Using TOPMODEL towards identifying and modelling the hydrological patterns within a headwater, humid, tropical catchment
✍ Scribed by HELENA MOLIČOVÁ; MICHEL GRIMALDI; MIKE BONELL; PIERRE HUBERT
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 719 KB
- Volume
- 11
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6087
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✦ Synopsis
Increasing pressure on the tropical environment requires a more thorough understanding of hydrological processes as part of reconciling the con¯icting demands of economic development vis-aÁ-vis sustainable land management. Using TOPMODEL, a physically based semi-distributed topohydrological model, we test its validity in modelling the stream ¯ow dynamics (hydrograph) in a 1 ha tropical rainforest catchment in French Guiana. Another objective is through ®eld validation of TOPMODEL to ascertain possible runo generation mechanisms. The ®eld validation of the temporal and spatial hydrodynamics across a rainfall±runo event reveals that TOPMODEL may be suited for applications to this particular tropical rainforest environment; in fact, this is possibly the ®rst successful application of such a model within the humid tropics. The main reasons why the model was successful are the presumed low hydraulic conductivities of the subsoil, coupled with the absence of an additional deep groundwater body, the contribution from which has caused diculties in application of topographically, `physically' based runo models elsewhere in the humid tropics.