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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Boise, Idaho » Northwest Watershed Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #272995
Title: Coupling of the simultaneous heat and water model with a distributed hydrological model and evaluation of the combined model in a cold region watershed

Author
item ZHANG, YANLIN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item CHENG, G - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item LI, X - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item HAN, X - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item WANG, L - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item LI, HONGYI - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item CHANG, XIAOLI - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item Flerchinger, Gerald

Submitted to: Hydrological Processes
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/13/2012
Publication Date: 12/15/2013
Citation: Zhang, Y., Cheng, G., Li, X., Han, X., Wang, L., Li, H., Chang, X., Flerchinger, G.N. 2013. Coupling of the simultaneous heat and water model with a distributed hydrological model and evaluation of the combined model in a cold region watershed. Hydrological Processes. 27:3762-3776. DOI: 10.1002/hyp.9514.

Interpretive Summary: Frozen soil occupies 55-60% of the land of the Northern Hemisphere in and plays an important role in the hydrology of cold regions. The existence of ice in frozen soil may leave the soil impermeable to rainfall and snow-melt water, which may cause considerable amount of surface runoff and flooding. To represent the effects of frozen soil on hydrology in cold regions, a new physically based distributed hydrological model has been developed by coupling the Simultaneous Heat and Aater model (SHAW) with the distributed hydrological model (GBHM), under the framework of the water and energy budget based distributed hydrological model (WEB-DHM). Results show that the model is able to predict soil freezing/thawing penetration, unfrozen soil moisture, and snow depth reasonably well. This combined model can be used to understand the hydrological processes in cold regions and to assess the impacts of global warming on hydrology cycles and water resources in cold regions.

Technical Abstract: To represent the effects of frozen soil on hydrology in cold regions, a new physically based distributed hydrological model has been developed by coupling the simultaneous heat and water model (SHAW) with the geomorphology based distributed hydrological model (GBHM), under the framework of the water and energy budget based distributed hydrological model (WEB-DHM). The model is evaluated against in-situ observations in the Binggou watershed, the experimental area on cold region hydrology of the Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research Project. Results show that the model is able to predict soil freezing/thawing penetration, unfrozen soil moisture, and snow depth reasonably well. The newly developed model has promising performance in simulating the hydrological processes in cold regions. The simulated hydrograph is in good agreement with in-situ observation. The Nash Sutcliffe coefficient of daily discharge is 0.74 for the entire simulation year and is 0.465 in spring (from April to June). The model could be applied to understand the hydrological processes in cold regions and to assess the impacts of global warming on hydrology cycles and water resources.