Vishal K.

Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

A SIMPLE WATER BALANCE MODEL

THE WATER BALANCE 2

THORNTWAITE-MATHER SOIL WATER BALANCE MODEL 3

Key Features 3

Model Description 3

Notation 4

Equations 5

Model Input 6

MODEL OUTPUT 6
The Hydrograph 6

Seasonal Soil Water status 7

Applications and Limitations 8

REFERENCES 9

AUTHORS

Vishal K. Mehta (Arghyam Trust/Cornell University)

Dr. M. Todd walter (Cornell University)
Dr. Stephen D. DeGloria (Cornell University)
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

A simple water balance model

The water balance
Constructing a water balance is one of the first tasks in understanding the water
regime of a specific area. In simple terms, a water balance is a budgeting
exercise that assesses the proportion of rainfall that becomes stream flow (or
runoff), evapotranspiration, and drainage (or groundwater recharge). Figure 1
below represents a simple 'box' model representation of a water balance, which
could be represented by Equation 1 (Thorntwaite et al, 1955;1957).

Eq 1 P = ET + RO + dSW + D; where dSW

dSW is the change in soil water over the
time step.

Figure 1 A conceptual water balance

Rainfall (P)
Evapotranspiration (ET)

Runoff or
Flow (Qo)

Soil Water (SW)

(SW)

Drainage (D)

Of these, rainfall and runoff (as stream flow) are directly measured, However to
close the water balance, either drainage (or groundwater recharge) or
Evapotranspiration (ET) also need to be estimated/measured. Both of these are
non-trivial tasks.

Water budgeting is frequently accomplished through water balance models, of

which there are a vast number.

The objectives of this document and following video tutorials are:

1. To introduce the reader to a simple water balance model, namely, the

Thorntwaite-Mather model, henceforth referred to as the T-M model (Thorntwaite
et al, 1955;1957; Steenhuis et al, 1986);
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

2. To provide the reader with the tools to construct a water balance for her/his
own region of interest, with the help of video tutorials and a sample Excel
spreadsheet that can be downloaded and modified.

This document is intended for general instructive purposes for an audience that
has some basic knowledge of water resources and associated terminology. No
advanced expertise should be needed to understand and use this tutorial.

Responsibility for conscientious and socially responsible use of this material rests
solely with the reader.

Thorntwaite-Mather soil water balance model

Key Features

The T-M model tracks the soil water status through time.

It is a lumped model that tracks soil water through time.

The entire watershed is treated as one unit (hence lumped).
Is appropriate for modeling at daily, weekly or monthly time steps.
A simple spreadsheet (e.g. Excel) model. No specialized software is required.

Model Description

Figure 2 Conceptual Model

Drainage and runoff

P ET(PET)
Watershed Storage:
Includes lakes,
groundwater, and other
Excess natural detention
SW storage features

Soil Reservoir: S
Interface between
the watershed and
the atmosphere fS

Qo
River, Pond
Reservoir, etc
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

Figure 2 above summarizes a simple water balance model. Water is stored in

the soil reservoir until the soil water content (SW
(SW)) exceeds the available water
capacity (AWC)
(AWC),, at which point the excess goes into storage (S(S). The monthly
streamflow is a simple linear function of S. Determining the soil water budget
requires keeping track of the accumulated potential water loss (APWL
(APWL)) and the
amount of water in the soil (SW
(SW).).

Watershed Storage and River Discharge:

All Excess water, i.e., water above the AWC,
AWC, goes into watershed storage (S
(S),
which in-turn, feeds river discharge (Q
(Qo) from the watershed.

Eq 2 S t S t 1 Excess

Hydrologists commonly assume that discharge is a constant fraction of

watershed storage, especially for groundwater discharge into rivers this
assumption is called the linear reservoir assumption.

Eq 3 Qo fS t

Where f is the reservoir coefficient and 0 < f < 1. If data are available, f can be
empirically determined.

Notation

AWC = Available Water Capacity [depth]

(field capacity-wilting point)X(soil depth)
SW = Available Soil Water (i.e., above wilting pt.) [depth]
APWL = Accumulated Potential Water Loss (negative) [depth]
P = Net Precipitation; P - PET [depth]
P = Precipitation [depth]
PET = Potential Evapotranspiration [depth]
AET = Actual Evapotranspiration [depth]
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

Equations

Calculations to determine SW and APWL are performed for each time step using
monthly precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PET). Excess water,
i.e., net precipitation (P) in excess of the soils water holding capacity (AWC)
leaves the soil and is stored in the watershed and eventually released to the
river. Table 1 below summarizes the calculations.

Table 1 Equations

Situation in the
Watershed SW APWL Excess
Soil is drying
P 0 APWLt
AWC exp APWLt 1 P =0
AWC

Soil is wetting
P 0 but SWt
SWt 1 P AWC ln =0
SWt 1 P AWC AWC

Soil is wetting
above capacity
P 0 but AWC =0 SWt 1 P AWC
SWt 1 P AWC

When P>PET, AET =PET

When P<PET, AET = dSW + P
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

Model Input

The required model input data are:

Rainfall (P) : Accurate and local rainfall data.

Potential Evapotranspiration (PET) : Procedures to estimate PET are on the India

Water Portal, with detailed procedures in Allen at al (1998), online at
http://www.fao.org/docrep/X0490E/x0490e00.htm),
http://www.fao.org/docrep/X0490E/x0490e00.htm),

Apart from the data input, the user needs to input 3 effective parameters:

Available water capacity (AWC),

Rooting depth,
Linear reservoir coefficient 'f'

The model is sensitive to the above parameters, as the video tutorial

demonstrates. Knowledge of your study area helps in informing what values are
entered for the above parameters.

It is recommended that the user also has observed stream flow data, to tune the
model so that modeled stream flow closely matches the observed stream flow.
There is substantial risk of a very incorrect water balance without this check on
model output.

Model output
The Hydrograph

Model output includes simulations of :

Stream Flow (Qo)
Actual Evapotranspiration (AET)
and
Soil Water status

Additionally, using Eq 1. an estimate of Drainage or Groundwater recharge can

be made. Annual estimates of the water balance can be made based on the daily
or monthly water balance. Monthly averages over several years of data are very
useful in getting an idea of the long term seasonal water balance regime.
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006
Figure 3 below demonstrates the model stream flow output, along with observed
input rainfall data and observed stream flow data., for a watershed in south India.
In this example, the annual proportions of rainfall were - 85% AET; 11% stream
flow, and 4% groundwater recharge.

Figure 3 Example model hydrograph with observed rainfall and flow

As mentioned, it is very important to use local data as much as possible, and to

have observed stream flow to compare with the model stream flow. In the above
example, as the video tutorial explains, the rainfall is local, but the PET estimated
is from coarse resolution data. Especially in mountainous areas where rainfall, as
well as temperature and humidity, can be very variable, it is likely that PET
estimates from coarse resolution data will be over-estimated. This is likely what is
happening in Figure 2.

Seasonal Soil Water status

The output can be summarized in a very useful manner by collating it into long-
term monthly averages. This allows the tracking of soil moisture status through
the year, to determine periods of soil water deficit, soil water recharge, soil water
utilization, and soil water surplus. These periods are described in Table 2 and
demonstrated in Figure 4 below:

Table 2 : Seasonal soil water status

Soil Water Deficit (AET<PET): mid-Nov to May in example

Soil Water Recharge (from when P>AET until accumulated (AET-P) is replenished) :
May to August in example
Soil Water Surplus : Sept to December in example
Soil Water Utilization (when P<AET) : occurs from December through April in example
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

Figure 4 Monthly average soil water balance

Water
surplus

Soil moisture recharge

Water
deficit

Soil moisture
utilization

Applications and Limitations

The T-M model has the advantage of being one of the most simple models. It can
be used to determine a general estimate of the water balance regime, for
individual fields to small watersheds. However, as in all scientific investigation,
this tutorial should be used responsibly and with a full knowledge of the user's
specific study area. This model and its variants have been used, for example, for
irrigation scheduling of individual fields, water budgeting of small watersheds,
generating actual evapotranspiration estimates for comparison with other
methods - to name a few applications.

Being a lumped model, in the form described, the T-M model does not provide
spatially distributed predictions, nor does it perform flow routing routines.
 Vishal K. Mehta
Arghyam/Cornell University
November 2006

References
Allen, R. G., Pereira, L.S., Raes, D., Smith, M. (1998). "Crop evapotranspiration:
Guidelines for computing crop water requirements" FAO Irrigation and drainage
paper 56, Rome, Italy.

Thorntwaite, C. W., J. R. Mather (1955). "The water balance." Publ. Climatol.

8(1).

Thorntwaite, C. W., J. R. Mather (1957). "Instructions and tables for computing

potential evapotranspiration and the water balance." Publ. Climatol. 10(3).
10(3).

Steenhuis, T.S. and W.H. Van der Molen. 1986. The Thornthwaite-Mather
procedure as a simple engineering method to predict recharge. J. Hydrol.
Hydrol.
84:221-229.