Print Email Facebook Twitter Determining watershed response in data poor environments with remotely sensed small reservoirs as runoff gauges Title Determining watershed response in data poor environments with remotely sensed small reservoirs as runoff gauges Author Liebe, J.R. Van de Giesen, N.C. Andreini, M. Walter, M.T. Steenhuis, T.S. Faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department Water Management Date 2009-07-14 Abstract In the semiarid regions of Africa, there are many small reservoirs used for irrigation. This study explores the practicality of using small reservoirs as runoff gauges by estimating their water storage changes using remote sensing imagery. A simple rainfall-runoff model is developed by observing the surface area and estimating the volume of eight small reservoirs in the Upper East Region of Ghana and in Togo using Envisat advanced synthetic aperture radar satellite images. The model is based on the Thornthwaite-Mather procedure and the assumption that with increasing precipitation, the contributing watershed area increases exponentially. The model parameters were estimated using the 2005 data and were validated using 2006 data. Although the total rainfall amounts were comparable in these 2 years, the rainfall and reservoir filling patterns were quite different. The model results indicate that the overall impact of the reservoirs largely depends on the ratios of reservoir to watershed areas. For this 2 year study, the reservoirs captured on average 34% of quick flow and 15% of overall runoff. Subject small reservoirsAfricaungauged basinimpact assessmentwater resourcesquick flow To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:111e7a64-1282-47ca-a5a5-84816eb8d792 DOI https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR007369 Publisher American Geophysical Union ISSN 0043-1397 Source http://europa.agu.org/?view=article&uri=/journals/wr/wr0907/2008WR007369/2008WR007369.xml Source Water Resources Research, 45, 2009 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2009 The Author(s); American Geophysical Union Files PDF vandeGiesen2_2009.pdf 2.77 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:111e7a64-1282-47ca-a5a5-84816eb8d792/datastream/OBJ/view