INTEGRATED HYDROLOGIC AND QUALITY MODEL FOR ZARQA RIVER BASIN IN JORDAN

An integrated hydrologic and quality model for Zarqa River basin has been developed based on the Water Evaluation and Planning system. For hydrological modeling, the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number method was integrated into the Water Evaluation And Planning system using its expression builder. Climatological, hydrologic, stream flow, water quality data, and soil maps were collected. Land use maps were generated in GIS format for the basin. The results of the hydrologic model showed good agreement between measured and modeled Zarqa River flow after calibration. However, during peak flood significant differences between measured and simulated flows were observed which is attributed to several reason such as inaccuracies in measurements during peak flow and inaccuracies in the estimated curve number. The results also showed good agreement between measured and simulated river quality parameters, namely: temperature and COD. However, discrepancies were also observed at peak flows.