Calibration of the hydrological model GR4J from potential evapotranspiration estimates by the Penman-Monteith and Oudin methods in the Ouémé watershed (West Africa)

Abstract

The Ouémé watersheds at Bétérou and Bonou has been recently facing increased sensitivity to extreme hydroclimatic phenomena that occurred by flooding or drought events. In the same time, the population growth and the related socio-economic activities increased the pressure state on water resources. In this context, hydrological modeling is an important issue and this study aims at analyzing the calibration of the hydrological model GR4J based on PET Penman-Monteith and Oudin methods. Daily rainfall, Penman-Monteith and Oudin evapotranspiration and daily data flow from the Bétérou and Bonou hydrometric stations on the Ouémé Basin have been implemented in the GR4J model over the period 1971 to 2010. Oudin PET values are slightly higher than the Penman-Monteith PET ones. However, the difference between the two PET methods have only few impacts on the optimization and performance criteria of the GR4J model. The Nash values ranges from 0.83 to 0.91 in Bonou, and 0.52 to 0.70 in Bétérou for the calibration in dry period, while in validation, they are 0.59 to 0.78 in Bétérou, and 0.56 to 0.88 in Bonou in wet season. In view of these results, with the two PET methods used which do not result from the same climatic variables, it should be said that the formulation of PET has only few impacts on the results of GR4J for these tropical basins.