Tarekegn, Deksyos; Mtalo, Felix W.; Al-Weshah, R.
Description:
Rainfall Runoff modeling is an important tool in the study of water resources and water
management of the watersheds. Rainfall runoff models are mainly used for river flow
forecasting for the management of the resource and to minimize the ill effects through early
warning measures.
This paper deals with rainfall runoff modeling of the upper Awash River catchment located in
the central part of Ethiopia. The area of the basin is 7615 sq. km. The river is the main
tributary of the Koka multi purpose reservoir used for hydropower generation, irrigation and
flood control.
The Galway Flow Forecasting System, GFFS, was used to model the flow. Various models of
GFFS, ranging from simple linear models to SMAR – the conceptual model were used to
simulate river flows. Brief description of the models is presented in the paper. Performance
comparisons have been made to select models that are more suitable for the catchmenent. It
was concluded that in the simulated mode, the SMAR model performs better than the others.