Articles | Volume 20, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3691-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-3691-2016
Research article
 | 
08 Sep 2016
Research article |  | 08 Sep 2016

Reliability of lumped hydrological modeling in a semi-arid mountainous catchment facing water-use changes

Paul Hublart, Denis Ruelland, Inaki García de Cortázar-Atauri, Simon Gascoin, Stef Lhermitte, and Antonio Ibacache

Data sets

Hydro-climatic data (precipitation, temperature, streamflow, monthly restrictions to water assess entitlements) Chilean Direccion General de Aguas http://www.dga.cl

MODIS Data National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) https://nsidc.org/data/modis/

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Short summary
Our paper explores the reliability of conceptual catchment models in the dry Andes. First, we show that explicitly accounting for irrigation water use improves streamflow predictions during dry years. Second, we show that sublimation losses can be easily incorporated into temperature-based melt models without increasing model complexity too much. Our work also highlights areas requiring additional research, including the need for a better conceptualization of runoff generation processes.