• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.969-982
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• 2008

As hydrological models have been progressively developed, they are recognized as appropriate tools to manage water resources. Especially, the need to evaluate the effects of landuse and climate change on hydrological phenomena has been increased, which requires powerful validation methods for the hydrological models to be employed. As measured streamflow data at many locations may not be available, or include significant errors in application of hydrological models, streamflow data simulated by models only might be used to conduct hydrological analysis. In many cases, reducing errors in model simulations requires a powerful model validation method. In this research, we demonstrated a validation methodology of SWAT model using observed flow in two basins with different physical characteristics. First, we selected two basins, Gap-cheon basin and Yongdam basin located in the Guem River Basin, showing different hydrological characteristics. Next, the methodology developed to estimate parameter values for the Gap-cheon basin was applied for estimating those for the Yongdam basin without calibration a priori, and sought for validation of the SWAT. Application result with SWAT for Yongdam basin showed $R_{eff}$ ranging from 0.49 to 0.85, and $R^{2}$ from 0.49 to 0.84. As well, comparison of predicted flow and measured flow in each subbasin showed reasonable agreement. Furthermore, the model reproduced the whole trends of measured total flow and low flow, though peak flows were rather underestimated. The results of this study suggest that SWAT can be applied for predicting effects of future climate and landuse changes on flow variability in river basins. However, additional studies are recommended to further verify the validity of the mixed method in other river basins.