Abstract
This study investigates the potential and applicability of variable infiltration capacity (VIC) hydrological model to simulate different hydrological components of the Upper Bhima basin under two different Land Use Land Cover (LULC) (the year 2000 and 2010) conditions. The total drainage area of the basin was discretized into 1694 grids of about 5.5 km by 5.5 km: accordingly the model parameters were calibrated at each grid level. Vegetation parameters for the model were prepared using temporal profile of Leaf Area Index (LAI) from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and LULC. This practice provides a methodological framework for the improved vegetation parameterization along with region-specific condition for the model simulation. The calibrated and validated model was run using the two LULC conditions separately with the same observed meteorological forcing (1996–2001) and soil data. The change in LULC has resulted to an increase in the average annual evapotranspiration over the basin by 7.8%, while the average annual surface runoff and baseflow decreased by 18.86 and 5.83%, respectively. The variability in hydrological components and the spatial variation of each component attributed to LULC were assessed at the basin grid level. It was observed that 80% of the basin grids showed an increase in evapotranspiration (ET) (maximum of 292 mm). While the majority of the grids showed a decrease in surface runoff and baseflow, some of the grids showed an increase (i.e. 21 and 15% of total grids—surface runoff and baseflow, respectively).
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Department of Applied Mechanics and Hydraulics, NITK Surathkal, for providing necessary support during the study. The corresponding author would like to extend his gratitude to Mr K. Abdul Hakeem and Mr PV Raju, Water Resources Group, National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad, for their initial guidance to understanding the VIC model and its parameterization. The authors thank IMD and NRSC for providing the relevant datasets. The corresponding author would like to thank Mr Saksham for his fruitful discussion during the study. The corresponding author would like to extend his gratitude to Dr KS Kasiviswanathan for his support to improve the writing of the manuscript. The authors also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which helped to improve the quality of results presented in the manuscript.
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Mohaideen, M.M.D., Varija, K. Improved vegetation parameterization for hydrological model and assessment of land cover change impacts on flow regime of the Upper Bhima basin, India. Acta Geophys. 66, 697–715 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-018-0161-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-018-0161-y