Hydrological Modeling of Highly Glacierized Basins (Andes, Alps, and Central Asia)

Omani, Nina; Srinivasan, Raghavan; Karthikeyan, Raghupathy; Smith, Patricia K.

doi:10.3390/w9020111

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Fontaine et al [29], Kang et al [31] and Galvan et al [41] determined precipitation lapse rate using the local climate station over their study areas. The majority of the previous studies estimated precipitation lapse rate within their calibration procedure [26,29,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. The present study demonstrated how CFSR data can be useful to improve hydrological simulation in data-scarce mountainous regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…In the case of scarce meteorological data, the determination of these parameters might become difficult [28]. In order to determine the lapse rates, most of the studies using the elevation band approach defined lapse rates as calibration parameters [27,30,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40], whereas several other studies estimated precipitation lapse rate by using local climate observations [29,31,41]. In addition, two different studies conducted by of 20 Zhang et al [28] and Zhang et al [33] in the Yellow River Basin, China, used the precipitation lapse rate given by Fontaine et al [29] for the Upper Wind River Basin, Wyoming in the USA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the Impact of CFSR and Local Climate Datasets on Hydrological Modeling Performance in the Mountainous Black Sea Catchment

Cüceloğlu

Öztürk

2019

Water

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Precise representation of precipitation input is one of the predominant factors affecting the simulation of hydrological processes in catchments. Choosing the representative climate datasets is crucial to obtain accurate model results, especially in mountainous regions. Hence, this study assesses the suitability of the Climate Forecasting System Reanalysis (CFSR) and local climate data to simulate the streamflow at multiple gauges in the data-scarce mountainous Black Sea catchment. Moreover, the applicability of using the elevations band in the model is also tested. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used as a hydrological simulator. Calibration and uncertainty analysis are performed by using SWAT-CUP with the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI-2) algorithm based on monthly streamflow data at six different hydrometric stations located at different altitudes. The results reveal that the CFSR dataset provides quite reasonable agreements between the simulated and the observed streamflow at the gauge stations compared to the local dataset. However, SWAT simulations with both datasets result in poor performance for the upstream catchments of the study area. Considering orographic precipitation by applying elevation bands to the local climate dataset using CFSR data leads also to significant improvements to the model’s performance. Model results obtained with both climate datasets result in similar objective metrics, and larger uncertainty with a coefficient variation (CV) ranging from 73% to 107%. This paper mainly highlights that (i) global climate datasets (i.e., CFSR) can be a good alternative especially for data-scarce regions, (ii) elevation band application can improve the model performance for the catchments with high elevation gradients, and iii) CFSR data can be used to determine precipitation lapse rate in data scarce-regions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impact of CFSR and Local Climate Datasets on Hydrological Modeling Performance in the Mountainous Black Sea Catchment

Cüceloğlu

Öztürk

2019

Water

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“…Therefore, the definition of elevation bands within the model subbasins can significantly improve the performance of the model in watersheds in high altitudes and large elevation gradients. With the improved snow melting algorithm (Fontaine et al, 2002), the stream flow of alpine regions could be successfully simulated by SWAT (Rahman et al, 2013;Omani et al, 2017;Grusson et al, 2015).…”

Section: Swat Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrological modelling and future runoff of the Damma Glacier CZO watershed using SWAT. Validation of the model in the greater area of the Göscheneralpsee, Switzerland

Andrianaki

Shrestha

Kobierska

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. In this study, we investigated the application of the Soil Water and Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the simulation of runoff in the partly glacierised watershed of the Damma glacier Critical Zone Observatory (CZO), Switzerland. The model was calibrated using daily time steps for the period of 2009–2011, while two different approaches were used for its validation. Initially the model was validated using daily data for the years 2012–2013. Subsequently, the calibrated version of the model was applied on the greater area that drains to the hydropower reservoir of the Göscheneralpsee and includes the Damma glacier watershed, using inflow data. This validation approach can help in assessing model uncertainty under changing land use and climate forcing. Model performance was evaluated both visually and statistically and it was found that even though SWAT has rarely been used in high alpine and glacierised areas and despite the complexity of simulating the extreme conditions of Damma glacier watershed; its performance was very satisfactory. Our novel validation approach proved to be successful since the performance of the model was similarly good when applied for the greater catchment feeding Göscheneralpsee. Finally, we investigated the response of the two regions, Damma glacier and its greater area, to climate change using SWAT and results were compared to a previous study using the models PREVAH and ALPINE 3D. It confirmed that SWAT can predict changes in future runoff and peak flow in alpine areas with the same accuracy as more demanding models such as ALPINE 3D and PREVAH. This study demonstrates the applicability of SWAT in high elevation, snow and glacier dominated watersheds and in quantifying the effects of climate change on water resources.

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“…SWAT has been widely used in many studies for the simulation of runoff and nutrient cycling in agricultural and forested sites. Although there is an increasing interest in applying SWAT on snow-dominated (Grusson et al, 2015) and glacierized watersheds (Rahman et al, 2013;Garee et al, 2017;Omani et al, 2017), its transferability at spatial and temporal scales under the extreme conditions of these highaltitude environments has not been tested yet. In this study, we have a quite unique situation of a small well-gauged watershed, the Damma glacier watershed, which is part of the larger catchment feeding the Göscheneralpsee reservoir, for which we have hydrological data thanks to its use by the hydroelectric power plant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of SWAT spatial and temporal transferability for a high-altitude glacierized catchment

Andrianaki

Shrestha

Kobierska

et al. 2019

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. In this study, we investigated the application and the transferability of the Soil Water and Assessment Tool (SWAT) in a partly glacierized Alpine catchment characterized by extreme climatic conditions and steep terrain. The model was initially calibrated for the 10 km2 watershed of the Damma glacier Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) in central Switzerland using monitoring data for the period of 2009–2011 and then was evaluated for 2012–2013 in the same area. Model performance was found to be satisfactory against both the Nash–Sutcliffe criterion (NS) and a benchmark efficiency (BE). The transferability of the model was assessed by using the parameters calibrated on the small watershed and applying the model to the approximately 100 km2 catchment that drains into the hydropower reservoir of the Göscheneralpsee and includes the Damma glacier CZO. Model results were compared to the reservoir inflow data from 1997 to 2010 and it was found that the model predicted successfully snowmelt timing and autumn recession but could not accurately capture the peak flow for certain years. Runoff was slightly overestimated from late May to June, when it is dominated by snowmelt. Finally, we investigated the response of the greater catchment to climate change using three different climate change scenarios, and the results were compared to those of a previous study, where two different hydrological models, PREVAH and ALPINE3D, were used. The methodology presented here, where SWAT is calibrated for a small watershed and then applied for a bigger area with similar climatic conditions and geographical characteristics, could work even under extreme conditions like ours. However, greater attention should be given to the differences between glacier melt and snowmelt dynamics. In conclusion, this assessment test on the transferability of SWAT on different scales gave valuable information about the strengths and weaknesses of the model when it was applied under conditions different to those under which it was calibrated.

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Hydrological Modeling of Highly Glacierized Basins (Andes, Alps, and Central Asia)

Cited by 27 publications

References 40 publications

Assessing the Impact of CFSR and Local Climate Datasets on Hydrological Modeling Performance in the Mountainous Black Sea Catchment

Assessing the Impact of CFSR and Local Climate Datasets on Hydrological Modeling Performance in the Mountainous Black Sea Catchment

Hydrological modelling and future runoff of the Damma Glacier CZO watershed using SWAT. Validation of the model in the greater area of the Göscheneralpsee, Switzerland

Assessment of SWAT spatial and temporal transferability for a high-altitude glacierized catchment

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