Applicability of VIC model for hydrological simulations over Upper Ganga Basin, India

Efficient management of water resources is crucial for sustainable development, protection of the environment, and growth of the nation. However, this is quite challenging in developing countries like India, mostly due to the lack of watershed-wide hydrological data from in-situ platforms. Under such circumstances, hydrologic models forced with widely available satellite-based datasets can be very useful. Keeping this in view, Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), a physically-based distributed model is set up over the Upper Ganga Basin up to Garhmukteshwar gauging site. Daily calibration and validation of the VIC model were carried out for the years 2009 and 2010. The streamflow simulation was sensitive to mainly two parameters i.e., infiltration parameter and soil layer depth when evaluated with different objective functions. Model performance in the terms of coefficient of determination (R²) and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) during calibration was found to be 0.76 and 0.65, respectively, while for the validation period, they were 0.78 and 0.73, respectively. A good agreement between the simulated and observed hydrographs for discharge justifies the performance and utility of the VIC model. The spatial distribution of the simulated water balance components (i.e., runoff, ET, and soil moisture) generated from the successfully validated model are presented. The study reveals that the VIC model is capable of simulating hydrological fluxes for the Upper Ganga Basin.