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| Titel |
Sensitivity of streamflow components to spatial variability of meteoreological forcing in high alpine watershed: application of a wireless sensor network |
| VerfasserIn |
Silvia Simoni, Simone Padoan, Amilcare Porporato, Martin Vetterli, Guillermo Barrenetxea, Marc Brendan Parlange |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2011
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 13 (2011) |
| Datensatznummer |
250049555
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| Zusammenfassung |
| A field campaign was conducted in a 20 km2 high alpine catchment in the Swiss Alps, with
a distributed sensor network, to investigate the impact of the catchment spatial
variability and forcing parameters on stream flow generation and soil moisture. Twelve
sensorscope weather and soil moisture stations were installed over a wide range of
elevations and aspects to capture some aspects of the spatial variability of different
hydrological parameters including: soil moisture, precipitation, air temperature, relative
humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation and land-surface skin temperature.
Streamflow discharge at the outlet of the catchment was monitored with high temporal
resolution. Rainfall and air temperature were both influenced by spatial location where
temperature was found to be related to morphological features of the catchment. Snow
and ice melt streamflow components, which are particularly important in the Alps,
display a diurnal trend of different amplitudes and duration declining throughout the
summer. The long-term seasonal decreasing trend of the baseflow contribution to
streamflow appeared to not be affected by catchment spatial variability. Summer and fall
rainfall-runoff events were dominated by the highly spatial occurrence of convective
rainfall events. To support the data analysis, streamflow was modeled using two
models of different complexity: a 3D-spatially distributed model (GEOtop) and
a lumped degree-day model. The GEOtop model proved to be more suitable for
reproducing rainfall-runoff response, and the lumped model was at least as accurate to
describe the snow melt. Initial conditions on snow depth over the catchment are
necessary for spatially explicit models to simulate snow melt; however the lumped
approach worked well simply knowing the average daily air temperature. The spatialy
explicit model was successful in reproducing spatial and temporal soil moisture
patterns, which are important in slope stability analysis. Spatially distributed models,
though conceptually more appealing than the lumped, require a substantial amount
of meteorological input which is typically not available in Alpine environments. |
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