Introduction:

Water is lifeline of agriculture which is mainstay of the economy of Pakistan. The

country has the biggest contiguous irrigation system in the world known as Indus
Basin Irrigation System (IBIS), which has its across border catchments extended to
India, and China. Despite having the biggest irrigation system, Pakistan, which
once had surplus water, is now rapidly becoming water deficit country. Major
portion of the water resources of the country originate from glacial and snow
melt in high altitude mountainous catchments. Forecasting flow generated by
these catchments is critical to water resources management, water distribution,
and operational regulation of reservoirs and, planning and management for hydel
power generation. For forecasting flow, numerous advanced models are available,
but their judicious utility requires comprehensive meteorological data on
temporal and spatial scale.
A number of methods are there for calculating or estimating runoff as rational
method, Green Ampt method and SCS curve number method.

Study Area
Munda Dam watershed lies between geographic Latitude 34⁰ 21’ 12” N to 35⁰ 15’
21’’N and Longitude 71⁰ 31’ 58.71” E to 72⁰ 10’ 31’’ E about 37 km north of
Peshawar near Charsaddah in Mohmand Agency, Federally Administrative Tribal
Area (FATA). The area is comprised of low topped hills and barren slopes. The
streams are flowing from East to Southeast. Munda dam watershed (the study
area) drains into Swat River. Precipitation is scarce and mostly happens in the
winter season. The typical weather of this region ranges from sub-humid to semi
arid and moderate. Geomorphology of the area has a principal effect on the local
climate. Precipitation happens because of the monsoons and westerly winds. The
average rainfall ranges from 30 cm to 100 cm. the precipitation is more frequent
in winter than that of summer.

SCS Curve Number Method:

In the early 1950s, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (then named the Soil
Conservation Service (SCS) developed a method for estimating runoff from
rainfall.
This method is also referred as the CN method. The SCS curve number method is
based on the water balance equation & two fundamental hypotheses which are
stated as, (1) ratio of the actual direct runoff to the potential runoff is equal to the
ratio of the actual infiltration to the potential infiltration, and (2) the amount of
initial abstraction is some fraction of the potential infiltration. (Handbook of
Hydrology, 1972).