Hydrological modeling of urban catchment using semi-distributed model

The SWAT2012 model was applied to the Indore City, Madhya Pradesh, India for modeling of the hydrological parameters response on urban runoff. The model was calibrated and validated from the period of 1979–2013 using SUFI-2 algorithm of soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model. Transferability options of the discharge data were investgated to estimate ungauged catchment runoff. Regionalization of the hydrological model parameters method used for transferring data from the donor catchment (Mandleshwar catchment) to the area of interest. The parameters considered for regionalizations are slope of the watershed, soil cover characteristics of the watershed and land use of the watershed. The calibrated and validated cofficient of determination (R2) of monthly runoff values are 0.54 and 0.57 for the period of 1979–2000 and 2001–2013, respectively and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency for the same period is 0.53–0.57 respectively. Result showed that the model parameters transferred according to the above criteria performs well on the Indore City, Madhya Pradesh, India. therefore, SWAT model is an important tool to estimate the water balance systems of the ungauged catchments. © 2017, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.