ASSESSING ATMOSPHERIC AND HYDROLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN THE EASTERN NILE BASIN THROUGH A COUPLED ATMOSPHERIC HYDROLOGICAL MODEL APPROACH

Abstract

Assessing the atmospheric and hydrological conditions in addition to water balance calculations in any area can pave the way to understand both atmospheric and hydrological systems and the interactions between them, in order to predict the effect of future climate change on the water resources within any region. Global gridded available datasets for some meteorological variables as temperature and precipitation represent very useful alternatives to ground observations. In this study we assess the performance of different gridded datasets for precipitation and temperature over the Eastern Nile Basin region, to be used later in validating atmospheric models and for driving or validating hydrological models of this area. Atmospheric and terrestrial water balance take place during the second part of the study using the outputs from WRF model. During the last part coupling between WRF and WRF-Hydro take place to simulate the eastern Nile Basin river flow, and a recommended configuration was found.