Fine-scale hydrologic modeling for regional landscape applications: the California Basin Characterization Model development and performance

作者：Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, James H. Thorne, Ryan Boynton · 发表于：Ecological Processes · 年份：2013 · DOI：10.1186/2192-1709-2-25 · 被引用次数：270 · 研究领域：Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies、Climate variability and models、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

Resource managers need spatially explicit models of hydrologic response to changes in key climatic drivers across variable landscape conditions. We demonstrate the utility of a Basin Characterization Model for California (CA-BCM) to integrate high-resolution data on physical watershed characteristics with historical or projected climate data to predict watershed-specific hydrologic responses. The CA-BCM applies a monthly regional water-balance model to simulate hydrologic responses to climate at the spatial resolution of a 270-m grid. The model has been calibrated using a total of 159 relatively unimpaired watersheds for the California region. As a result of calibration, predicted basin discharge closely matches measured data for validation watersheds. The CA-BCM recharge and runoff estimates, combined with estimates of snowpack and timing of snowmelt, provide a basis for assessing variations in water availability. Another important output variable, climatic water deficit , integrates the combined effects of temperature and rainfall on site-specific soil moisture, a factor that plants may respond to more directly than air temperature and precipitation alone. Model outputs are calculated for each grid cell, allowing results to be summarized for a variety of planning units including hillslopes, watersheds, ecoregions, or political boundaries. The ability to confidently calculate hydrologic outputs at fine spatial scales provides a new suite of hydrologic predictor variables tha...