Theme 8-4-An algorithm for monitoring snow water equivalent in ungauged catchments using GIS.

Abstract

Monitoring of Spatial variation of snow water equivalent (SWE) and its temporal variation are important analysis in snowy terrain and have a significant role in watershed management. In spite of importance of this analysis, data has been one of the main obstacles for such simulation. Majorities of snow bond catchments are ungauged and because of high altitude and inaccessibility less observatory stations are available, the problem that is pronounced in developing countries. In this research work, an algorithm has been studied to generate required data for spatial analysis of SWE. For this proposed the SWAT (Soil and Water assessment Tool) model after modification and adding new subroutines to it, and a GIS package have been clubbed together for the simulations. It has been postulated that rainfall, temperature and relative humidity are the available data and other data get generated by using them. The validation of the algorithm has been done through the observed and predicted discharges and also local information that confirm relevant performance of the algorithm.