Prediction of rainfall and snowmelt-produced runoff: Linking a hydrologic model with remote sensing and GIS

A procedure is developed that links geographic information systems (GIS) and remotely sensed data with a hydrologic model to predict snowmelt and rainfall produced runoff in a complex mountainous watershed for parameterization of an erosion model. The GIS is used to reclassify the remotely sensed data for the snow cover input to the model, and to delineate the watershed boundary and elevation zones.; The model is calibrated on five years of data by adjusting the runoff and recession coefficients until the simulated monthly peak discharge and annual streamflow volumes match the measured values. The calibrated coefficients are averaged and then tested on each of the five years. Regression analysis is utilized to evaluate model performance using both the calibrated and averaged coefficients. The model is most effective in streamflow volume prediction and less effective in peak discharge simulation, limiting its use for parameterization of erosion models.