Calibration & Validation of SWMM Model for Urban Watershed

The use of hydrological models to simulate rainfall-runoff events is an important tool for the evaluation of a watershed for different land uses, the SWMM being one of the most widely used models to represent these processes in urban areas, one of selected area is VTU campus, Belgaum. This work applied the SWMM in six small sub catchment basins in VTU campus, Belgaum aiming to evaluate the impact of the model parameters on the watershed responses. Observed pluviometric and fluviometric data were used in the model calibration, a process made by a manual trial and error method and the simulated and the observed runoff in the outlets were compared. In the calibration, the average determination coefficients from 0.87 to 0.99 were obtained, as were runoff peak errors from 0% to 31% and runoff volume errors from 0.3% to 71.1%. The calibrated parameters were distinct for high and low rainfall intensities in the same basin. The sensitivity of the parameters was shown to be variable according to the physical basin characteristics.