A practicable approach for evaluating runoff changes in ungauged basins.

Wien

2010

Artikel aus einer Zeitschrift

10731S

200169594

In hydrology a basic task is the estimation of design discharges and runoff changes in ungauged catchments. However, traditional empirical rules of thumb as well as regionalization of measured discharges are subject to uncertainty. It seems that precipitation-runoff modelling is the only comprehensible way to predict discharge alterations due to changes in ungauged basins, even though the results are perhaps not less uncertain. In order to minimize this uncertainty we supplemented a methodology for discharge estimation in ungauged basins by introducing runoff coefficients derived from field assessment, an adapted precipitation-runoff model (ZEMOKOST) and routines for a plausibility check. Subsequently ten gauged Austrian catchments were used as hypothetical ungauged catchments for application and verification of this method. Except for special questions in karst- and glacier-hydrology the procedure showed satisfying results. In addition, the approach has been tested in catchments that have been intensively impacted by human use in the last decades; in this regard variations in discharge and future runoff characteristics have been analyzed.