Modelling Water Balance Components of River Basins Located in Different Regions of the Globe

Abstract

Three river basins—the Lena, Ganges, and Darling—were selected to study the possibility of reproducing water balance components of river basins, located in different regions of the globe under a wide variety of natural conditions, with the use of the land surface model SWAP and global data sets. Input data including meteorological forcings and land surface parameters were prepared on the basis of the WATCH and ECOCLIMAP global data sets, respectively. Long-term variations of the water balance components of the Lena, Ganges, and Darling river basins were simulated by the SWAP model. The results of simulations were compared with observations. In addition, the natural variability of river runoff caused by the weather noise of atmospheric characteristics was estimated.