A Monthly Six-parameter Water Balance Model and Its Application at Arid and Semiarid Low Yielding Catchments

A monthly six-parameter water balance model is developed. The intended use of this model is to simulate monthly runoff at arid and semiarid low yielding catchments, which at most suffer from drastic lack of hydrological information, and in time when this information is available, it is highly variable in time and space. The proposed model was calibrated and tested using available data collected from two catchments in the Middle East located at Yemen and Jordan. The simulation results obtained show that the model has a good match between the monthly observed and simulated runoff. Application results suggest that the proposed model is theoretically sound and practically simple and efficient for runoff prediction at low yielding catchments. The model will be useful for efficient planning and management of water resources and assessment of climatic change impacts at arid and semiarid regions.