Estimating Basic Water Balance Components with Its Spatial and Temporal Variation, Using WetSpass Model in Weleh River Catchment, Tekeze River Basin, Northern Ethiopia.

Melese Belay

dc.contributor.author	Melese Belay
dc.date.accessioned	2022-01-24T06:49:06Z
dc.date.available	2022-01-24T06:49:06Z
dc.date.issued	2022-01-24
dc.identifier.uri	http://ir.bdu.edu.et/handle/123456789/12948
dc.description.abstract	This study was conducted to estimate temporal and spatial groundwater recharge distribution of Weleh river catchment by using the WetSpass model. Meteorological data were collected from stations, which were selected based on proximity to the catchment and data availability. The catchment is covered by bare land (47.3%), agricultural land (28.6%), shrub (15.8%) and forest (7%). Geologically, different formations are found within the catchment the dominant ones are volcanic rock and sedimentary rocks. In this study, long-term seasonal and annual groundwater recharge, actual evapotranspiration, interception and surface runoff have been estimated by using the WetSpass model. In order to run the WetSpass model hydro-meteorological data and biophysical data were adjusted following the model requirement. The average annual long-term groundwater recharge is estimated to be 46 mm/year (7% from annual rainfall) of which 40 mm occurs during wet and 6 mm occurs during dry seasons. About 394mm of water is lost through evapotranspiration from the catchment. 72% of the total annual evapotranspiration is lost during the summer season while the rest 28% is released in the winter season. Actual Evapotranspiration is the largest component of the water budget in Weleh catchment constituting 61% of annual precipitation. WetSpass model also simulated the annual runoff of the catchment and it gives 179 mm/year, which represents 27.5% of the total annual precipitations of the catchment. From the annual surface runoff, 92% of the surface runoff occurs during the wet months while the remaining 8% occurs during the dry months. The annual interception rate of the catchment is 30 mm/year, which is 4.5% of annual precipitation. 85% of the interception rate (25 mm/year) is intercepted at summer season and the remaining 15% (5mm/year) occurs in the winter season. All the four water balance components showed high spatial and seasonal variation. Generally, Weleh river catchment has been manifested by high surface runoff and evapotranspiration whereas seasonal and annual recharge amount is very low.	en_US
dc.language.iso	en	en_US
dc.subject	hydrogeology	en_US
dc.title	Estimating Basic Water Balance Components with Its Spatial and Temporal Variation, Using WetSpass Model in Weleh River Catchment, Tekeze River Basin, Northern Ethiopia.	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US