On the Importance of Including Snow Processes in the Study of Water Resources in Mountain Areas: Piave Basin (Italy)
Location
ECC 303/305
Event Website
https://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
3-31-2008 11:15 AM
End Date
3-31-2008 11:30 AM
Description
In mountainous regions it is important to be able to simulate the accumulation and melting of snow, from the perspective of both floods and droughts. Snow melt floods are a hazard, while spring runoff is also an important resource for irrigation and hydropower. This presentation describes work done to test the Utah Energy Balance (UEB) Snow Accumulation and Melt Model in the Piave basin in Italy (an area of about 3600 km2). The purpose for this work was to create accurate spatial Snow Water Equivalent maps for use in streamflow prediction and water resources planning. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the sensitivity of model outputs to selected input parameters. A coarse graining analysis was conducted investigate the characteristic scale of snow processes, i.e. the simulation scale required to best represent the spatial heterogeneity of snow. Some changes were introduced into the UEB model. These included a calculation of drift factor based on terrain curvature, some modification of energy fluxes related forest cover and the incorporation of a model for snow density. The modified UEB model was coupled with a Geomorphological rainfall-runoff model (GIUH - Geomorphological Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph, Rinaldo et al., 1996) to provide snow melt driven runoff predictions for the Piave River. The results show that the model is sensitive to the inclusion of snow density which affects heat conductance in the model. The coarse graining analysis showed that a grid scale of 100 m was sufficient to represent snow processes in the Piave Basin. The coupling of the snowmelt model to the rainfall runoff model has lead to improved capability to simulate runoff in mountainous regions where snowmelt is important.
On the Importance of Including Snow Processes in the Study of Water Resources in Mountain Areas: Piave Basin (Italy)
ECC 303/305
In mountainous regions it is important to be able to simulate the accumulation and melting of snow, from the perspective of both floods and droughts. Snow melt floods are a hazard, while spring runoff is also an important resource for irrigation and hydropower. This presentation describes work done to test the Utah Energy Balance (UEB) Snow Accumulation and Melt Model in the Piave basin in Italy (an area of about 3600 km2). The purpose for this work was to create accurate spatial Snow Water Equivalent maps for use in streamflow prediction and water resources planning. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the sensitivity of model outputs to selected input parameters. A coarse graining analysis was conducted investigate the characteristic scale of snow processes, i.e. the simulation scale required to best represent the spatial heterogeneity of snow. Some changes were introduced into the UEB model. These included a calculation of drift factor based on terrain curvature, some modification of energy fluxes related forest cover and the incorporation of a model for snow density. The modified UEB model was coupled with a Geomorphological rainfall-runoff model (GIUH - Geomorphological Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph, Rinaldo et al., 1996) to provide snow melt driven runoff predictions for the Piave River. The results show that the model is sensitive to the inclusion of snow density which affects heat conductance in the model. The coarse graining analysis showed that a grid scale of 100 m was sufficient to represent snow processes in the Piave Basin. The coupling of the snowmelt model to the rainfall runoff model has lead to improved capability to simulate runoff in mountainous regions where snowmelt is important.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2008/AllAbstracts/12