A Study on Grid Based Distributed Rainfall Runoff Models

Two distributed rainfall-runoff models were developed separately by using linear and nonlinear storage approaches for simulating the heterogeneity of hydrological processes over the catchment. A 1 x 1 km grid-based mesh was used to abstract the geometry of the catchment. The hydrological processes and geographic information were modeled on this scale. Both linear and nonlinear models were calibrated by global optimization technique. The models to simulate spatial hydrological processes over a catchment were verified using the observed hydrographs at two stream gauged stations within the catchment. The nonlinear model has better performance than the linear model for two verification storm events.