Estimating the Spatial Distribution of Snow Water Equivalent in the Upstream of Karoon River Using GIS

In mountainous basins, snow water equivalent (SWE) estimation is an important step of water resources management. The main purpose of this research was the investigation of the weighting method efficiency using GIS in estimating spatial distribution of SWE. To this regard, using the observed snow depth and density, the SWE was initially calculated. Then, the weighting method was used to estimate spatial distribution of SWE. The results of the weighting method were evaluated by the interpolation technique map. Weighted SWE map indicated that very high and high SWE zones were dominant in areas with high elevations, moderate slope and high upwind slopes. In general, the results showed that weighting method is enable to estimate spatial distribution of SWE satisfactorily.