The inputs to FCFC are as follows:

• Rainfall – a continuous time series of rainfall data that represents the rainfall across the catchment
• Potential evapotranspiration – a continuous time series of potential evapotranspiration data that represents the potential evapotranspiration across the catchment.
• Flow gaugings – daily flow values at the outlet of the catchment. This data may be observed at a gauging station or come from another model This data are used for model calibration and generation of new flow time series.
• Proportion of forest cover – This is used to represent the forest cover conditions that existed during the time series of flow data.
• Catchment area – This is required for conversion depht of runoff for flow inputs or outputs.
  

Note: Various time series formats are supported within the TIME environment. Some of these include:

• Comma separated value time series format (.cdt). Note that this supersedes the files that used to have the too generic .csv extension. If you used some .csv files prior to June 2004, you just need to change the extension to .cdt
• IQQM daily time series format (.iqqm)
• AWBM daily time series format (.awb). Note that existing datasets may not always have the dates included with the data: you are strongly encouraged to add them.
• Time series format from the Francis Chiew and Tom McMahon dataset of Australian catchments (.dat)
• QDNR SILO daily time series format (.silo5)
• SWAT daily time series (.pcp)
• Tarsier daily time series format (.tts)

File Formats

More information about file formats supported by this application can be found in the Toolkit Data Files guide.

FCFC has been specifically designed to investigate the impacts of changes in forest cover on flow. The amount of data used to validate this model was quite limited. The major data sets use to assess the methodology were from Australia and South Africa, for catchments ranging in size from 18 ha to 320 ha. Consequently the methodology has only been validated on a small range of climatic conditions for predominantly small catchments.

When using this tool the modeller needs to take into consideration that:

• This tool uses several optimisers to find the optimum solution for fitting flow duration curves and estimating a single bucket rainfall runoff model. Under certain circumstances this may not reach a suitable solution, in such cases the model will give an error message. This tool is not appropriate for these catchments.
• A result screen is provided so that modellers can assess the fit of the model. If the fit is too poor then this tool should not be used for generating flows.
• Generated flows should be checked to ensure that the change in flows is consistent with the change in forest cover.
• The change in flow due to forest cover is small compared to other factors such as climate variability. Consequently only major changes in forest cover will results in significant changes in flow.
• This tool is only appropriate for changes in forest cover and is not appropriate for other land use changes.
• The tool is not appropriate in catchments with significant irrigation or regulation.