Desempenho de modelos de hidrograma unitário em duas bacias hidrográficas com comportamento hidrológico contrastante

Abstract

Alterations in the environment and the resulting natural and anthropogenic effects have attracted attention in the scientific community due to the high impact on ecosystems, especially related to natural disasters originated from extreme precipitation events. Hydrological modeling is one of the main techniques used for the management of water resources, environment and watersheds. However, one of the major limitations of its application is the lack of hydrological data, primarily associated with stream flow. This limitation has stimulated the development and calibration of hydrological models intended for estimation of direct surface runoff (DSR). In this context, the theories of Unit Hydrograph (UH) and Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (IUH) have stood out for the hydrological modeling of floods. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of conceptual models (Clark’s IUH - CIUH and Nash’s IUH - NIUH), synthetic models (Dimensionless UH - DUH and Triangular UH - TUH) and geomorphological models (Clark’s Geomorphological IUH - CGIUH and Nash’s Geomorphological IUH -NGIUH) for estimation of peak stream flows and DSR hydrographs, taking as reference two small experimental watersheds (Ellert Creek Watershed - ECW and Lavrinha Creek Watershed - LCW), which have contrasting geomorphoclimatic characteristics and hydrological behavior. The basic information for this study were obtained from digital elevation models and monitorated data (rainfall and stream flow) in these watersheds. The main conclusions of this study were: a) CIUH and NIUH models were those that resulted in the greatest accuracy for both watersheds; b) DUH and TUH models were not suitable for LCW, but estimated hydrographs satisfactorily for most of the events in ECW; c) CGIUH out performed NGIUH for ECW, but presented behavior similar to TUH and DUH; d) NGIUH had performance better than CGIUH, TUH and DUH for LCW.