Multiscale investigations in a mesoscale catchment – hydrological modelling in the Gera catchment

Abstract

Abstract. The application of the hydrological process-oriented model J2000 (J2K) is part of a cooperation project between the Thuringian Environmental Agency (Thüringer Landesanstalt für Umwelt und Geologie – TLUG) and the Department of Geoinformatics of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena focussing on the implementation of the EU water framework directive (WFD). In the first project phase J2K was parametrised and calibrated for a mesoscale catchment to quantify if it can be used as hydrological part of a multi-objective tool-box needed for the implementation of the WFD. The main objectives for that pilot study were: The development and application of a suitable distribution concept which provide the spatial data basis for various tasks and which reflects the specific physiogeographical variability and heterogeneity of river basins adequately. This distribution concept should consider the following constraints: The absolute number of spatial entities, which forms the basis for any distributive modelling should be as small as possible, but the spatial distributed factors, which controls quantitative and qualitative hydrological processes should not be generalised to much. The distribution concept of hydrological response units HRUs (Flügel, 1995) was selected and enhanced by a topological routing scheme (Staudenrausch, 2001) for the simulation of lateral flow processes. J2K should be calibrated for one subbasin of the pilot watershed only. Then the parameter set should be used on the other subbasins (referred as transfer basins) to investigate and quantify the transferability of a calibrated model and potential spatial dependencies of its parameter set. In addition, potential structural problems in the process description should be identified by the transfer to basins which show a different process dominance as the one which was used for calibration does. Model calibration and selection of efficiency criteria for the quantification of the model quality should be based on a comprehensive sensitivity and uncertainty analysis (Bäse, 2005) and multi-response validations with independent data sets (Krause and Flügel, 2005) carried out in advance in the headwater part of the calibration basin. To obtain good results in the transfer basins the calibrated parameter set could be adjusted slightly. This step was considered as necessary because of specific constraints which were not of significant importance in the calibration basin. This readjustment should be carried out on parameters which show a sensitive reaction on the identified differences in the environmental setup. Potential scaling problems of the process description, distribution concept or model structure should be identified by the comparison of the modelling results obtained in a small headwater region of the calibration basin with observed streamflow to find out if the selected efficiency measures show a significant change.

Multi-scale hydrometeorological observation and modelling for flash flood understanding

“…This model is enriched with an explicit representation of routing in the hydrographic network and is currently being implemented within the JAMS framework. As a third complementary approach, the J2000 model (Krause et al, 2006), implemented in the JAMS platform, is also run in parallel in order to provide insight into the meaning of the parameters identified using the bottom-up approach.…”

Regional validity of the parameters of a distributed runoff-erosion model in the semi-arid region of Brazil

“…Krause et al [10] report the parameterization of a mesoscale catchment by calibration to serve as a pilot watershed and explore the transfer of these parameters to other basins, making some adjustments in the value of the parameters whenever necessary.…”

Assessing the Impact of Land-Use Changes on Providing Hydrological Ecosystem Functions (ESF) and Services (ESS) – A Case-Study Experience Based Conceptual Framework

“…Referring to our intention to embed hydrological ESF and ESS better in a regional context, especially the concept of HRU provides a well-tested spatial reference. HRU were successfully applied in distributed river basin models such as JAMS/J2000 (Krause and Flügel 2005 ;Krause et al 2006 ;Fink et al 2007 ;Nepal et al 2012 ) and support the integration of micro-scale (land-use and management) and meso-scale aspects (catchment, region, administrative districts).…”

“…Hydrological process dynamics and related ESF in each HRU are quantifi ed by means of a distributed rainfall-runoff model JAMS/J2000 that is calibrated and validated by time series Krause et al 2006 , Fig. 4 ).…”