PhD in Landscape Water Management

Thesis

Abstract

Climate change is having a negative impact on the water balance and water cycle in the landscape. A detailed understanding of the hydrological patterns in the catchments will help to better adapt to the ongoing change. Well-developed hydrological models are one of the tools for estimating future runoff from a catchment. This dissertation focuses on the development of water balance model in a daily computation time step for the analysis of hydrological processes. The model is applied, tested, and evaluated using a developed assessment system on a set of 30 selected catchments ranging in size from 11 km² to 4,038 km² . The results demonstrate an overall excellent quality of simulation and accurate modelling of individual water balance components. Furthermore, climate scenarios are applied to assess the impact of climate change on temperature, precipitation, flow, and the number of snow days. Future climate development analysis was conducted in catchments above the Vranov and Vír reservoirs, where an increase in temperature and precipitation were observed in both cases. Little change was found in the long-term average flow. Significant changes were observed in flow redistribution throughout the year, with an increase in the winter period and a pronounced decrease in the summer and early autumn. Due to rising temperatures, a significant long-term declining trend in the annual number of snow days was recorded in both catchments. The developed model thus confirmed that tools of this type are needed for determining adaptation strategies by generating good hydrological inputs.