Assessing the importance of incorporating existing flow regulation in hydrological modeling : a case study of the Mahaweli River Basin, Sri Lanka using SWAT | |
| Author | Fernando, Weerawarnakurukulasooriya B.D.T. |
| Call Number | AIT Caps. Proj. no.CIE-17-34 |
| Subject(s) | Hydrologic models--Mathematics Watershed hydrology--Sri Lanka |
| Note | A capstone project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Caps. Proj. ; no. CIE-17-34 |
| Abstract | The availability of the fresh water is limited throughout the world. Effective, efficient and timely management strategies are of utmost importance for sustainable management of these limited fresh water resources. Surface water resources, originating from rains or ground water, are more vulnerable to anthropological activities, and are hence, easily polluted and contaminated. These could in turn result in adverse consequences upon hydrological variables, such as flow performance. In order to approach these issues in sustainable management of water resources, a basin wide approach, that takes into consideration interests of all stakeholders, is imperative. One major step taken to enhance the effective and efficient utilization of water and water resources is construction of reservoirs. Good quantity and quality of the water points out the healthiness of the model. In managing the watershed its important to measure hydrological variables to have an understanding about the behavior of the river basin. As a consequence this is a very time and costly consuming task. Therefore accurate reservoir modeling for many of the streams and rivers are not much available. In this study, the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and its watershed scale model were used for reservoir modeling in Mahaweli River Basin in Sri Lanka. It was input a range of climatic and meteorological data. The spatial data layers were prepared using GIS. The model was calibrated for the catchment with the help of rainfall and temperature data for the period of 1987-1991. The calibrated parameters were used to simulate the hydrology for the period of 1992-1995. Thereafter, the simulated data and the actual data for the same parameters, for the same period, were compared. There, it is observed that the simulated parameters to show acceptable relationships with the actual flow, with some localized deviations. The results show that the model simulated the flow at the basin with a R2 value of 0.51, NSE value of 0.49 and PBIAS value of 13.8 percentage. Sensitive parameter analysis for the model points out the respective variables in the SWAT model to have a higher impact on the stream flow in the Mahaweli Basin. Accordingly, SWAT model is found to be a promising tool to predict the hydrological flow for the Mahaweli River Basin. The model results can be used in future predictions of the hydrological flow as well as to find the impact of land use and climate change to the stream flow. |
| Year | 2017 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Caps. Proj. ; no. CIE-17-34 |
| Type | Capstone Project |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Civil and Infrastructure Engineering (CIE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shrestha, Sangam; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Pandey, Vishnu Prasad ;Duc, Hoang Nguyen; |
| Degree | Capstone Project (B.Sc.)-Asian Institute of Technology, 2017 |