Application of a satellite based rainfall - runoff model: a case study of the Trans Boundary Cuvelai Basin in Southern Africa

Applications of distributed hydrological models are often constrained by poor data availability. Models rely on distributed inputs for meteorological forcing and land surface parameterization. In this pilot the rainfall runoff model LISFLOOD for large scale streamflow simulation is tested for the transboundary Cuvelai basin in Angola and Namibia. The model simulates river discharges as a function of spatial information on soils, topography and land cover. For rainfall estimation the TRMM 3B43 product has been selected whereas for evapotranspiration estimation satellite products from the LSA-SAF facility have been used. Other satellite products used are for elevation, leaf area index and land cover. Modeling focused on simulation of extreme high seasonal rainfall that caused major floodings in the area in 2009. The simulation period covered the food period (40 days). The model was manually calibrated by optimizing five parameters. Model performance was assessed by the root mean squared error and Nash Sutcliffe coefficients. Results show that simulation of an extreme event that caused major floodings is possible thus indicating the effectiveness of use of satellite based model forcing data. Also the use of satellite based land cover data proved to be effective.