Rainfall-runoff simulation using satellite rainfall in a scarce data catchment

Abstract

This study investigates the performance of TRMM and PERSIANN satellite rainfall data as input in a reliable rainfall-runoff model in order to provide information to the flood early warning for the Voshmgir Dam, Iran. Calibration of both continuous daily rainfall-runoff and an event-based flood was done using HEC-HMS Nelder-Mead (NM) method. Furthermore, simulations based on daily versus 3-hourly TRMM were compared to evaluate the effect of input time-step of rainfall-runoff model. Results show that the deficit and constant loss method is able to successfully predict the observed runoff. In addition, the Green-Ampt method using 3-hourly TRMM data showed a good capability to simulate daily peak discharges. The current study demonstrates the suitability of HEC-HMS for continuous and event-based runoff simulation in a complex watershed. Therefore, this research will have a significant contribution to the future development of water resources planning in this catchment in particular and in other data-scarce catchments.