TY - JOUR

T1 - Modelling forest snow processes with a new version of WaSiM

AU - Förster, Kristian

AU - Garvelmann, Jakob

AU - Meißl, Gertraud

AU - Strasser, Ulrich

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund under Grant [ACRP6 – STELLA – KR13AC6K11109] and the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection (StMUV) [Grant BIAS II – TKP01KPB-66747]. This work was supported by the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund under Grant [ACRP6–STELLA–KR13AC6K11109] and the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection (StMUV) [Grant BIAS II–TKP01KPB-66747]. We would like to thank several people who contributed significantly to the success of this study: Dr Thomas Marke, Elisabeth Mair, Marcel Siegmann, Nico Bahro, Florentin Brendler and Julia Ferstl (all at the University of Innsbruck) were engaged in general support of the two projects and helped with the field work, image processing and figure preparation; Dr Stefan Pohl (†) (University of Freiburg) participated in the development of the methodology of the time-lapse photography and helped with the analysis of the resulting digital images; Professor Dr Herbert Formayer and Dr Imran Nadeem (BOKU Vienna) provided the INCA data; Dr Jörg Schulla (Zürich) programmed the interface in WaSiM, and Dr Florian Hanzer (University of Innsbruck) helped to debug the new model extension; Alois Simon shared his local experience to interpret the soil maps, and Patricia Schrittwieser (both Federal State of Tyrol) helped in the parameterization of the tree species in the study area. Meteorological data were provided by the Hydrographic Service of Tyrol. Additional meteorological and hydrological data were kindly provided by the Harzwasserwerke GmbH, Hildesheim, Germany. Last but not least, the authors would also like to thank one anonymous referee, as well as Dr Michal Jenicek and the Associate Editor, Dr Guillaume Thirel, for their helpful comments and suggestions that significantly helped to improve the quality of the manuscript.

PY - 2018/7/27

Y1 - 2018/7/27

N2 - We present a new model extension for the Water balance Simulation Model, WaSiM, which features (i) snow interception and (ii) modified meteorological conditions under coniferous forest canopies, complementing recently developed model extensions for particular mountain hydrological processes. Two study areas in Austria and Germany are considered in this study. To supplement and constrain the modelling experiments with on-site observations, a network of terrestrial time-lapse cameras was set up in one of these catchments. The spatiotemporal patterns of snow depth inside the forest and at the adjacent open field sites were recorded along with snow interception dynamics. Comparison of observed and modelled snow cover and canopy interception indicates that the new version of WaSiM reliably reconstructs the variability of snow accumulation for both the forest and the open field. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency computed for selected runoff events in spring increases from −0.68 to 0.71 and 0.21 to 0.87, respectively.

AB - We present a new model extension for the Water balance Simulation Model, WaSiM, which features (i) snow interception and (ii) modified meteorological conditions under coniferous forest canopies, complementing recently developed model extensions for particular mountain hydrological processes. Two study areas in Austria and Germany are considered in this study. To supplement and constrain the modelling experiments with on-site observations, a network of terrestrial time-lapse cameras was set up in one of these catchments. The spatiotemporal patterns of snow depth inside the forest and at the adjacent open field sites were recorded along with snow interception dynamics. Comparison of observed and modelled snow cover and canopy interception indicates that the new version of WaSiM reliably reconstructs the variability of snow accumulation for both the forest and the open field. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency computed for selected runoff events in spring increases from −0.68 to 0.71 and 0.21 to 0.87, respectively.

KW - forest canopy

KW - hydrological modelling

KW - snow interception and sublimation

KW - terrestrial time-lapse camera network

KW - WaSiM

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053902668&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/02626667.2018.1518626

DO - 10.1080/02626667.2018.1518626

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85053902668

VL - 63

SP - 1540

EP - 1557

JO - Hydrological sciences journal

JF - Hydrological sciences journal

SN - 0262-6667

IS - 10

ER -