Hydrological modeling for rainfall-runoff assessment in a sub-himalayan catchment using a distributed MIKE SHE/MIKE+ model

The management of water resources, including flood forecasting, infrastructure planning, environmental preservations, and climate change adaptation, depends highly on accurate assessment of rainfall-runoff processes. In the present study, a distributed hydrological model has been developed using MIKE System Hydrological European coupled with MIKE+ approach for the Gambhar catchment located in the northwest Himalayas, India. For model development, the hydrometeorological data i.e., precipitation, land use land cover, evapotranspiration, and soil types for the duration 2010 to 2018 have been acquired, while observed daily streamflow data of the Gambhar River has been used for calibration and validation purposes. The model's performance has been evaluated using statistical indicators i.e., mean average error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE), scatter index (SI) and coefficient of determination (R2), and found to be 65.43, 283.5, 0.80, 0.08, and 0.85, respectively during validation indicating a strong correlation between predicted and observed streamflow. The sensitivity analysis of the model infers that the rainfall and canopy intercept parameters are major controlling factors in the runoff generation. The findings of the study are beneficial for hydrologists and water resources managers.