Estimation of Water Balance Components of Watersheds in the Manjira River Basin using SWAT Model and GIS

Abstract

This study mainly focus on hydrological behavior of watersheds in The Manjira River basin using soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) and Geographical information system (GIS). The water balance components for watersheds in the Manjira River were determined by using SWAT model and GIS. Determination of these water balance components helps to study direct and indirect factors affecting characteristics of selected watersheds. Manjira River contains total 28 watersheds among them 2 were selected having watershed code as MNJR008 and MNJR011 specified by the Central Ground Water Board. The SWAT input data such as Digital elevation model (DEM), land use and land cover (LU/LC), Soil classification, slope and weather data was collected. Using these inputs in SWAT the different water balancing components such as rainfall, baseflow, surface runoff, evapotranspiration (ET), potential evapotranspiration (PET) and water yield for each watershed were determined. The evaluated data is then validated by Regression analysis, in which two datasets were compared. Simulated rain data from SWAT simulation and observed rain data from Global Weather Data for SWAT was selected for comparison for each watershed.