TY - JOUR
T1 - Prediction of Sediment Yield in a Data-Scarce River Catchment at the Sub-Basin Scale Using Gridded Precipitation Datasets
AU - Ijaz, Muhammad Asfand
AU - Ashraf, Muhammad
AU - Hamid, Shanawar
AU - Niaz, Yasir
AU - Waqas, Muhammad Mohsin
AU - Tariq, Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman
AU - Saifullah, Muhammad
AU - Bhatti, Muhammad Tousif
AU - Tahir, Adnan Ahmad
AU - Ikram, Kamran
AU - Shafeeque, Muhammad
AU - Ng, Anne W.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge NASA and USGS for providing Landsat images and SRTM DEM data at free of cost. The authors also acknowledge the ESA Centre for Earth Observation Rome Italy and FAO for providing free land use and soil data, respectively.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - Water-related soil erosion is a major environmental concern for catchments with barren topography in arid and semi-arid regions. With the growing interest in irrigation infrastructure development in arid regions, the current study investigates the runoff and sediment yield for the Gomal River catchment, Pakistan. Data from a precipitation gauge and gridded products (i.e., GPCC, CFSR, and TRMM) were used as input for the SWAT model to simulate runoff and sediment yield. TRMM shows a good agreement with the data of the precipitation gauge (≈1%) during the study period, i.e., 2004–2009. However, model simulations show that the GPCC data predicts runoff better than the other gridded precipitation datasets. Similarly, sediment yield predicted with the GPCC precipitation data was in good agreement with the computed one at the gauging site (only 3% overestimated) for the study period. Moreover, GPCC overestimated the sediment yield during some years despite the underestimation of flows from the catchment. The relationship of sediment yields predicted at the sub-basin level using the gauge and GPCC precipitation datasets revealed a good correlation (R2 = 0.65) and helped identify locations for precipitation gauging sites in the catchment area. The results at the sub-basin level showed that the sub-basin located downstream of the dam site contributes three (3) times more sediment yield (i.e., 4.1%) at the barrage than its corresponding area. The findings of the study show the potential usefulness of the GPCC precipitation data for the computation of sediment yield and its spatial distribution over data-scarce catchments. The computations of sediment yield at a spatial scale provide valuable information for deciding watershed management strategies at the sub-basin level.
AB - Water-related soil erosion is a major environmental concern for catchments with barren topography in arid and semi-arid regions. With the growing interest in irrigation infrastructure development in arid regions, the current study investigates the runoff and sediment yield for the Gomal River catchment, Pakistan. Data from a precipitation gauge and gridded products (i.e., GPCC, CFSR, and TRMM) were used as input for the SWAT model to simulate runoff and sediment yield. TRMM shows a good agreement with the data of the precipitation gauge (≈1%) during the study period, i.e., 2004–2009. However, model simulations show that the GPCC data predicts runoff better than the other gridded precipitation datasets. Similarly, sediment yield predicted with the GPCC precipitation data was in good agreement with the computed one at the gauging site (only 3% overestimated) for the study period. Moreover, GPCC overestimated the sediment yield during some years despite the underestimation of flows from the catchment. The relationship of sediment yields predicted at the sub-basin level using the gauge and GPCC precipitation datasets revealed a good correlation (R2 = 0.65) and helped identify locations for precipitation gauging sites in the catchment area. The results at the sub-basin level showed that the sub-basin located downstream of the dam site contributes three (3) times more sediment yield (i.e., 4.1%) at the barrage than its corresponding area. The findings of the study show the potential usefulness of the GPCC precipitation data for the computation of sediment yield and its spatial distribution over data-scarce catchments. The computations of sediment yield at a spatial scale provide valuable information for deciding watershed management strategies at the sub-basin level.
KW - Gomal River, Pakistan
KW - gridded precipitation
KW - sediment yield
KW - SWAT
KW - watershed management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130148827&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/w14091480
DO - 10.3390/w14091480
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85130148827
SN - 2073-4441
VL - 14
SP - 1
EP - 21
JO - Water: an open access journal
JF - Water: an open access journal
IS - 9
M1 - 1480
ER -