Modeling hydrological processes influenced by soil, rock and vegetation in a small karst basin of southwest China

Abstract. Hydrological processes in the karst basin are controlled by the permeable multi-media consisting of soil pores, epikarst fractures and underground conduits. Distributed modeling of hydrological dynamics in such heterogeneously hydrogeological conditions is a challenging task. Based on the multi-layer structure of the distributed hydrology-soil-vegetation model (DHSVM), a distributed hydrological model for a karst basin was developed by integrating mathematical routings of porous Darcy flow, fissure flow and underground channel flow. Specifically, infiltration and saturated flow movement within epikarst fractures are expressed by the "cubic law" equation which is associated with fractural width, direction and spacing. A typical karst basin located in Guizhou province of southwest China was selected for this hydrological simulation. The basin has detailed meteorological, soil moisture content and underground flow discharges. In addition, in situ measurements of soil properties and hydraulic conductivities were also available. Distribution of epikarst fractures was statistically generated based on fractural features data collected during field investigations. Hydraulic conductivities of epikarst fractures are estimated based on observed flow discharges as initial values. These parameters together with others are further calibrated through marching the observed and simulated soil moisture contents and underground flow discharges from the basin outlet. The results show that the new model was able to capture the sharp increase and decrease of underground streamflow hydrograph, and as such can be used to investigate hydrological effects in such rock features.