A case study for the assessment of the suitability of gridded reanalysis weather data for hydrological simulation in Beas river basin of North Western Himalaya

Abstract

The major problem of estimating snowmelt runoff for Beas river basin is inadequacy of observed meteorological data distributed across the basin. In this study, ERA-Interim global reanalysis data have been used for assessing the stream flow and sediment yield in Beas river basin of North Western Himalaya. The snow module of ARCSWAT hydrology model has been simulated by integration of subbasin-wise elevation band files for modeling snowmelt runoff process including sediment yield due to rainfall and temperature change for different elevation bands varying from 361 to 6188 m. The gridded reanalysis (0.125° × 0.125°) dataset produces a decreased maximum and minimum temperature and increased precipitation at higher elevation in comparison with IMD gridded weather data. The outcome of this study conveys that the reanalysis data represent better snowmelt runoff (NSE = 0.76, 0.70 and R2 = 0.80, 0.70) and sediment yield (NSE = 0.50, 0.53 and R2 = 0.72, 0.57) mechanism at Pong and Pandoh dams than IMD gridded weather data (NSE = 0.50, 0.47 and R2 = 0.65, 0.60) for stream flow and (NSE = 0.50, 0.53 and R2 = 0.65, 0.60) sediment yield during the period 1996–1999 and 1999–2002 for these two locations.