Tadesse Bulti ()
Additional contact information
Abebe Tadesse Bulti: Hawassa University

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2021, vol. 35, issue 6, No 19, 2023-2037

Abstract: Abstract The hydrological properties of a river basin are extremely affected by the construction of a dam. The discharges and sediment flow distribution, in a modified river basin will not be the same as to a natural catchment. Hydrological models contextually focus on a natural river basin without any modification. Unfortunately, most of the river basins have been under such modification, which is not favorable for a model simulation at a normal condition. This research was done at the Awash River Basin, already modified because of dam construction. A systematic approach was applied to handle the modification in the basin, through an application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Hydrologic Engineering center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) consecutively. SWAT model was implemented to simulate the upstream part of the basin. At the downstream parts of the basin, a simulation process was difficult on a SWAT model, due to the modified hydrologic parameters. Hence, the HEC-RAS model was applied because of its applicability under such circumstances. The model outputs indicate that the SWAT model can simulate the upstream part of the basin, in a good performance range that can be used for practical implementation. The downstream i.e., the modified catchment was simulated relatively better in the HEC-RAS model with good accuracy. Also, this research pointed out that a combined hydrologic and hydraulic model system development can be the best solution for modified catchments.

Keywords: Hydrologic behavior; Modified basins; Flow discharge; Awash River; SWAT; HEC-RAS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-021-02829-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:waterr:v:35:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s11269-021-02829-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11269

DOI: 10.1007/s11269-021-02829-z

Access Statistics for this article

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) is currently edited by G. Tsakiris

More articles in Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA) from Springer, European Water Resources Association (EWRA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().