The adjusted EPCO (plant uptake compensation factor) value of 0.38 indicated that most water used by vegetation would be

from the upper soil profile because of a relatively higher groundwater table, sufficient soil moisture, and limited transpiration. The ESCO value of 0.69 also indicated that more water was being extracted from the upper level to compensate for the evaporative demand. A good calibration is most likely a combined effect from all selected parameter coefficients. However, the sensitivity of individual parameters varies. Because of snow and diverse elevations, the temperature and precipitation lapse rates were found to be important in simulating the hydrological processes in the Brahmaputra basin. The optimized temperature lapse rate was −5.5 °C per 1-km rise in elevation, which was found in agreement with temperature lapse rate between −5 °C to −7 °C per 1-km elevational rise used in other studies (Baral 3MA et al., 2014 and Thayyen et al., 2005). Precipitation in the Himalayan region

clearly varies with elevation (Bookhagen and Burbank, 2006), although the precipitation elevation relationship is not always linear (Immerzeel et al., 2014). Precipitation was observed to increase at a rate of 150 mm per 1-km rise in elevation in the valleys with elevations between 1396 and 2492 m; Precipitation then decreased at a rate of 240 mm per 1-km rise in elevation between the elevation range of 3539–3875 m, and then increased again at a rate of LDK378 manufacturer 60 mm per 1-km rise in elevation between 3981 and 5100 m (Baral et al., 2014). It was also reported that precipitation decreased with an increase in elevation in very high elevation regions in the Himalayas (Immerzeel et al., 2014). However, SWAT incorporates the PLAPS variable to account for the precipitation lapse rate as a global variable and does not allow incorporation of PLAPS values by elevation bands; therefore, the SUFI2 optimized precipitation lapse rate of 172.25 was used as a universal value for all elevation bands. This Liothyronine Sodium limitation can be considered a weakness of the SWAT

model. The low 8.26 value of GWQMN helped increased the baseflow, while the value of 0.01 for GW_REVAP facilitated the increase in baseflow by decreasing the water transfer from the shallow aquifer to the root zone, which was necessary to simulate flow during the low flow seasons. The observed and simulated estimates of the hydrological components for the 16-year baseline period are provided in Table 4. The average annual total observed precipitation was 1849 mm. The annual average simulated streamflow at Bahadurabad gauge station was 22,875 m3 s−1, which was slightly larger than the average observed streamflow (22,345 m3 s−1) for the same period (Table 3). The average daily observed minimum and maximum temperature was 3.2 °C and 14.2 °C, respectively. The average annual total water yield from the baseline simulation was 1279 mm.