Modelización hidrológica de las cuencas de los ríos Múrtigas y Caliente (Huelva, España): Calidad de los datos de aforos

Hydrological modeling of he Odiel River by means of th SWAT program (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) revealed a need for stream-gauge stations in the northern part of the basin. This is because materials with different hydrological behaviour from those of the rest of the basin outcrop in this area. For that reason this work develops a model of the Murtigas and Caliente River catchments located adjacent to the north of Odiel basin and with similar hydrological characteristics. The monthly values of the NSE (Nash and Sutcliffe Efficiency) obtained for the validation period are -0.73 for the Murtigas River and 0.73 for the Caliente River. The reason for these low values is that the data from stream-flow measurements are often inaccurate. The data quality is especially poor in the Murtigas River stream-gauge station, which is currently the only in operation. Due to the necessity of accurate data for the calibration of the hydrological models, and the fact that the data quality obatained from the stream-flow measurements in the Murtigas and Caliente river stations is very low, it is not possible to calibrate properly the model. It is, therefore, argued thet the reliability of stream-gauge stations in this area must be improved.