Modeling Sediment Yield-Case Study Guder Watershed, Blue Nile Basin, Central Ethiopia

Guder watershed is one of the watershed found in Blue Nile basin, central Ethiopia, mostly eroded area due to the widespread of agricultural land. This study is based on the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model interface of GIS environment to simulate sediment yield of the watershed at outlet. The stream flow was calibrated for ten years (1996-2005) and validated for seven years (2006-2012) at Guder gauging station using SWAT-CUP to check performance of the model. The model performance has been evaluated by using statistical parameters of coefficient of determination (R²) and Nash-Sutcliffe simulation efficiency (NSE) 0.92 and 0.80 respectively for calibration. Model validation results 0.83 and 0.65 for R² and NSE, respectively. Both calibration and validation results indicate that the measured values show good agreement with simulated flow. Sediment yield from each sub watershed were determined and prone soil erosion areas has been identified for management planning.