Extraction of process-based topographic model units using SRTM elevation data for Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB) in different landscapes

The concept of this research is justified to the integration of landscape components for hydrological modelling within distributed models. Distributed models are based on homogeneous entities which are delineated using landscape parameters such as topography, land use, soil, and geology. In ungauged basins most of these required data are only available on a coarse spatial resolution. In order to by-pass this gap the globally and freely available data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) were used to obtain model entities on an adequate resolution of 30m and 90m. The research relates to two research hypotheses that focus on the integration of landscape components in hydrological modelling for the application in the program Prediction of Ungauged Basins (PUB) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS). The method relies on the assumption of a strong, process-driven feedback between the topography and further landscape components as well as runoff dynamics which can be quantified using geoinformation techniques. It is expected that the water balance of catchments with insufficient hydrometric infrastructure and data availability can be estimated using SRTM-based delineations of process-oriented model entities. Entities represent response units (RU) which were implemented in distributive hydrological models.