| Title: | A flexible framework HydroInformatic Modeling System—HIMS |
| Authors: | Wang, L., Z. Wang, C. Liu, P. Bai and X. Liu |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Journal: | Water |
| Volume (Issue): | 10(7) |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 962 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/w10070962 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | model and/or data comparison |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 31,109 km^2 Lhasa river, located in the southern part of Tibet in southeast China. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | The SWAT results reported in this study are actually based on a previous Masters Thesis study cited by the authors. |
| Abstract: | It is important to simulate streamflow with hydrological models suitable for the particular
study areas, as the hydrological characteristics of water cycling processes are distinctively different
due to spatial heterogeneity at the watershed scale. However, most existing hydrological models
cannot be customized to simulate water cycling processes of different areas due to their fixed
structures and modes. This study developed a HydroInformatic Modeling System (HIMS) model with
a flexible structure which had multiple equations available to describe each of the key hydrological
processes. The performance of the HIMS model was evaluated with the recommended structure
for semi-arid areas by comparisons with two datasets of observed streamflow: the first one of
53 Australian watersheds, the second one of the Lhasa River basin in China. Based on the first
dataset, the most appropriate watersheds were identified for the HIMS model utilization with areas
of 400–600 km2 and annual precipitation of 800–1200 mm. Based on the second dataset, the model
performance was statistically satisfied with Nash-Sutcliffe Efficient (NSE) greater than 0.87 and Water
Error (WE) within +-20% on the streamflow simulation at hourly, daily, and monthly time steps.
In addition, the water balance was mostly closed with respect to precipitation, streamflow, actual
evapotranspiration (ET), and soil moisture change at the annual time steps in both the periods of
calibration and validation. Therefore, the HIMS model was reliable in estimating streamflow and
simulating the water cycling processes for the structure of semi-arid areas. The simulated streamflow
of HIMS was compared with those of the Variable Infiltration Capacity model (VIC) and Soil and
Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models and we found that the HIMS model performed better than the
SWAT model, and had similar results to the VIC model with combined runoff generation mechanisms. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | HIMS model; runoff generation; channel routing; modular; customization |