Surface Runoff and Infiltration Processes in the Volta Basin, West Africa

Book excerpt: "The study presents the analyses of field observations and simulation experiments with an event-based, two-dimensional hydrodynamic model. The model summarized the interactions between temporally dynamic rainfall, infiltration process and surface runoff in a catchment with varied soil physio-hydraulic properties, surface-roughtness, slope-lengths and vegetation structure. Both observation and simulation results indicate that the observation scale affects runoff coefficient and runoff discharge per unit area. The effect of scale is a result of spatial variability in infiltration opportunities, which vary with the slop length and distribution of saturated conductivity, leading to different trasmission losses potential during runoff routing downslope. The magnitude of the difference is influenced by surface and vegetated microtopography, which determine the flow rate"--Back cover.