| Title: | Implications of water management representations for watershed hydrologic modeling in the Yakima River Basin |
| Authors: | Qiu, J., Q. Yang, X. Zhang, M. Huang, J.C. Adam and K. Malek |
| Year: | 2019 |
| Journal: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
| Volume (Issue): | 23 |
| Pages: | 35-49 |
| Article ID: | |
| DOI: | 10.5194/hess-23-35-2019 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | calibration, sensitivity, and/or uncertainty analysis |
| Secondary Application Category: | irrigation impacts or irrigation BMP scenarios |
| Watershed Description: | Yakima River, located in the central part of Washington, U.S. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Water management substantially alters natural
regimes of streamflow through modifying retention time and
water exchanges among different components of the terrestrial
water cycle. Accurate simulation of water cycling in
intensively managed watersheds, such as the Yakima River
basin (YRB) in the Pacific Northwest of the US, faces challenges
in reliably characterizing influences of management
practices (e.g., reservoir operation and cropland irrigation)
on the watershed hydrology. Using the Soil and Water Assessment
Tool (SWAT) model, we evaluated streamflow simulations
in the YRB based on different reservoir operation
and irrigation schemes. Simulated streamflow with the reservoir
operation scheme optimized by the RiverWare model
better reproduced measured streamflow than the simulation
using the default SWAT reservoir operation scheme. Scenarios
with irrigation practices demonstrated higher water
losses through evapotranspiration (ET) and matched benchmark
data better than the scenario that only considered reservoir
operations. Results of this study highlight the importance
of reliably representing reservoir operations and irrigation
management for credible modeling of watershed hydrology.
The methods and findings presented here hold promise
to enhance water resources assessment that can be applied to
other intensively managed watersheds. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | |