Hydrological model uncertainty assessment in southern Africa

The importance of hydrological uncertainty analysis has been emphasized in recent years and there is an urgent need to incorporate uncertainty estimation into water resources assessment procedures used in the southern Africa region. The region is characterized by a paucity of accurate data and limited human resources, but the need for informed development decisions is critical to social and economic development. One of the main sources of uncertainty is related to the estimation of the parameters of hydrological models. This paper proposes a framework for establishing parameter values, exploring parameter inter-dependencies and setting parameter uncertainty bounds for a monthly time-step rainfall-runoff model (Pitman model) that is widely used in the region. The method is based on well-documented principles of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, but recognizes the limitations that exist within the region (data scarcity and accuracy, model user attitudes, etc.). Four example applications taken from different climate and physiographic regions of South Africa illustrate that the methods are appropriate for generating behavioural stream flow simulations which include parameter uncertainty. The parameters that dominate the model response and their degree of uncertainty vary between regions. Some of the results suggest that the uncertainty bounds will be too wide for effective water resources decision making. Further work is required to reduce some of the subjectivity in the methods and to investigate other approaches for constraining the uncertainty. The paper recognizes that probability estimates of uncertainty and methods to include input climate data uncertainties need to be incorporated into the framework in the future.