On the benefit of the Canadian Small Lake Model to better represent the impact of small natural lakes on GEM-Hydro streamflow simulations.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Gaborit ◽  
Murray MacKay ◽  
Camille Garnaud ◽  
Vincent Fortin
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Grid Point ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Dew Point ◽  
Multiple Model ◽  
Small Lake ◽  
Surface Component ◽  
Lake Model ◽  
The Impact

<p>This study aims at assessing the impact of a new lake model on streamflow simulations performed with the GEM-Hydro hydrologic model developed at ECCC. GEM-Hydro is at the heart of the National Surface and River Prediction System (NSRPS) which ECCC uses to forecast river flows over most of Canada. The GEM-Hydro model mainly consists of the GEM-Surf component to represent surface processes, and of the Watroute model to represent river and lake routing, in order to perform streamflow simulations and forecasts. The surface component of GEM-Hydro can simulate 5 different types of surfaces.  Currently, the water tile consists of a very simple algorithm which, in terms of water balance, consists of producing runoff fluxes simply equal to precipitation minus evaporation. This runoff over water surfaces is then provided as input, along with runoff and drainage generated over other surface tiles, to the Watroute model. The Watroute version used in GEM-Hydro currently only represents major lakes (area greater than 100km<sup>2</sup>) along the river networks, and does not represent the impact that small lakes can have on streamflow, which mainly consists in slowing down runoff before it reaches the main streams of the network.</p><p>Recently, the Canadian Small Lake Model (CSLM) was implemented in the surface component of GEM-Hydro to represent the energy and water balance over water tiles more accurately. So far, CSLM simulations have been shown promising in terms of evaporation, ice cover, absolute and dew point temperature simulations, compared with the former algorithm used over water. However, the impact of CSLM on the resulting streamflow simulations performed with GEM-Hydro has not been evaluated yet. This study aims first at evaluating the impact of CSLM on streamflow simulations, and secondly at testing different CSLM configurations as well as different coupling strategies with Watroute, with the objective of finding the best set up for the prediction of streamflow in Canada. For example, overland runoff generated by the land tile can be provided to the water tile of the same grid point in different ways, and the outflow computed at the outlet of the water tile can be computed with different parameters. Moreover, different outflow computations have to be taken into account depending on if the water tile of a grid point represents subgrid-scale lakes, or if on the contrary it belongs to a lake spanning over multiple model grid points.</p><p>To do so, different GEM-Hydro open-loop simulations have been performed on the Lake of the Woods watershed, located in Canada, with and without CSLM to represent water tiles. The CSLM configurations leading to the best results are presented here. CSLM simulations are also evaluated in terms of surface fluxes, to ensure that the main purpose of the model, which is to improve surface fluxes to ultimately improve atmospheric forecasts, is preserved, compared to the default configuration of the model. Ideas for further improving the coupling between the GEM-Hydro surface and routing components, in terms of lake processes, are also presented and will be tested in future work.</p>

scholarly journals Climate-vegetation-soil interactions and long-term hydrologic partitioning: signatures of catchment co-evolution

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2209-2217 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Troch ◽  
G. Carrillo ◽  
M. Sivapalan ◽  
T. Wagener ◽  
K. Sawicz
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Release Time ◽  
Potential Evaporation ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hydrologic Partitioning

Abstract. Budyko (1974) postulated that long-term catchment water balance is controlled to first order by the available water and energy. This leads to the interesting question of how do landscape characteristics (soils, geology, vegetation) and climate properties (precipitation, potential evaporation, number of wet and dry days) interact at the catchment scale to produce such a simple and predictable outcome of hydrological partitioning? Here we use a physically-based hydrologic model separately parameterized in 12 US catchments across a climate gradient to decouple the impact of climate and landscape properties to gain insight into the role of climate-vegetation-soil interactions in long-term hydrologic partitioning. The 12 catchment models (with different paramterizations) are subjected to the 12 different climate forcings, resulting in 144 10 yr model simulations. The results are analyzed per catchment (one catchment model subjected to 12 climates) and per climate (one climate filtered by 12 different model parameterization), and compared to water balance predictions based on Budyko's hypothesis (E/P = ϕ (Ep/P); E: evaporation, P: precipitation, Ep: potential evaporation). We find significant anti-correlation between average deviations of the evaporation index (E/P) computed per catchment vs. per climate, compared to that predicted by Budyko. Catchments that on average produce more E/P have developed in climates that on average produce less E/P, when compared to Budyko's prediction. Water and energy seasonality could not explain these observations, confirming previous results reported by Potter et al. (2005). Next, we analyze which model (i.e., landscape filter) characteristics explain the catchment's tendency to produce more or less E/P. We find that the time scale that controls subsurface storage release explains the observed trend. This time scale combines several geomorphologic and hydraulic soil properties. Catchments with relatively longer subsurface storage release time scales produce significantly more E/P. Vegetation in these catchments have longer access to this additional groundwater source and thus are less prone to water stress. Further analysis reveals that climates that give rise to more (less) E/P are associated with catchments that have vegetation with less (more) efficient water use parameters. In particular, the climates with tendency to produce more E/P have catchments that have lower % root fraction and less light use efficiency. Our results suggest that their exists strong interactions between climate, vegetation and soil properties that lead to specific hydrologic partitioning at the catchment scale. This co-evolution of catchment vegetation and soils with climate needs to be further explored to improve our capabilities to predict hydrologic partitioning in ungauged basins.

scholarly journals Wintertime Simulations of a Boreal Lake with the Canadian Small Lake Model

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 2143-2160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray D. MacKay ◽  
Diana L. Verseghy ◽  
Vincent Fortin ◽  
Michael D. Rennie
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Ice Cover ◽  
Blowing Snow ◽  
Small Lake ◽  
Frazil Ice ◽  
Boreal Lake ◽  
Lake Model ◽  
Ice Production ◽  
The Impact

Abstract A one-dimensional mixed layer dynamic lake model is enhanced with snow and ice physics for an examination of processes governing ice cover and phenology in a small boreal lake. The complete snowpack physics module of the Canadian Land Surface Scheme along with a new snow-ice parameterization have been added to the Canadian Small Lake Model, and detailed meteorological and temperature profile data have been acquired for the forcing and evaluation of two wintertime simulations. During the first winter, simulated ice-on and ice-off biases were −3 and −5 days, respectively. In the second winter simulation, ice-on bias was larger, likely due to the absence of a frazil ice scheme in the model, and simulated ice-off was 6 days late, evidently due to insufficient convective mixing beneath the ice in the weeks leading up to ice-off. Ice cover was simulated about 25% too thin between January and March for this year, though late January simulated snow and snow-ice amounts were close to observed. The impact of snow-ice production on simulated ice cover and phenology was found to be dramatic for this lake. In the absence of this process, January snow was more than twice as deep as observed and March ice thickness was less than one-third of that observed. Without snow-ice production, a reasonable simulation of ice cover could only be restored if 62% of snowfall was removed ad hoc (e.g., through blowing snow redistribution)—an excessive amount for a small, sheltered boreal lake.

scholarly journals Climate-vegetation-soil interactions and long-term hydrologic partitioning: signatures of catchment co-evolution

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 2927-2954 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Troch ◽  
G. Carrillo ◽  
M. Sivapalan ◽  
T. Wagener ◽  
K. Sawicz
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Release Time ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Aquifer Storage ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hydrologic Partitioning

Abstract. Catchment hydrologic partitioning, regional vegetation composition and soil properties are strongly affected by climate, but the effects of climate-vegetation-soil interactions on river basin water balance are still poorly understood. Here we use a physically-based hydrologic model separately parameterized in 12 US catchments across a climate gradient to decouple the impact of climate and landscape properties to gain insight into the role of climate-vegetation-soil interactions in long-term hydrologic partitioning. The 12 catchment models (with different parameterizations) are subjected to the 12 different climate forcings, resulting in 144 10-yr model simulations. The results are analyzed per catchment (one catchment model subjected to 12 climates) and per climate (one climate filtered by 12 different model parameterization), and compared to water balance predictions based on Budyko's hypothesis (E/P = φ (EP/P); E: evaporation, P: precipitation, EP: potential evaporation). We find significant anti-correlation between average deviations of the evaporation index (E/P) computed per catchment vs. per climate, compared to that predicted by Budyko. Catchments that on average produce more E/P have developed in climates that on average produce less E/P, when compared to Budyko's prediction. Water and energy seasonality could not explain these observations, confirming previous results reported by Potter et al. (2005). Next, we analyze which model (i.e., landscape filter) characteristics explain the catchment's tendency to produce more or less E/P. We find that the time scale that controls perched aquifer storage release explains the observed trend. This time scale combines several geomorphologic and hydraulic soil properties. Catchments with relatively longer aquifer storage release time scales produce significantly more E/P. Vegetation in these catchments have longer access to this additional groundwater source and thus are less prone to water stress. Further analysis reveals that climates that give rise to more (less) E/P are associated with catchments that have vegetation with less (more) efficient water use parameters. In particular, the climates with tendency to produce more E/P have catchments that have lower % root fraction and less light use efficiency. Our results suggest that there exists strong interactions between climate, vegetation and soil properties that lead to specific hydrologic partitioning at the catchment scale. This co-evolution of catchment vegetation and soils with climate needs to be further explored to improve our capabilities to predict hydrologic partitioning in ungaged basins.

Decadal-Scale Changes in the Seasonal Surface Water Balance of the Central United States from 1984 to 2007

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 1905-1927
Author(s):  
Bo Dong ◽  
John D. Lenters ◽  
Qi Hu ◽  
Christopher J. Kucharik ◽  
Tiejun Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Hydrologic Cycle ◽  
Soil Water Storage ◽  
Decadal Scale ◽  
The Impact

AbstractVariations in climate have important influences on the hydrologic cycle. Observations over the continental United States in recent decades show substantial changes in hydrologically significant variables, such as decreases in cloud cover and increases in solar radiation (i.e., solar brightening), as well as increases in air temperature, changes in wind speed, and seasonal shifts in precipitation rate and rain/snow ratio. Impacts of these changes on the regional water cycle from 1984 to 2007 are evaluated using a terrestrial ecosystem/land surface hydrologic model (Agro-IBIS). Results show an acceleration of various components of the surface water balance in the Upper Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Great Lakes basins over the 24-yr period, but with significant seasonal and spatial complexity. Evapotranspiration (ET) has increased across most of our study domain and seasons. The largest increase is found in fall, when solar brightening trends are also particularly significant. Changes in runoff are characterized by distinct spatial and seasonal variations, with the impact of precipitation often being muted by changes in ET and soil-water storage rate. In snow-dominated regions, such as the northern Great Lakes basin, spring runoff has declined significantly due to warmer air temperatures and an associated decreasing ratio of snow in total precipitation during the cold season. In the northern Missouri basin, runoff shows large increases in all seasons, primarily due to increases in precipitation. The responses to these changes in the regional hydrologic cycle depend on the underlying land cover type—maize, soybean, and natural vegetation. Comparisons are also made with other hydroclimatic time series to place the decadal-scale variability in a longer-term context.

The Impact of Climate Change on Storage-Yield Curves for Multi-Reservoir Systems

1999 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. R. Nawaz ◽  
A. J. Adeloye ◽  
M. Montaseri
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Runoff Coefficient ◽  
Impact Study ◽  
Yield Functions ◽  
Reservoir Systems ◽  
English System ◽  
Multiple Reservoir ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

In this paper, we report on the results of an investigation into the impacts of climate change on the storage-yield relationships for two multiple-reservoir systems, one in England and the other in Iran. The impact study uses established protocol and obtains perturbed monthly inflow series using a simple runoff coefficient approach which accounts for non-evaporative losses in the catchment, and a number of recently published GCM-based scenarios. The multi-reservoir analysis is based on the sequent-peak algorithm which has been modified to analyse multiple reservoirs and to accommodate explicitly performance norms and reservoir surface fluxes, i.e. evaporation and rainfall. As a consequence, it was also possible to assess the effect of including reservoir surface fluxes on the storage-yield functions. The results showed that, under baseline conditions, consideration of net evaporation will require lower storages for the English system and higher storages for the Iranian system. However, with perturbed hydroclimatology different impacts were obtained depending on the systems' yield and reliability. Possible explanations are offered for the observed behaviours.

scholarly journals Assessing the impact of hydrodynamics on large-scale flood wave propagation – a case study for the Amazon Basin

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jannis M. Hoch ◽  
Arjen V. Haag ◽  
Arthur van Dam ◽  
Hessel C. Winsemius ◽  
Ludovicus P. H. van Beek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Hydrodynamic Model ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Coupled Models ◽  
Validation Parameters ◽  
Directional Coupling ◽  
Inundation Extent ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Large-scale flood events often show spatial correlation in neighbouring basins, and thus can affect adjacent basins simultaneously, as well as result in superposition of different flood peaks. Such flood events therefore need to be addressed with large-scale modelling approaches to capture these processes. Many approaches currently in place are based on either a hydrologic or a hydrodynamic model. However, the resulting lack of interaction between hydrology and hydrodynamics, for instance, by implementing groundwater infiltration on inundated floodplains, can hamper modelled inundation and discharge results where such interactions are important. In this study, the global hydrologic model PCR-GLOBWB at 30 arcmin spatial resolution was one-directionally and spatially coupled with the hydrodynamic model Delft 3D Flexible Mesh (FM) for the Amazon River basin at a grid-by-grid basis and at a daily time step. The use of a flexible unstructured mesh allows for fine-scale representation of channels and floodplains, while preserving a coarser spatial resolution for less flood-prone areas, thus not unnecessarily increasing computational costs. In addition, we assessed the difference between a 1-D channel/2-D floodplain and a 2-D schematization in Delft 3D FM. Validating modelled discharge results shows that coupling PCR-GLOBWB to a hydrodynamic routing scheme generally increases model performance compared to using a hydrodynamic or hydrologic model only for all validation parameters applied. Closer examination shows that the 1-D/2-D schematization outperforms 2-D for r2 and root mean square error (RMSE) whilst having a lower Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE). We also found that spatial coupling has the significant advantage of a better representation of inundation at smaller streams throughout the model domain. A validation of simulated inundation extent revealed that only those set-ups incorporating 1-D channels are capable of representing inundations for reaches below the spatial resolution of the 2-D mesh. Implementing 1-D channels is therefore particularly of advantage for large-scale inundation models, as they are often built upon remotely sensed surface elevation data which often enclose a strong vertical bias, hampering downstream connectivity. Since only a one-directional coupling approach was tested, and therefore important feedback processes are not incorporated, simulated discharge and inundation extent for both coupled set-ups is generally overpredicted. Hence, it will be the subsequent step to extend it to a two-directional coupling scheme to obtain a closed feedback loop between hydrologic and hydrodynamic processes. The current findings demonstrating the potential of one-directionally and spatially coupled models to obtain improved discharge estimates form an important step towards a large-scale inundation model with a full dynamic coupling between hydrology and hydrodynamics.

scholarly journals Variations of global and continental water balance components as impacted by climate forcing uncertainty and human water use

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2877-2898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Müller Schmied ◽  
Linda Adam ◽  
Stephanie Eisner ◽  
Gabriel Fink ◽  
Martina Flörke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Climate Forcing ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Water Balance Components ◽  
Climate Forcings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. When assessing global water resources with hydrological models, it is essential to know about methodological uncertainties. The values of simulated water balance components may vary due to different spatial and temporal aggregations, reference periods, and applied climate forcings, as well as due to the consideration of human water use, or the lack thereof. We analyzed these variations over the period 1901–2010 by forcing the global hydrological model WaterGAP 2.2 (ISIMIP2a) with five state-of-the-art climate data sets, including a homogenized version of the concatenated WFD/WFDEI data set. Absolute values and temporal variations of global water balance components are strongly affected by the uncertainty in the climate forcing, and no temporal trends of the global water balance components are detected for the four homogeneous climate forcings considered (except for human water abstractions). The calibration of WaterGAP against observed long-term average river discharge Q significantly reduces the impact of climate forcing uncertainty on estimated Q and renewable water resources. For the homogeneous forcings, Q of the calibrated and non-calibrated regions of the globe varies by 1.6 and 18.5 %, respectively, for 1971–2000. On the continental scale, most differences for long-term average precipitation P and Q estimates occur in Africa and, due to snow undercatch of rain gauges, also in the data-rich continents Europe and North America. Variations of Q at the grid-cell scale are large, except in a few grid cells upstream and downstream of calibration stations, with an average variation of 37 and 74 % among the four homogeneous forcings in calibrated and non-calibrated regions, respectively. Considering only the forcings GSWP3 and WFDEI_hom, i.e., excluding the forcing without undercatch correction (PGFv2.1) and the one with a much lower shortwave downward radiation SWD than the others (WFD), Q variations are reduced to 16 and 31 % in calibrated and non-calibrated regions, respectively. These simulation results support the need for extended Q measurements and data sharing for better constraining global water balance assessments. Over the 20th century, the human footprint on natural water resources has become larger. For 11–18% of the global land area, the change of Q between 1941–1970 and 1971–2000 was driven more strongly by change of human water use including dam construction than by change in precipitation, while this was true for only 9–13 % of the land area from 1911–1940 to 1941–1970.

scholarly journals Quantifying lower tropospheric methane concentrations using GOSAT near-IR and TES thermal IR measurements

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 3433-3445 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Worden ◽  
A. J. Turner ◽  
A. Bloom ◽  
S. S. Kulawik ◽  
J. Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Monthly Average ◽  
Near Ir ◽  
Surface Measurements ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Total Column ◽  
Methane Concentrations

Abstract. Evaluating surface fluxes of CH4 using total column data requires models to accurately account for the transport and chemistry of methane in the free troposphere and stratosphere, thus reducing sensitivity to the underlying fluxes. Vertical profiles of methane have increased sensitivity to surface fluxes because lower tropospheric methane is more sensitive to surface fluxes than a total column, and quantifying free-tropospheric CH4 concentrations helps to evaluate the impact of transport and chemistry uncertainties on estimated surface fluxes. Here we demonstrate the potential for estimating lower tropospheric CH4 concentrations through the combination of free-tropospheric methane measurements from the Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and XCH4 (dry-mole air fraction of methane) from the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite – Thermal And Near-infrared for carbon Observation (GOSAT TANSO, herein GOSAT for brevity). The calculated precision of these estimates ranges from 10 to 30 ppb for a monthly average on a 4° × 5° latitude/longitude grid making these data suitable for evaluating lower-tropospheric methane concentrations. Smoothing error is approximately 10 ppb or less. Comparisons between these data and the GEOS-Chem model demonstrate that these lower-tropospheric CH4 estimates can resolve enhanced concentrations over flux regions that are challenging to resolve with total column measurements. We also use the GEOS-Chem model and surface measurements in background regions across a range of latitudes to determine that these lower-tropospheric estimates are biased low by approximately 65 ppb, with an accuracy of approximately 6 ppb (after removal of the bias) and an actual precision of approximately 30 ppb. This 6 ppb accuracy is consistent with the accuracy of TES and GOSAT methane retrievals.

scholarly journals The Impact of Land Cover Change on Surface Energy and Water Balance in Mato Grosso, Brazil

2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Pongratz ◽  
Lahouari Bounoua ◽  
Ruth S. DeFries ◽  
Douglas C. Morton ◽  
Liana O. Anderson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Surface Energy ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Canopy Temperature ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Evergreen Forest ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The sensitivity of surface energy and water fluxes to recent land cover changes is simulated for a small region in northern Mato Grosso, Brazil. The Simple Biosphere Model (SiB2) is used, driven by biophysical parameters derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) at 250-m resolution, to compare the effects of different land conversion types. The mechanisms through which changes in vegetation alter surface fluxes of energy, momentum, water, and carbon are analyzed for both wet and dry seasons. It is found that morphological changes contribute to warming and drying of the atmosphere while physiological changes, particularly those associated with a plant’s photosynthetic pathway, counterbalance or exacerbate the warming depending on the type of conversion and the season. Furthermore, this study’s results indicate that initial clearing of evergreen and transition forest to bare ground increases canopy temperature by up to 1.7°C. For subsequent land use such as pasture or cropland, the largest effect is seen for the conversion of evergreen forest to C3 cropland during the wet season, with a 21% decrease of the latent heat flux and 0.4°C increase in canopy temperature. The secondary conversion of pasture to cropland resulted in slight warming and drying during the wet season driven mostly by the change in carbon pathway from C4 to C3. For all conversions types, the daily temperature range is amplified, suggesting that plants replacing forest clearing require more temperature tolerance than the trees they replace. The results illustrate that the effect of deforestation on climate depends not only on the overall extent of clearing but also on the subsequent land use type.

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