Snowmelt and runoff assessment of Talas River Basin using remote sensing approach

Sammanfattning: Transboundary river basins provide inhabitance and water resources to millions of people around the globe and they are a source of dispute among neighbor countries also. This thesis focuses on the snow melt and runoff modeling of a small transboundary river, Talas; using a physically distributed rainfall-runoff model, TOPKAPI-ETH. Investigation on the use of remotely sensed precipitation estimates and MODIS snow cover images shows that they can be a key to model snowmelt and water resources of remote and un-gauged catchments. However the need of observed precipitation data from different regions and elevation zones of the basin is vital in generating the runoff with higher accuracy. Annual runoff prediction strategies from snow cover area is also proposed which can be of great help in efficient management of water resources and hence in resolving conflict between the riparian countries, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.