Presentation by Arthur Lutz (Future Water) at the Symposium on catchment hydrology and WFlow, during Delft Software Days - Edition 2017. Tuesday, 24 October 2017, Delft.

1. Application of the SPHY model for the Ganga basin and
integration in WFlow / Delft-FEWS
Arthur Lutz
Delft, 24 October 2017

2. > Research and consultancy for a sustainable future of our water resources
> Offices: Wageningen (Netherlands), Cartagena (Spain): 12 staff members
> Partners/Clients: World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Governments, River Basin
Organizations, Research Entities
> Geographical focus: Europe, Asia, Africa
> Outputs: technical reports, policy reports, scientific publications, training, datasets,
models, operational services
About FutureWater

3. Expertise
www.futurewater.eu: all projects, reports, papers

4. Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY) model
> High-resolution raster based fully
distributed cryospheric-hydrological model
> Includes all major hydrological and
cryospheric processes
> Developed by FutureWater, available in
public domain
─ www.sphy-model.org, GitHub:
(github.com/FutureWater/SPHY)
─ Documentation, software, tutorials
> PCRaster/Python framework
> Graphical User Interface for open source
QGIS

5. > Full details and documentation:
> www.sphy-model.org
> Open access journal paper:
Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY) model

6. > Strategic planning, operational services
> Applications worldwide
─ Asia, Africa, but also in The Netherlands
> Two quick examples
─ Climate Change impacts for high-mountain hydrology
 IDRC: Himalayan Adaptation, Water and Resilience (HI-AWARE) Research
 ICIMOD: Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP)
 ADB: Water and Adaptation in Central Asia
─ Soil moisture monitoring/forecasting
 Province of Brabant, Waterboards, Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the
Environment (RIVM), GD Animal Health
SPHY applications

7. Climate change impact: RCP8.5 2050
Lutz et al., 2014, Nature Climate Change

8. ICIMOD, GRID-Arendal, CICERO, 2015

9. Soil moisture

10. Strategic Basin Planning Ganga River Basin

11. > Analytical Work and Technical Assistance to support Strategic Basin Planning
for Ganga River Basin in India
> Client: Central Water Commission / World Bank
> Consortium: Deltares, AECOM, FutureWater
> Objectives:
─ Strengthen the capability of central and state government agencies to
undertake strategic basin planning
─ develop plausible scenarios that improve the health of the river and
maintain an acceptable level of economic productivity
─ accessible information and knowledge base to facilitate dialogue around
and management of the Ganga River basin
─ multi-stakeholder engagement to support strategic basin planning
The project

12. > How:
─ Developing a detailed and robust water resources planning model for the entire
Ganga basin in India and training central and state government engineers and
planners in its use
─ Characterizing and analysing surface-groundwater interactions
─ A multi-scale environmental flow assessment
─ Developing, modelling and disseminating a series of plausible scenarios that
explore alternative options for improving water management including improving
river health
─ Establishing and facilitating a multi-stakeholder consultation process (inside and
outside of government) to guide and share the work above
─ Ensuring wide access to the models and analyses and quality documentation of
these
The project

16. SPHY setup

17. SPHY setup
> 1 x 1 km spatial resolution
> Daily time step
> 1958-2014
> Elevation: HydroSheds
> Soil: HiHydroSoil
> Glaciers: Randolph Glacier
Inventory
> Land use: Globcover

18. Meteorological forcing
> 1958-1978: EU-WATCH
> 1979-2014: WATCH Forcing ERA-Interim (WFDEI)
> IMD Precipitation data similar to WFDEI, Temperature
data large biases
WFDEI APHRODITE WATCH ERA-INTERIM
Upper Ganga 1482 995 1409 1704
Lower Ganga 1130 964 1113 1106

19. Calibration/validation to observed discharge
Model calibration and validation to observed discharge:
─ 2 locations in India (CWC)
─ 2 locations in the Koshi basin, Nepal (DHM)
Calibration
Validation

20. Calibration/Validation to observed discharge
Model calibration and validation to observed discharge:
─ 2 locations in India (CWC)
─ 2 locations in the Koshi basin, Nepal (DHM)
Location Cali/Vali Period NSE R2 Pbias
Nepal C 1998-2007 0.92 0.94 2.7%
Nepal V 1998-2007 0.87 0.89 9.2%
India C 1986-2010 0.83 0.84 -6.1%
India V 1986-2010 0.85 0.87 -12.5%

21. Calibration/Validation to observed discharge
> In general good performance for
mountainous basin
─ In some locations difficulties in
simulating peaks or low flows
─ Interannual variation difficult

22. Outputs

23. Outputs

24. Outputs

29. Thanks!