Hybrid global gridded snow products and conceptual simulations of distributed snow budget: evaluation of different scenarios in a mountainous watershed

doi:10.1007/s11707-022-1005-2

Front. Earth Sci.

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (2) : 391-406 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-022-1005-2

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Hybrid global gridded snow products and conceptual simulations of distributed snow budget: evaluation of different scenarios in a mountainous watershed

Mercedeh TAHERI^1,², Milad Shamsi ANBOOHI¹, Rahimeh MOUSAVI³, Mohsen NASSERI¹(

)

¹. School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 1417935840, Iran
². Department of Civil Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N6N5, Canada
³. Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45371-38791, Iran

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Abstract

Considering snowmelt in mountainous areas as the important source of streamflow, the snow accumulation/melting processes are vital for accurate simulation of the hydrological regimes. The lack of snow-related data and its uncertainties/conceptual ambiguity in snowpack modeling are the different challenges of developing hydro-climatological models. To tackle these challenges, Global Gridded Snow Products (GGSPs) are introduced, which effectively simplify the identification of the spatial characteristics of snow hydrological variables. This research aims to investigate the performance of multi-source GGSPs using multi-stage calibration strategies in hydrological modeling. The used GGSPs were Snow-Covered Area (SCA) and Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), implemented individually or jointly to calibrate an appropriate water balance model. The study area was a mountainous watershed located in Western Iran with a considerable contribution of snowmelt to the generated streamflow. The results showed that using GGSPs as complementary information in the calibration process, besides streamflow time series, could improve the modeling accuracy compared to the conventional calibration, which is only based on streamflow data. The SCA with NSE, KGE, and RMSE values varying within the ranges of 0.47–0.57, 0.54–0.65, and 4–6.88, respectively, outperformed the SWE with the corresponding metrics of 0.36–0.59, 0.47–0.60, and 5.22–7.46, respectively, in simulating the total streamflow of the watershed. In addition to the superiority of the SCA over SWE, the two-stage calibration strategy reduced the number of optimized parameters in each stage and the dependency of internal processes on the streamflow and improved the accuracy of the results compared with the conventional calibration strategy. On the other hand, the consistent contribution of snowmelt to the total generated streamflow (ranging from 0.9 to 1.47) and the ratio of snow melting to snowfall (ranging from 0.925 to 1.041) in different calibration strategies and models resulted in a reliable simulation of the model.

Keywords global gridded snow products snow hydrology multi-stage calibration strategy hydro-climatological modeling mountainous watershed

Corresponding Author(s): Mohsen NASSERI

Online First Date: 27 October 2022 Issue Date: 04 August 2023

Cite this article:

Mercedeh TAHERI,Milad Shamsi ANBOOHI,Rahimeh MOUSAVI, et al. Hybrid global gridded snow products and conceptual simulations of distributed snow budget: evaluation of different scenarios in a mountainous watershed[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2023, 17(2): 391-406.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/10.1007/s11707-022-1005-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/Y2023/V17/I2/391

Fig.1 Gheshlagh watershed along with hydrometric stations, rain gauges, river network, and altitude image.

Fig.2 The proposed framework to simulate the snowmelt and total runoff using one and two-stage calibration strategies and GGSPs

Tab.1 Parameter set of hydrological model by scenario, calibration stage and reference, and objective function

Tab.2 NSE and CC indicators for monthly water balance conceptual models and snowpack simulation modules

Fig.3 NSE, KGE, and RMSE (mm) metrics for the proposed scenarios using SCA, SWE, and SCA&SWE products and hydrologic models (MWWB-1 and MWWB-2).

Fig.4 Time series of the observed and simulated streamflow during the period of 2000–2015 based on the proposed calibration scenarios and hydrologic models, (a) calibration using SCA, (b) calibration using SWE, (c) calibration using SCA & SWE.

Fig.5 Spatial distribution of HSS for SCA variable in the second and third calibration scenarios using SCA and SWE&SCA.

Fig.6 Spatial distribution of RE for SWE variable in the second and third calibration scenarios using SWE and SWE&SCA.

Tab.3 Contribution of snowmelt in generated streamflow and snowfall in the hydrologic models (the second and third calibration scenarios, and the three calibration references)

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