Author(s): Tomohide Usutani; Makoto Nakatsugawa
Linked Author(s): Makoto Nakatsugawa
Keywords: Cold snowy basin; Hydrologic cycle; Two-layer model; Long-term runoff
Abstract: For comprehensive water management and water environmental planning in large river catchment areas, it is necessary to know the long-term hydrologic cycle. In snowy cold regions, the snow process (falling, accumulation, and melting) plays an important role on the hydrologic cycle. An understanding of snow cover volume and snowmelt volume is essential. Analysis of the water balance of the catchment area also requires accurate estimation of evapotranspiration, which is affected by soil and vegetation. This report applies a two-layer model toward estimating the evapotranspiration, snow cover volume, and snowmelt volume of 1-km meshes. The model incorporates heat balance between the air, the vegetation layer, and the ground surface. These estimates were used to reproduce long-term runoff, in order to examine the validity of the estimates. The estimates were found to accurately reproduce the measurements. This has enabled the quantification of long-term hydrologic factors for snowy cold regions.
Year: 2006