Comparison of HEC-HMS and SWAT Hydrological Models in Simulating Runoff at Machhu River Catchment, Gujarat, India

It is important in the hydrological study to correctly predict runoff in the river catchment for designing the civil engineering structures for irrigation, hydropower, flood control and erosion control. In this regard, several models have been developed by different researchers based on the precipitation and characteristics of the catchment for the estimation of runoff. However, selection of an appropriate model is essential considering its robustness and wide applicability in different topographical, geological, geo-environment and climate conditions. With this objective, we have applied two hydrological models namely Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) at the Machhu River Catchment, Gujarat, India to estimate accurate runoff. In this study, hydrological data of 37 years period (1982–2017) was used for the simulation of models. Validation of the models was done using observed runoff data of Macchu dam-I. Regression analysis R2 (R-squared) of the observed and estimated runoff data was done to compare and evaluate the performance of the models. Results showed that R2 value for the HEC-HMS model was 0.89, whereas of the SWAT model 0.62 thus, the runoff prediction performance of the HEC-HMS model is better than the SWAT model. Therefore, HEC-HMS model can be used for the accurate estimation of runoff considering local geo-environmental and meteorological conditions in other catchments also for proper planning and management of the watershed.