Rainfall-Runoff Modelling in Arid Areas

Arid areas have distinctive hydrological features substantially different from those of humid areas. The high temporal and spatial distribution of the ra;infall, flash floods, absence of base flow, sparsity of plant cover, high transmission losses, high amounts of evaporation and evapotranspiration and the general climatologies are examples of such differences. The aim of this Ph.D. research is to use advanced tools of model analysis to test some of the current models that consider arid area hydrological characteristics. As most models were mainly developed for other regions, an attempt is made to study their limitations using Omani hydrological data, providing some guidelines for improved rainfall-runoff modelling in arid areas in general and Oman in particular. Two different types of models were selected for this research; KINEROS, which is an event based, semi-distributed, physically-based model that is considered suitable to be used for arid area conditions, and, which is continuous, lumped, conceptual model. Two Omani catchments were selected to test the performance of the selected models and to identify the main uncertainties arising, to provide some recommendations regarding the suitability of these models or model types and how they might be improved, to highlight any further data that is required, and how uncertainties should be handled in model applications.Imperial Users onl