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Calibrating the Rainfall-Runoff Model GR4J and GR2M on the Koulountou River Basin, a Tributary of the Gambia River

Received: 13 January 2014    Accepted:     Published: 20 February 2014
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Abstract

Rainfall runoff modelling is the first step in water resources management. It is the only way to simulate the hydrological behavior of the basin for a good evaluation of the potentiality of this in term of water production. Many approaches are actually in use. In physically distributed models, deterministic relations issued from conservation laws of physics (mass conservation, moment momentum conservation) are solved to describe the hydrological processes generating flow and their interaction. A DEM that should be as complete as possible is associed. Complexity of the equations to be solved and the huge amount of required data, uncertainty in these data make these models of limited use. Conceptual rainfall-runoff models are often preferred by hydrologists. These models are based on equations relating in a realistic manner the different terms of the hydrological cycle. They are simpler than determistic models and more flexible, Conceptual models are generally global. According to the way hydrological cycle terms are taken into account, conceptual model can be classified as empirical or not. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the availability of water in the Koulountou river basin, a tributary of Gambia River. This river basin should reinforce the water resource in a neighboring Kayanga river basin. Two empirical models at daily and monthly scale, the GR4J and GR2M have been used to describe the hydrological behavior of this basin. These models have been realized by the CEMAGREF, a French research Office. They use as inputs daily or monthly rainfall and potential evapotranspiration and river basin area, and give as output daily or monthly runoff. The first step before applying a hydrological model is to calibrate it that is to estimate the best parameters that fit the outputs in a given period. The Nash criterion has been used as goodness-of-fit criterion. Model performs satisfactory when this criterion is greater than 0.70 according to available data. A period from 1971 to 1994 has been selected. This period have been divided into three parts: one for calibration (1971-1978), one for validation (1978-1986), and the last for application (1987-1994). The results we obtain shows that GR4J and GR2M performs well in the Koulountou river basin since the Nash criterion is greater than 0.8.

Published in American Journal of Environmental Protection (Volume 3, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15
Page(s) 36-44
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Rainfall-Runoff Models, GR4J, GR2M, Validation, Calibration, Nash criterion, Koulountou River Subbasin, Gambia River basin

References
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  • APA Style

    Vieux Boukhaly TRAORE, Soussou SAMBOU, Séni TAMBA, Sidy FALL, Amadou Tahirou DIAW, et al. (2014). Calibrating the Rainfall-Runoff Model GR4J and GR2M on the Koulountou River Basin, a Tributary of the Gambia River. American Journal of Environmental Protection, 3(1), 36-44. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15

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    Vieux Boukhaly TRAORE; Soussou SAMBOU; Séni TAMBA; Sidy FALL; Amadou Tahirou DIAW, et al. Calibrating the Rainfall-Runoff Model GR4J and GR2M on the Koulountou River Basin, a Tributary of the Gambia River. Am. J. Environ. Prot. 2014, 3(1), 36-44. doi: 10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15

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    Vieux Boukhaly TRAORE, Soussou SAMBOU, Séni TAMBA, Sidy FALL, Amadou Tahirou DIAW, et al. Calibrating the Rainfall-Runoff Model GR4J and GR2M on the Koulountou River Basin, a Tributary of the Gambia River. Am J Environ Prot. 2014;3(1):36-44. doi: 10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15,
      author = {Vieux Boukhaly TRAORE and Soussou SAMBOU and Séni TAMBA and Sidy FALL and Amadou Tahirou DIAW and Mohamed Talla CISSE},
      title = {Calibrating the Rainfall-Runoff Model GR4J and GR2M on the Koulountou River Basin, a Tributary of the Gambia River},
      journal = {American Journal of Environmental Protection},
      volume = {3},
      number = {1},
      pages = {36-44},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajep.20140301.15},
      abstract = {Rainfall runoff modelling is the first step in water resources management. It is the only way to simulate the hydrological behavior of the basin for a good evaluation of the potentiality of this in term of water production. Many approaches are actually in use. In physically distributed models, deterministic relations issued from conservation laws of physics (mass conservation, moment momentum conservation) are solved to describe the hydrological processes generating flow and their interaction. A DEM that should be as complete as possible is associed. Complexity of the equations to be solved and the huge amount of required data, uncertainty in these data make these models of limited use. Conceptual rainfall-runoff models are often preferred by hydrologists. These models are based on equations relating in a realistic manner the different terms of the hydrological cycle. They are simpler than determistic models and more flexible, Conceptual models are generally global. According to the way hydrological cycle terms are taken into account, conceptual model can be classified as empirical or not. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the availability of water in the Koulountou river basin, a tributary of Gambia River. This river basin should reinforce the water resource in a neighboring Kayanga river basin. Two empirical models at daily and monthly scale, the GR4J and GR2M have been used to describe the hydrological behavior of this basin. These models have been realized by the CEMAGREF, a French research Office. They use as inputs daily or monthly rainfall and potential evapotranspiration and river basin area, and give as output daily or monthly runoff. The first step before applying a hydrological model is to calibrate it that is to estimate the best parameters that fit the outputs in a given period. The Nash criterion has been used as goodness-of-fit criterion. Model performs satisfactory when this criterion is greater than 0.70 according to available data. A period from 1971 to 1994 has been selected. This period have been divided into three parts: one for calibration (1971-1978), one for validation (1978-1986), and the last for application (1987-1994). The results we obtain shows that GR4J and GR2M performs well in the Koulountou river basin since the Nash criterion is greater than 0.8.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Calibrating the Rainfall-Runoff Model GR4J and GR2M on the Koulountou River Basin, a Tributary of the Gambia River
    AU  - Vieux Boukhaly TRAORE
    AU  - Soussou SAMBOU
    AU  - Séni TAMBA
    AU  - Sidy FALL
    AU  - Amadou Tahirou DIAW
    AU  - Mohamed Talla CISSE
    Y1  - 2014/02/20
    PY  - 2014
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15
    T2  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    JF  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    JO  - American Journal of Environmental Protection
    SP  - 36
    EP  - 44
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5699
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajep.20140301.15
    AB  - Rainfall runoff modelling is the first step in water resources management. It is the only way to simulate the hydrological behavior of the basin for a good evaluation of the potentiality of this in term of water production. Many approaches are actually in use. In physically distributed models, deterministic relations issued from conservation laws of physics (mass conservation, moment momentum conservation) are solved to describe the hydrological processes generating flow and their interaction. A DEM that should be as complete as possible is associed. Complexity of the equations to be solved and the huge amount of required data, uncertainty in these data make these models of limited use. Conceptual rainfall-runoff models are often preferred by hydrologists. These models are based on equations relating in a realistic manner the different terms of the hydrological cycle. They are simpler than determistic models and more flexible, Conceptual models are generally global. According to the way hydrological cycle terms are taken into account, conceptual model can be classified as empirical or not. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the availability of water in the Koulountou river basin, a tributary of Gambia River. This river basin should reinforce the water resource in a neighboring Kayanga river basin. Two empirical models at daily and monthly scale, the GR4J and GR2M have been used to describe the hydrological behavior of this basin. These models have been realized by the CEMAGREF, a French research Office. They use as inputs daily or monthly rainfall and potential evapotranspiration and river basin area, and give as output daily or monthly runoff. The first step before applying a hydrological model is to calibrate it that is to estimate the best parameters that fit the outputs in a given period. The Nash criterion has been used as goodness-of-fit criterion. Model performs satisfactory when this criterion is greater than 0.70 according to available data. A period from 1971 to 1994 has been selected. This period have been divided into three parts: one for calibration (1971-1978), one for validation (1978-1986), and the last for application (1987-1994). The results we obtain shows that GR4J and GR2M performs well in the Koulountou river basin since the Nash criterion is greater than 0.8.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Laboratoire d’Hydraulique et de Mécanique des Fluides (LHMF), Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), Sénégal. BP 5005 Dakar-Fann

  • Laboratoire d’Hydraulique et de Mécanique des Fluides (LHMF), Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), Sénégal. BP 5005 Dakar-Fann

  • Ecole Polytechnique de Thiès (EPT), BP 10 Thiès, Sénégal

  • Office du Lac de Guiers, Société d’Aménagement et d’Exploitation des Terres du Delta du fleuve Sénégal et des Vallées du fleuve Sénégal et de la Falémé (SAED)

  • Laboratoire d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Géomatique (LERG); Campus Universitaire de l’Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique-Dakar , Sénégal. BP 5005 Dakar-Fann

  • Université de Thiès. Thiès SENEGAL

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