Simulating Fully‐Integrated Hydrological Dynamics in Complex Alpine Headwaters: Potential and Challenges

Thornton, James; Therrien, René; Mariethoz, Grégoire; Linde, Niklas; Brunner, Philip

doi:10.1029/2020wr029390

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 105 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…Advancements in coupling frozen soil models with 3‐dimensional (3D) variably saturated flow models that solve the 3D Richards' equation (J. Chen et al., 2020; Niu et al., 2014; Schilling et al., 2019; Thornton et al., 2022) may help improve the understanding of the impacts of soil freeze‐thaw processes on infiltration and flow mechanisms. In these modeling studies, key model parameters (e.g., K sat ) were calibrated to improve streamflow simulations, resulting in greater K sat values on the order of 10 −5 to 10 −3 m/s.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Frozen Soil Permeability Represented in a Hydrological Model Improves Spring Streamflow Prediction From River Basin to Continental Scales

Agnihotri

Behrangi

Tavakoly

et al. 2023

Water Resources Research

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Frozen soil consists of permafrost and seasonally frozen ground (Cuo et al., 2015). Seasonally frozen ground refers to areas where soil is frozen for 15 days or more per year (Y. Zhang et al., 2003), whereas permafrost is defined as the ground that remains below subfreezing temperatures for two or more consecutive years. Permafrost and seasonally frozen ground account for about 58% (or 55 million km 2 ) of the land surface in the Northern Hemisphere (NSIDC, 2022;T. Zhang et al., 1999), exerting tremendous impacts on water infiltration; ecosystem biogeochemical processes; greenhouse gas emissions; and freshwater, carbon, and nutrient inputs into the Arctic oceans. The presence of ice in soil reduces soil permeability while increasing thermal conductivity, which affects partitioning of snowmelt water into infiltration and surface runoff. At least eight out of the 32 most significant

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Frozen Soil Permeability Represented in a Hydrological Model Improves Spring Streamflow Prediction From River Basin to Continental Scales

Agnihotri

Behrangi

Tavakoly

et al. 2023

Water Resources Research

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“…As such, the daily frequency version (GHCNd; Menne et al, 2012) was used (v3.28). For certain applications, such as simulating diurnal variability in snowmelt and surface watergroundwater interactions (Thornton et al, 2021a(Thornton et al, , 2022, hourly observations can be even more useful or even necessary, but integrated global databases of hourly climatological records do not yet exist.…”

Section: Climate Stationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…should also be monitored. By introducing other datasets and distributed, physically-based numerical models that can represent all key processes and their interactions (e.g., bidirectional groundwater-surface water interactions) explicitly in time and space (e.g., Thornton et al, 2022), there is an increasingly realistic prospect of being able to fill the gaps between observations (not only for discharge, but other variables too) in a reasonable fashion.…”

Section: Limitations and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coverage of In Situ Climatological Observations in the World's Mountains

et al. 2022

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Many mountainous environments and ecosystems around the world are responding rapidly to ongoing climate change. Long-term climatological time-series from such regions are crucial for developing improving understanding of the mechanisms driving such changes and ultimately delivering more reliable future impact projections to environmental managers and other decision makers. Whilst it is already established that high elevation regions tend to be comparatively under-sampled, detailed spatial and other patterns in the coverage of mountain climatological data have not yet been comprehensively assessed on a global basis. To begin to address this deficiency, we analyse the coverage of mountainous records from the Global Historical Climatological Network-Daily (GHCNd) inventory with respect to space, time, and elevation. Three key climate-related variables—air temperature, precipitation, and snow depth—are considered across 292 named mountain ranges. Several additional datasets are also introduced to characterize data coverage relative to topographic, hydrological, and socio-economic factors. Spatial mountain data coverage is found to be highly uneven, with station densities in several “Water Tower Units” that were previously identified as having great hydrological importance to society being especially low. Several mountainous regions whose elevational distribution is severely undersampled by GHCNd stations are identified, and mountain station density is shown to be only weakly related to the human population or economic output of the corresponding downstream catchments. Finally, we demonstrate the capabilities of a script (which is provided in the Supplementary Material) to produce detailed assessments of individual records' temporal coverage and measurement quality information. Overall, our contribution should help international authorities and regional stakeholders identify areas, variables, and other monitoring-related considerations that should be prioritized for infrastructure and capacity investment. Finally, the transparent and reproducible approach taken will enable the analysis to be rapidly repeated for subsequent versions of GHCNd, and could act as a basis for similar analyses using other spatial reporting boundaries and/or environmental monitoring station networks.

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“…This is especially true for mountain areas that are recognized to be the source of much of the world's surface water supply (Fayad et al., 2017; Thornton, Brauchli et al., 2021; Viviroli et al., 2007). Snow‐dominated catchments show a high potential for recharge due to large precipitation and relatively small evapotranspiration rates (Hayashi, 2020; Meeks et al., 2017; Thornton, Palazzi et al., 2021, Thornton et al., 2022; Wilson & Guan, 2004). Climate change affects surface processes such as runoff, snowpack dynamics, or evapotranspiration (Arnoux et al., 2021; Clow, 2010; Cochand et al., 2019; Rodell et al., 2018), conditioning water availability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Balance in Alpine Catchments by Sentinel Data

Perico

Brunner

Frattini

et al. 2022

Water Resources Research

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A comprehensive and reliable water balance of snow‐dominated alpine catchments is required for a holistic analysis of the hydrological and hydrogeological processes. A major limitation to the elaboration of this balance in alpine terrain is the difficulty of data acquisition as well as the limited presence of meteorological stations. Remotely sensed data can provide valuable information for the water balance assessment on a regional scale. We exploited Sentinel‐satellite data to estimate the groundwater storage for one hydrologic year in an extensive Alpine catchment located in northern Italy by means of the residual water balance approach. In particular, Evapotranspiration (ET) and Snow Water Equivalent were estimated with the combined use of Sentinel data, at a spatial resolution of 20 and 30 m, respectively. The results show that the adopted satellite‐based methods allow obtaining consistent and physically realistic values to describe the groundwater storage dynamics. In the period 2018–2020, a positive storage occurred only during the snowmelt period and the overall storage was negative, leading to a net lowering of the groundwater level in the floodplain. In addition, the influence of physiographic parameters (altitude, slope, and aspect) and seasonality on the estimates of ET and snow‐depth were investigated.

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Simulating Fully‐Integrated Hydrological Dynamics in Complex Alpine Headwaters: Potential and Challenges

Cited by 25 publications

References 105 publications

Higher Frozen Soil Permeability Represented in a Hydrological Model Improves Spring Streamflow Prediction From River Basin to Continental Scales

Higher Frozen Soil Permeability Represented in a Hydrological Model Improves Spring Streamflow Prediction From River Basin to Continental Scales

Coverage of In Situ Climatological Observations in the World's Mountains

Water Balance in Alpine Catchments by Sentinel Data

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