Hydrological Modelling in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas

Arid and semi-arid regions are defined as areas where water is at its most scarce. The hydrological regime in these areas is extreme and highly variable, and they face great pressures to deliver and manage freshwater resources. However, there is no guidance on the decision support tools that are needed to underpin flood and water resource management in arid areas. UNESCO initiated the Global network for Water and Development Information for arid lands (GWADI), and arranged a workshop of the world's leading experts to discuss these issues. This book presents chapters from contributors to the workshop, and includes case studies from the world's major arid regions to demonstrate model applications, and web links to tutorials and state-of-the-art modelling software. This volume is a valuable reference for researchers and engineers working on the water resources of arid and semi-arid regions.

Howard Wheater is Head of Environmental and Water Resource Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London, and co-Chair of UNESCO's Global Network on Water and Development Information for Arid Lands (GWADI). Soroosh Sorooshian is Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director of the Centre for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine. K. D. Sharma is Director of the National Institute of Hydrology, India, and a member of UNESCO's Global Network on Water and Development Information for Arid Lands (GWADI) Steering Committee. He is also a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Winand Staring Centre, the Netherlands.