Using the SCS Method and Comparing with Empirical Methods in Estimating Annual Water Discharge Depth of Basins Case Study (Darreh Rud Sub-basins- Ardabil- Iran)

Author
yaser Hoseini
Professor of Moghan College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran,
10.22034/wmji.2025.2052441.1099
Abstract
Water resources management in basins is not possible without accurately determining flood discharge. In the present study, various empirical methods presented for estimating annual water discharge in basins, including the Coutagine, Turk, IDOI, ICAR, Lacey, Justin, Inglis and De’Souza and Khosla methods, were investigated and evaluated in a number of Darreh Rud sub-basins in Ardabil province and compared with the SCS method. For this purpose, Precipitation and temperature data from stations in the province were collected with a common statistical period of 15 years. Then, using GIS, temperature and precipitation zoning was carried out at the regional level, and the average and median temperatures were estimated for each sub-basin. Also, using ArcGIS and WMS software, the physiographic characteristics of the sub-basins were extracted, and the average rainfall and temperature at the basin level were also obtained. The results showed that none of the Empirical methods provide reliable results in determining the annual runoff of the basins, so that the coefficient of determination of the methods of Coutagine, Turk, IDOI, ICAR, Lazy, JUSTIN, Inglis and De’Souza and Khosla were obtained as 5, 5, 7, 15, 12, 2, 7, 7, respectively. However, in the United State Soil Conservation Service (SCS) method, assuming dry moisture conditions and a surface retention coefficient (l) of 0.05, the coefficient of determination (R2) was obtained as 94%. The results showed that in the US Soil Conservation Service (SCS) method, the difference between the estimated values and the measured values is reduced by considering dry moisture conditions for the basin. The results of this study show that the SCS method has a suitable accuracy for estimating the annual runoff in the sub-basins of the study area.
Keywords
Annual runoff
Basin
Experimental methods
Physiographic characteristics
SCS method
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