Development of a Cluster-analysis-based Distributed Hydrologic Modeling System

A new distributed hydrologic model named University of Regina Hydrologic Model (URHM) was developed in this study. URHM model was a distributed watershed model which simulated the whole hydrologic cycle from precipitation to runoff in an innovative distributed manner. In URHM, cluster analysis was applied to divide a watershed into a group of hydrologically consistent subwatersheds. These subwatersheds could be any irregular size or shape since they were based merely on stream network and topography. In each subwatershed, a vertical water budget was calculated based on four conceptual tanks. They were canopy storage tank, snow storage tank, fast storage tanks, and slow storage tanks, respectively. The Heshui watershed in the Jiangxi Province, China, was used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed URHM model. The distributed meteorological and hydrological data were gained from five self - constructed on - site hydrological stations. The study results indicated that the simulated streamflow compares favorably with the observed values both in model calibration and verification stages. The important hydrological processes involved in the watershed water balance could be represented fairly well by the model. Simulation results could be used to provide in - depth insight into the complicated effects of soil, vegetation, land use, terrain and climate on the variation of streamflows.