scholarly journals On the Changing Contribution of Snow to the Hydrology of the Fraser River Basin, Canada

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 1344-1365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Do Hyuk Kang ◽  
Xiaogang Shi ◽  
Huilin Gao ◽  
Stephen J. Déry
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Kendall Test ◽  
Fraser River ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Vic Model ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation

Abstract This paper presents an application of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model to the Fraser River basin (FRB) of British Columbia (BC), Canada, over the latter half of the twentieth century. The Fraser River is the longest waterway in BC and supports the world’s most abundant Pacific Ocean salmon populations. Previous modeling and observational studies have demonstrated that the FRB is a snow-dominated system, but with climate change, it may evolve to a pluvial regime. Thus, the goal of this study is to evaluate the changing contribution of snow to the hydrology of the FRB over the latter half of the twentieth century. To this end, a 0.25° atmospheric forcing dataset is used to drive the VIC model from 1949 to 2006 (water years) at a daily time step over a domain covering the entire FRB. A model evaluation is first conducted over 11 major subwatersheds of the FRB to quantitatively assess the spatial variations of snow water equivalent (SWE) and runoff (R). The ratio of the spatially averaged maximum SWE to R (RSR) is used to quantify the contribution of snow to the runoff in the 11 subwatersheds of interest. From 1949 to 2006, RSR exhibits a significant decline in 9 of the 11 subwatersheds (with p < 0.05 according to the Mann–Kendall test statistics). To determine the sensitivity of RSR, the air temperature and precipitation in the forcing dataset are then perturbed. The ratio RSR decreases more significantly, especially during the 1990s and 2000s, when air temperatures have warmed considerably compared to the 1950s. On the other hand, increasing precipitation by a multiplicative factor of 1.1 causes RSR to decrease. As the climate continues to warm, ecological processes and human usage of natural resources in the FRB may be substantially affected by its transition from a snow to a hybrid (nival/pluvial) and even a rain-dominated system.

Hydroclimatic Response of Watersheds to Urban Intensity: An Observational and Modeling-Based Analysis for the White River Basin, Indiana

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoxiang Yang ◽  
Laura C. Bowling ◽  
Keith A. Cherkauer ◽  
Bryan C. Pijanowski ◽  
Dev Niyogi
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
Surface Characteristics ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Vic Model ◽  
White River ◽  
Urban Model ◽  
Streamflow Regime

Abstract Impervious surface area (ISA) has different surface characteristics from the natural land cover and has great influence on watershed hydrology. To assess the urbanization effects on streamflow regimes, the authors analyzed the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow data of 16 small watersheds in the White River [Indiana (IN)] basin. Correlation between hydrologic metrics (flow distribution, daily variation in streamflow, and frequency of high-flow events) and ISA was investigated by employing the nonparametric Mann–Kendall method. Results derived from the 16 watersheds show that urban intensity has a significant effect on all three hydrologic metrics. The Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model was modified to represent ISA in urbanized basins using a bulk parameterization approach. The model was then applied to the White River basin to investigate the potential ability to simulate the water and energy cycle response to urbanization. Correlation analysis for individual VIC grid cells indicates that the VIC urban model was able to reproduce the slope magnitude and mean value of the USGS streamflow metrics. The urban model also reproduced the urban heat island (UHI) seen in the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature products, especially for the grids encompassing the city of Indianapolis, IN. The difference of the hydrologic metrics obtained from the VIC model with and without urban representation indicates that the streamflow regime in the White River has been modified because of urban development. The observed data, together with model analysis, suggested that 3%–5% ISA in a watershed is the detectable threshold, beyond which urbanization effects start to have a statistically significant influence on streamflow regime.

scholarly journals Comparing Large-Scale Hydrological Model Predictions with Observed Streamflow in the Pacific Northwest: Effects of Climate and Groundwater*

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 2501-2521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Safeeq ◽  
Guillaume S. Mauger ◽  
Gordon E. Grant ◽  
Ivan Arismendi ◽  
Alan F. Hamlet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Rank Correlation ◽  
Hydrologic Models ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Vic Model ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Model Parameterization ◽  
The Pacific

Abstract Assessing uncertainties in hydrologic models can improve accuracy in predicting future streamflow. Here, simulated streamflows using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model at coarse (°) and fine (°) spatial resolutions were evaluated against observed streamflows from 217 watersheds. In particular, the adequacy of VIC simulations in groundwater- versus runoff-dominated watersheds using a range of flow metrics relevant for water supply and aquatic habitat was examined. These flow metrics were 1) total annual streamflow; 2) total fall, winter, spring, and summer season streamflows; and 3) 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 95th flow percentiles. The effect of climate on model performance was also evaluated by comparing the observed and simulated streamflow sensitivities to temperature and precipitation. Model performance was evaluated using four quantitative statistics: nonparametric rank correlation ρ, normalized Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency NNSE, root-mean-square error RMSE, and percent bias PBIAS. The VIC model captured the sensitivity of streamflow for temperature better than for precipitation and was in poor agreement with the corresponding temperature and precipitation sensitivities derived from observed streamflow. The model was able to capture the hydrologic behavior of the study watersheds with reasonable accuracy. Both total streamflow and flow percentiles, however, are subject to strong systematic model bias. For example, summer streamflows were underpredicted (PBIAS = −13%) in groundwater-dominated watersheds and overpredicted (PBIAS = 48%) in runoff-dominated watersheds. Similarly, the 5th flow percentile was underpredicted (PBIAS = −51%) in groundwater-dominated watersheds and overpredicted (PBIAS = 19%) in runoff-dominated watersheds. These results provide a foundation for improving model parameterization and calibration in ungauged basins.

scholarly journals Changes in Snow Storage in the Upper Hron River Basin (Slovakia)

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-160
Author(s):  
Katarína Kotríková ◽  
Kamila Hlavčová ◽  
Róbert Fencík
Keyword(s):  
Snow Cover ◽  
Snow Depth ◽  
Satellite Images ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
Kendall Test ◽  
Measured Data ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Snow Storage ◽  
Snow Water

Abstract An evaluation of changes in the snow cover in mountainous basins in Slovakia and a validation of MODIS satellite images are provided in this paper. An analysis of the changes in snow cover was given by evaluating changes in the snow depth, the duration of the snow cover, and the simulated snow water equivalent in a daily time step using a conceptual hydrological rainfall-runoff model with lumped parameters. These values were compared with the available measured data at climate stations. The changes in the snow cover and the simulated snow water equivalent were estimated by trend analysis; its significance was tested using the Mann-Kendall test. Also, the satellite images were compared with the available measured data. From the results, it is possible to see a decrease in the snow depth and the snow water equivalent from 1961-2010 in all the months of the winter season, and significant decreasing trends were indicated in the months of December, January and February

Streamflow Changes in the Duero River Basin using an Ensemble of Euro-CORDEX Projections

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricio Yeste ◽  
Juan José Rosa-Cánovas ◽  
Emilio Romero-Jiménez ◽  
Matilde García-Valdecasas-Ojeda ◽  
Sonia Raquel Gámiz-Fortis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Climate Projections ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Future Period ◽  
Rcp Scenarios ◽  
Vic Model

<p>Climate change has lead to a generalized decrease of precipitation and an increase of temperature in the Iberian Peninsula during the last decades. These changes will be more intense over the course of the 21<sup>th</sup> century according to global climate projections. As a consequence, water resources are expected to decrease, particularly in the Duero River Basin.</p><p>This study is focused on the hydrological response of the Duero River Basin to the climate change. For this end, firstly, the implementation of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model in this Basin has been carried out. The VIC model has been calibrated for the period 2000-2009 with a dataset of daily precipitation, temperature and streamflow. Precipitation and temperature data are extracted from SPREAD/STEAD, a dataset that covers the Peninsular Spain at 0.05º of spatial resolution. Streamflow data are provided by the Spanish Center for Public Work Experimentation and Study (CEDEX, Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de ObrasPúblicas). Subsequently, the VIC model has been validated for the period 2009-2011in order to verify that the model outputs fit well with the observational data.</p><p>After the validation of the VIC model for present climate, secondly, the impacts of climate change in the Duero River Basin have been analyzed by developing several future simulations using an ensemble of 18 members from the Euro-CORDEX database and three study periods: 1975-2005 as the historical period; 2020-2050 as the short-term future period, and 2070-2100 as the long-term future period. The Euro-CORDEX simulations for the two future periods are driven under two different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5.</p><p>The first results of this work show that the VIC model outputs are in good agreement with the observed streamflow, for both the calibration and validation periods. In the context of climate change, a generalized decrease of the streamflow is expected in the Duero River Basin. The results from this study could be of interest for water policy makers and practitioners in the next decades.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Duero River Basin, VIC model, climate change, streamflow, projections.</p><p>ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: All the simulations were conducted in the ALHAMBRA cluster (http://alhambra.ugr.es/) of the University of Granada. This work was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects CGL2013-48539-R and CGL2017-89836-390-R, with additional support from the European Community Funds (FEDER). The first author was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain (FPU grant FPU17/02098).</p>

scholarly journals A 431-Yr Reconstruction of Western Colorado Snowpack from Tree Rings

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1551-1561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie A. Woodhouse
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Transitional Zone ◽  
Winter Precipitation ◽  
Winter Climate ◽  
Western Colorado

Abstract A tree-ring-based reconstruction for 1 April snow water equivalent (SWE) is generated for the Gunnison River basin region in western Colorado. The reconstruction explains 63% of the variance in the instrumental record and extends from 1569 to 1999. When the twentieth-century part of the record is compared to the full record, the variability and extremes in the twentieth century appear representative of the long-term record. However, years of extreme SWE (low and high) and persistent low SWE events are not evenly distributed throughout the record. The twentieth century is notable for several periods that lack extreme years, and along with the nineteenth century and the second half of the eighteenth century, contains many fewer persistent low SWE events than the first half of the reconstruction. Low SWE in the western United States is associated with several circulation patterns, including the Pacific–North American (PNA) pattern and those related to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), but the Gunnison River basin is on the edge of the area with a strong relationship to the PNA and is generally in a transitional zone with respect to regional ENSO influences. Tree-ring chronologies from Oregon and New Mexico, regions impacted by ENSO, were used as rough proxies of northwestern and southwestern U.S. winter precipitation to explore possible associations between Gunnison SWE and winter climate in these two regions over the past four centuries.

scholarly journals The Cache la Poudre river basin snow water equivalent modeling with NewAge-JGrass

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 4447-4474 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Formetta ◽  
S. K. Kampf ◽  
O. David ◽  
R. Rigon
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Automatic Calibration ◽  
Snow Melting ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Equivalent Time ◽  
Cache La Poudre River ◽  
Snow Water

Abstract. The paper presents a snow water equivalent model as part of the hydrological modeling system NewAge-JGrass. The model take in account of the main physical processes influencing the snow melting (precipitation form separation, melting and freezing modeling) coupled with the snowpack mass conservation equation. The snow melting depends not only on the air temperature but also on the radiation received by the pixel. The model is perfectly integrated in the NewAge-JGrass modeling system and uses many of its components such as shortwave radiation balance, krigings and automatic calibration algorithms. As all the NewAge-JGrass components, the presented model can be executed both in raster and in vector mode and the simulation time step can be daily, hourly or sub-hourly as the user needs. The model is applied on the Cache la Poudre river basin (CO, USA). Three are the applications presented in the paper. Firstly, the simulation of snow water equivalent in three different measurement stations is performed. Model parameters are calibrated and model performances are quantitatively computed by comparing simulated and measured snow water equivalent time series. Indices of goodness of fit such as Kling–Gupta Efficiency, Index of Agreement and Percentage Bias are computed. Secondly, the representativeness of the model parameters in different locations is discussed. Finally a raster mode application is performed: snow water equilvalent maps on the whole Cache la Poudre river are computed. In all the applications the model performance are satisfactory in term of goodness of fitting measured snow water equivalent time series. The integration of the model in the NewAge-JGrass system allows the used to o enjoy all the component of the system: input data computation, output maps visualizetion in the GIS JGrass, model parameters automatic calibration.

scholarly journals Examining controls on peak annual streamflow and floods in the Fraser River Basin of British Columbia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles L. Curry ◽  
Francis W. Zwiers
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Fraser River ◽  
Annual Maximum ◽  
Daily Streamflow ◽  
Annual Peak

Abstract. The Fraser River basin (FRB) of British Columbia is one of the largest and most important watersheds in Western North America, and is home to a rich diversity of biological species and economic assets that depend implicitly upon its extensive riverine habitats. The hydrology of the FRB is dominated by snow accumulation and melt processes, leading to a prominent annual peak streamflow invariably occurring in June–July. However, while annual peak daily streamflow (APF) during the spring freshet in the FRB is historically well correlated with basin-averaged, April 1 snow water equivalent (SWE), there are numerous occurrences of anomalously large APF in below- or near-normal SWE years, some of which have resulted in damaging floods in the region. An imperfect understanding of which other climatic factors contribute to these anomalously large APFs hinders robust projections of their magnitude and frequency. We employ the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) process-based hydrological model driven by gridded observations to investigate the key controlling factors of anomalous APF events in the FRB and four of its subbasins that contribute more than 70 % of the annual flow at Fraser-Hope. The relative influence of a set of predictors characterizing the interannual variability of rainfall, snowfall, snowpack (characterized by the annual maximum value, SWEmax), soil moisture and temperature on simulated APF at Hope (the main outlet of the FRB) and at the subbasin outlets is examined within a regression framework. The influence of large-scale climate modes of variability (the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)) on APF magnitude is also assessed, and placed in context with these more localized controls. The results indicate that next to SWEmax (which strongly controls the annual maximum of soil moisture), the snowmelt rate, the ENSO and PDO indices, and rate of warming subsequent to the date of SWEmax are the most influential predictors of APF magnitude in the FRB and its subbasins. The identification of these controls on annual peak flows in the region may be of use in the context of seasonal prediction or future projected streamflow behaviour.

Effects of Temperature and Precipitation Variability on Snowpack Trends in the Western United States*

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 4545-4561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan F. Hamlet ◽  
Philip W. Mote ◽  
Martyn P. Clark ◽  
Dennis P. Lettenmaier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Precipitation Variability ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Decadal Scale

Abstract Recent studies have shown substantial declines in snow water equivalent (SWE) over much of the western United States in the last half century, as well as trends toward earlier spring snowmelt and peak spring streamflows. These trends are influenced both by interannual and decadal-scale climate variability, and also by temperature trends at longer time scales that are generally consistent with observations of global warming over the twentieth century. In this study, the linear trends in 1 April SWE over the western United States are examined, as simulated by the Variable Infiltration Capacity hydrologic model implemented at 1/8° latitude–longitude spatial resolution, and driven by a carefully quality controlled gridded daily precipitation and temperature dataset for the period 1915–2003. The long simulations of snowpack are used as surrogates for observations and are the basis for an analysis of regional trends in snowpack over the western United States and southern British Columbia, Canada. By isolating the trends due to temperature and precipitation in separate simulations, the influence of temperature and precipitation variability on the overall trends in SWE is evaluated. Downward trends in 1 April SWE over the western United States from 1916 to 2003 and 1947 to 2003, and for a time series constructed using two warm Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) epochs concatenated together, are shown to be primarily due to widespread warming. These temperature-related trends are not well explained by decadal climate variability associated with the PDO. Trends in SWE associated with precipitation trends, however, are very different in different time periods and are apparently largely controlled by decadal variability rather than longer-term trends in climate.

scholarly journals Contribution of Snow-Melt Water to the Streamflow over the Three-River Headwater Region, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1585
Author(s):  
Sisi Li ◽  
Mingliang Liu ◽  
Jennifer C. Adam ◽  
Huawei Pi ◽  
Fengge Su ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Snow Water Equivalent ◽  
Influence Factor ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Microwave Radiometer ◽  
Hydrological Regime ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Snow Hydrology ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Vic Model

Snowmelt water is essential to the water resources management over the Three-River Headwater Region (TRHR), where hydrological processes are influenced by snowmelt runoff and sensitive to climate change. The objectives of this study were to analyse the contribution of snowmelt water to the total streamflow (fQ,snow) in the TRHR by applying a snowmelt tracking algorithm and Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model. The ratio of snowfall to precipitation, and the variation of the April 1 snow water equivalent (SWE) associated with fQ,snow, were identified to analyse the role of snowpack in the hydrological cycle. Prior to the simulation, the VIC model was validated based on the observed streamflow data to recognize its adequacy in the region. In order to improve the VIC model in snow hydrology simulation, Advanced Scanning Microwave Radiometer E (ASMR-E) SWE product data was used to compare with VIC output SWE to adjust the snow parameters. From 1971 to 2007, the averaged fQ,snow was 19.9% with a significant decreasing trend over entire TRHR (P<0.05).The influence factor resulted in the rate of change in fQ,snow which were different for each sub-basin TRHR. The decreasing rate of fQ,snow was highest of 0.24%/year for S_Lantsang, which should be due to the increasing streamflow and the decreasing snowmelt water. For the S_Yangtze, the increasing streamflow contributed more than the stable change of snowmelt water to the decreasing fQ,snow with a rate of 0.1%/year. The April 1 SWE with the minimum value appearing after 2000 and the decreased ratio of snowfall to precipitation during the study period, suggested the snow solid water resource over the TRHR was shrinking. Our results imply that the role of snow in the snow-hydrological regime is weakening in the TRHR in terms of water supplement and runoff regulation due to the decreased fQ,snow and snowfall.

A two-stage surrogate model based on ANN and AdaBoost for multi-objective parameter optimization of the Variable Infiltration Capacity model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue-Ping Xu ◽  
Haiting Gu ◽  
Ma Di
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Surrogate Model ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Variable Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Infiltration Capacity ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Nsga Ii ◽  
Xiangjiang River ◽  
Vic Model ◽  
Multi Objective

&lt;p&gt;Distributed hydrologic models have been widely used for its functional diversity and rationality in theory. However, calibration of distributed models is computationally expensive with a large number of model runs, even if an efficient multi-objective algorithm is employed. To alleviate the burden of computation, we develop a two-stage surrogate model by coupling backpropagation neural network with AdaBoost to calibrate the parameters of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model. The first stage model selects the parameter sets with simulated outputs in the crucial range and the second stage model estimates the values of outputs accurately with the parameter sets picked out by the first stage model. The developed surrogate model is tested in three different river basins in China, namely the Lanjiang River basin (LJR), the Xiangjiang River basin (XJR) and the Upper Brahmaputra River basin (UBR). With sufficient samples generated by &amp;#949;-NSGA II, the surrogate model performs very well with a low error rate of classification (ER) and root mean square error (RMSE). The streamflow simulated with the surrogate model is nearly the same as that from the original VIC model, indicating that the surrogate model does gain a remarkable speedup compared with the original VIC model.&lt;/p&gt;

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