Case Study: Evaluation of Streamflow Partitioning Methods
Publication: Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 6
Abstract
Understanding water flow and its relative quantities through different pathways is vital for watershed management. Like many problems in hydrology, numbers of methods have been proposed for streamflow partitioning. Five methods were identified as being the most relevant and least input intensive. This study tested performance of these methods against separately measured surface and subsurface flow data from the coastal plain physiographic region of the southeastern United States. Separately measured surface and subsurface flow were collected for 12 years (1970–1981) in a field scale watershed by the Southeast Watershed Research Laboratory of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service. Results of comparative analysis indicated that Method IV performed the best. Results also indicated that accuracy of this method is highly dependent upon the proper estimation of the “fraction coefficient” that is based on many physical and hydrologic characteristics of the watershed. This study concluded that deterministic/empirical methods such as Boughton’s Method IV, require proper parameter value for increased accuracy.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 6 • December 2009
Pages: 791 - 801
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 31, 2008
Accepted: Apr 1, 2009
Published online: Apr 5, 2009
Published in print: Dec 2009
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