Effect of Spatial Resolution of Digital Elevation Model on the Estimation of Geomorphological and Geomorphoclimatic Unit Hydrographs in Amameh Watershed, Iran

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are one of the most important data required in watershed modeling with hydrological models and their spatial resolution has a significant impact on the accuracy of simulating hydrological processes. In the present study, the effect of spatial resolution of five DEMs derived from the topographic map (TOPO) with a scale of 1:25000, ALOS PALSAR, ASTER, SRTM, and GTOPO with a spatial accuracy of 10, 12.5, 30, 90, and 1000 m, respectively, on the estimation of parameters of geomorphological and geomorphoclimatic unit hydrographs models has been evaluated in Amameh watershed. Thirty-four single flood events were used during the years 1970 to 2015. The results showed that in the GUH method, the application of the TOPO and ALOS PALSAR DEMs had the best results with root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.7 and 1.8 m3/s and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.4 and 0.3, respectively. While the GTOPO DEM had the least efficiency with RMSE of 2.8 m3/s and NSE of -2. Similarly, the lowest and highest RMSE in the GCUH method belonged to TOPO and GTOPO DEMs with RMSE of 3.8 and 18 m3/s and NSE of 0.2 and -6, respectively. Generally, the GUH method had more favorable results than the GCUH method in all DEMs.