COMPARISON OF HYDROLOGIC RESPONSES

OF TWO HIMALAYAN CATCHMENTS AS

FUNCTION OF LAND USE AND CLIMATE
USING QSWAT

Danish Jeelani
WR/012
OVERVIEW

 Introduction
 Study area

 Significance and objectives of the study

 Literature review

 Data required

 Methodology to be adopted

 Data obtained
INTRODUCTION
 The physical characteristics of a watershed such
as morphology, soil and land use influence the
hydrologic response of a basin.

 Climate of a region also plays an important role

in determining the availability of water for
human and ecosystem use.

 A scientific understanding of streamflow

generation is important for effective
watermanagement
SURFACE RUNOFF
Surface runoff (also known as overland flow) is a
fraction of precipitation which occurs as excess
storm water, melt water, or other sources of flow
over the earth’s surface
EFFECT OF LULC ON THE HYDROLOGIC
RESPONSE OF A CATCHMENT
 Landuse types have significant impact on hydrological
processes,such as evapo-transpiration, surface runoff, and
consequently, streamflow generation.

 The degree and type of land cover influences the rate of

infiltration, runoff, and consequently the volumes of
surface runoff and total sediment loads transported from a
watershed.

 Land use change can result in change of flood frequency,

flood severity, fluctuation in base flow, and change in
annual mean discharge.

 Land use planning and management are closely related to

the sustainability of water resources as changes of land use
are explicitly linked with water quantity through relevant
hydrological processes.
EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE
HYDROLOGIC RESPONSE OF A
CATCHMENT

Climate variability is closely associated with

streamflow variability.Climate change alone can
lead to a shift in monthly, seasonal, and annual
streamflow.
HYDROLOGICAL MODELLING
 A hydrologic model is a simplification of a real
world system that aids in understanding,
predicting and managing water resources.

 Both the flow and quality of water are commonly

studied using hydrologic models.

 In case of non-availability of data, hydrological

models play an important role to create baseline
characteristics and deduce the long term effects
which are difficult to calculate
REMOTE SENSING AND GIS IN
HYDROLOGICAL MODELING
 Remote sensing serves as an essential tool to
gather data and information for hydrological
modeling.

 Remote sensing has the ability to predict or

determine precipitation, snow cover, soil
moisture, evapotranspiration and water quality
spatially.

 The geographical information system (GIS) is

combined with remote sensing in order to analyze
various forms of data
STUDY AREA
 The Pohru catchment lies in
the north west of the
Kashmir Valley between
34°15´ and 34 °42´ N
latitude and 73° 54´ and 74°
42´ E Longitude.
 The Pohru watershed can be
broadly divided into three
major landscapes namely
Mountains, Karewas and
Alluvial plains.
 The elevation in Pohru
ranges from 1576 to 1637 m
while in the mountainous
area it goes up to 4247 m
 The Lidder catchment occupies
the south eastern part of the
Kashmir valley and is situated
between 33º 45′ 01″ N - 34º 15′
35″ N and 75º 06′ 00″ E– 75º 32′
29″ E.
 The Lidder catchment begins
from the base of the two snow
fields, the Kolahoi and
sheshnag where from its two
main upper streams; the West
and the East Lidder originate
and join near the famous
tourist town of Pahalgam.
 The area gradually rises in
elevation from south (1600
meters) to north (5425 meters).
SIGNIFICANCE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE
STUDY

 The spatial variation in land use/land cover,

topography and climatic variables among different
watersheds has significant impact on hydrological
processes.
 Pohru basin is characterized by contrasting land use
and topography, e.g., agriculture is usually developed
in flat or moderately sloping regions, while forest
exists in steep regions.
 The Lidder catchment reveals a variegated
topography due to the combined action of glaciers and
rivers.
 The two catchments being geographically placed at
different altitudes and location render the climate to
vary not only spatially but temporally.
The objectives of the present study can be listed as:

 To assess the difference in the LULC and

topography of two catchments using GIS.

 To calibrate and validate the SWAT model for the

Pohru and Lidder catchment.

 Comparison of hydrological responses of two

catchments.
LITERATURE REVIEW

 Yusuf Mohamoud (2004) Compared the Hydrologic Responses at Different

Watershed Scales.
 The study compares the hydrologic responses of the Mid-Atlantic watersheds,
and identifies the landscape and climatic descriptors that control those
responses.

 Malik et al. (2011) used GIS to obtain the watershed based drainage
morphometric analysis of lidder catchment in kashmir valley.
 Morphometric analysis was carried out at the watershed level. Various linear
and areal aspects of the catchment were computed at watershed level.
 Mir et al.(2016) Analysed the Land Use/ Land Cover Change Using Remote
Sensing and GIS Techniques in Pohru Watershed of Kashmir Valley.
 This study analyses changes in landuse/ cover in the Pohru watershed of
Kashmir Valley.
 Gull et al. (2017) used the SWAT Model Analysis to estimate the runoff and
sediment yield of lolab watershed.
 Mir et al.(2017) prepared a detailed Land degradation map using different
remote sensing and GIS techniques combined with ground survey for Pohru
watershed.
 The study indicated moderate to severe degradation of land resource has taken
place in the area.
DATA REQUIRED
1. Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

2. Hydro-metrological Data

3. Satelite Imagery

4. Soil Data
ABOUT QSWAT
 SWAT is a comprehensive model that requires a
diversity of information in order to run.

 This model has had wide application for modeling

of watershed hydrology and for prediction of the
impact of land management practices on water,
agricultural chemical yields and sediment in
small as well as large complex basins.

 QSWAT is a SWAT interface with QGIS and

gives more provisions for a user to tackle the
hydrological problems.
METHODOLOGY TO BE ADOPTED
 Assessment of the difference in the LULC and topography
of two catchments using GIS.

 Preparation of SWAT inputs: These include

i. Digital elevation model
ii. Land use Land cover (LULC)
iii. Soil database
iv. Weather database

 SWAT Model Set up: Following steps will be taken in each

watershed
i. Watershed delineation in SWAT
ii. Generation of HRUs
iii. Calibration and validation of model
iv. Evaluation of model performance

 Assess the effect of land use, topography and climate on

the stream flow responses of two catchments.
DATA OBTAINED
TILL NOW THE DEM OF THE STUDY AREAS HAS BEEN PREPARED USING ARC GIS.

DEM of Pohru DEM of Lidder

THANK YOU