1st International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software - Lugano, Switzerland - June 2002
Keywords
regionalisation, surface-water hydrology, dry tropics, rainfall-runoff models
Start Date
1-7-2002 12:00 AM
Abstract
The Burdekin is a large (140,000 km2) catchment located in the dry tropics of North Queensland, Australia. To assess the water resources of this catchment, we require a methodology which will allow us to determine the daily streamflow at any point within the catchment. To this end, we have utilised a simple, lumped parameter model, IHACRES. Of the five parameters in the model, three have been set to default values, while the other two have been related to the physio-climatic attributes of the sub-catchment under consideration. The parameter defining total catchment water yield (c) was constrained using %yield, which is related to summer precipitation, while the streamflow recession time constant (τ) was related to the total length of stream reaches in the catchment. These relationships were applicable over a range of scales from 68 km2 to 130,000 km2, however three separate relationships were required to define c in the three major regions of the Burdekin – the upper Burdekin, Bowen, and Belyando Suttor. This research has provided a valuable insight into the hydrologic behaviour of the Burdekin catchment, while also providing a useful methodology for water resources assessment. The invariance of the relationships with scale indicates that the dominant processes may be similar for a range of scales, while the fact that different relationships were required for each of the three major regions indicates the geographic limitations of this regionalisation approach.
Predicting hydrologic response from physio-climatic attributes : an application to ungauged sub-catchments of the Burdekin River, North Queensland
The Burdekin is a large (140,000 km2) catchment located in the dry tropics of North Queensland, Australia. To assess the water resources of this catchment, we require a methodology which will allow us to determine the daily streamflow at any point within the catchment. To this end, we have utilised a simple, lumped parameter model, IHACRES. Of the five parameters in the model, three have been set to default values, while the other two have been related to the physio-climatic attributes of the sub-catchment under consideration. The parameter defining total catchment water yield (c) was constrained using %yield, which is related to summer precipitation, while the streamflow recession time constant (τ) was related to the total length of stream reaches in the catchment. These relationships were applicable over a range of scales from 68 km2 to 130,000 km2, however three separate relationships were required to define c in the three major regions of the Burdekin – the upper Burdekin, Bowen, and Belyando Suttor. This research has provided a valuable insight into the hydrologic behaviour of the Burdekin catchment, while also providing a useful methodology for water resources assessment. The invariance of the relationships with scale indicates that the dominant processes may be similar for a range of scales, while the fact that different relationships were required for each of the three major regions indicates the geographic limitations of this regionalisation approach.
