An efficient semi-distributed hillslope sediment model: the Anjeni in the sub humid Ethiopian Highlands

Abstract. Prediction of sediment loss in Africa is not well developed. In most case models developed in western countries with a temperate climate do not perform well in the monsoon climate prevailing in Africa. In this paper we base our sediment prediction on a simple distributed saturated excess hydrology model that predicts surface runoff from bottom lands that become saturated during the rainy season and from severely degrade lands and interflow and base flow from the remaining portions of the landscape. By developing an equation that relate surface runoff and sediment concentration from runoff source areas assuming that base flow and interflow are sediment free, we were able to predict the daily sediment concentrations in a 113 ha Anjeni watershed in the Ethiopian Highlands with a Nash Sutcliffe efficiency ranging from 0.64–0.77 using only two calibrated sediment parameters. The daily flows were predicted with a Nash Sutcliffe efficiency values ranging from 0.80 to 0.84 based on 14% of the watershed consisted of degraded area as the only surface runoff source. The analysis seems to suggest that identifying the runoff source areas and predicting the surface runoff correctly is an important step in predicting the sediment concentration at least for the Anjeni watershed.