Watershed modelling was carried out in Sarida Catchment in the West Bank (Palestine) in order to determine the physical characteristics of the watershed. Generated storm water and runoff were estimated for watershed sub-catchments for enhancing the potentiality of rainwater harvesting development. Climatic data across eight years (seven wet seasons) were used for watershed modelling by using the software application systems of Watershed Modelling and Hydrologic Modelling. The Geographical Information System (GIS) and Microsoft Excel were used as well for the estimation of different model parameters and features. The physical and meteorological characteristics for each sub-catchment including land use, topography, soil, rainfall, and other parameters were identified. The model results provided sensitive conceptual principles for understanding the runoff mechanisms in the watershed. The average generated storm water over the seven seasons (2008/09 to 2014/15) is 23.16 and 13.44 Mm3/year for northern and southern sub-catchments in Sarida watershed, respectively. The generated runoff of the sub-catchments over this period ranged between 2.13 and 23.18 million cubic meters per year. The results suggest a high potential for rainwater harvesting to promote agricultural development and the need to establish a climatic monitoring network in Sarida watershed, as well as in other catchments in the West Bank, for better informing watershed management practices and policies.
Keywords: Runoff; Sarida; Surface modelling; Watershed.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.