PhD Thesis Emmanuel Obeng Bekoe - Cranfield University

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One approach to assisting sustainable water resource development and
management within river basins is the use of mathematical modelling of
watershed hydrology (Singh and Woolhiser 2002). Numerical models of
groundwater and surface water resources systems have been used to simulate
the behaviour of catchment systems since the 1960s (Zoppou, 2001).
However, increasing computer speed and the development of new
mathematical representations of physical processes has allowed the science of
computer simulation to pass from being of academic interest only to a practical
engineering procedure (Viessman & Lewis, 2003). The use of hydrological
modelling tools to address a wide spectrum of environmental and water
resources problems (Singh and Woolhiser, 2002 and Borah and Bera, 2003) is
now commonplace.
The tropical regions of the world represent a huge but relatively little studied
part of the globe with regard to the study of hydrology (Bonell et al., 1993; van
de Giesen et al., 2000 and Giertz & Diekkruger, 2003). The Densu Basin, a
river catchment in Tropical Ghana in West Africa was selected as a typical
medium-sized catchment within this region for study. Based on the problems
faced in the basin, which are typical of those in the region, the objectives of the
study were defined in Chapter 1.
7.2 Model Selection
The first stage in selecting a suitable model to simulate the Densu Basin (and
potentially other catchments in West Africa) was the identification of a series of
criteria against which to judge the multitude of available models. The criteria
chosen are a mixture of hydrological, simulation and pragmatic reasons given in
Section 3.2.
An initial screening review against the above criteria, based on information in
the published literature (journals, textbooks, technical reports and model user’s
manuals) and on websites, identified three potentially suitable models (SWAT,
ANSWERS-2000 and ACRU) which were reviewed in greater detail (Chapter 3).
Emmanuel Obeng Bekoe Phd Thesis Chapter 7 Conclusions & Recommendations