Abstract

Author:
\Emeribe, C.N., Isagba, E.S., Ezeh, C.U., Izinyon, O. C., Ogbomida, E.T.

Doi: 10.26480/efcc.02.2024.98.109

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

To improve the understanding of the response patterns of river basins to climatic variability, especially with regards to basin planning, the present study utilized Remote Sensing coupled with SCS.CN and NRCS estimation methods to generate rainfall and streamflow of ungauged Okhuwan and Okhaihe catchments in Benin City. The correlation coefficients ranging from 0.83 t0 0.86 between Nigerian Meteorological Agency NIMET data and estimated rainfall were used as indicators of the model effectiveness. Estimated mean annual value ranged from a minimum value of 1443.9 mm in Obadan town to a maximum value of 1499.2mm in Okhuwan catchment, while in Okhaihe catchment, the lowest annual rainfall of 1176.6 mm was estimated for Ayen town and 1217.3 mm being the maximum annual amount in Edopa/Odjeva town. In Okhuwan catchment estimated mean annual streamflow values are 158.6 m3/s and 184.4 m3/s using SCS-CN and NRCS methods, while in Okhaihe catchment annual streamflow values were 166.3 m3/s and 163.5 m3/s using SCS-CN and NRCS methods respectively. Volumetric fluid flow rate (Q) was integrated with other variables such as density of water (ρ), gravity constant (g), height (h) and efficiency coefficient (η) to generate the potentials of various points across the catchments. In Okhuwan, mean power potentials were 13486.6 kW and 15194.3 kW using SCS-CN and NRCS computed streamflow values, while in Ohkaihe catchment mean power potentials were 11401.2kW and 12653.4 kW using SCS-CN and NRCS methods computed stream flow values. On the whole the investigated catchments showed great potentials for run-off-river hydropower scheme.