Comparison of Three Daily Rainfall-Runoff Hydrological Models Using Four Evapotranspiration Models in Four Small Forested Watersheds with Different Land Cover in South-Central Chile

We used the lumped rainfall-runoff hydrologic models Genie Rural a 4, 5, 6 parametres Journalier (GR4J, GR5J and GR6J) to evaluate the most robust model for simulating discharge on four forested small catchments (< 40 ha) in south-central Chile. Different evapotranspiration methods were evaluated: Oudin, Hargreaves-Samani and Priestley-Taylor. Oudin's model allows the achievement of the highest efficiencies in the flow simulation. The more sensitive parameters for each model were identified through a Generalized Probability Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) model. Our results demonstrate that the three hydrological models were capable of efficiently simulating flow in the four study catchments. However, the GR6J model obtained the most satisfactory results in terms of simulated to measured streamflow closeness. In general, the three models tended to underestimate peak flow, as well as underestimate and overestimate flow events in most of the in situ observations, according to the probability of non-exceedance. We also evaluated the models' performance in a simulation of summer discharge due to the importance of downstream water supply in the months of greatest scarcity. Again, we found that GR6J obtained the most efficient simulations.

Automated summary

The study found that the GR6J model performed the best in simulating flow, although all three models were capable of efficiently simulating flow in the catchments. The GR6J model showed the highest accuracy in simulating streamflow compared to the other models.