Modelling Watershed and River Basin Processes in Cold Climate Regions: A Review

Watersheds in cold regions provide water, food, biodiversity and ecosystem service. However, the increasing demand for water resources and climate change challenge our ability to provide clean freshwater. Particularly, watersheds in cold regions are more sensitive to changing climate due to their gl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water
Main Authors: Junye Wang, Narayan Kumar Shrestha, Mojtaba Aghajani Delavar, Tesfa Worku Meshesha, Soumendra N. Bhanja
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021
Subjects:
watershed modeling
cold climate
climate change
modeling of river basins
Hydraulic engineering
TC1-978
Water supply for domestic and industrial purposes
TD201-500
permafrost
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040518
https://doaj.org/article/91982cc37006482d9189966f8ee31eeb
Description
Summary:Watersheds in cold regions provide water, food, biodiversity and ecosystem service. However, the increasing demand for water resources and climate change challenge our ability to provide clean freshwater. Particularly, watersheds in cold regions are more sensitive to changing climate due to their glaciers’ retreat and permafrost. This review revisits watershed system and processes. We analyze principles of watershed modelling and characteristics of watersheds in cold regions. Then, we show observed evidence of their impacts of cold processes on hydrological and biogeochemical processes and ecosystems, and review the watershed modeling and their applications in cold regions. Finally, we identify the knowledge gaps in modeling river basins according to model structures and representations of processes and point out research priorities in future model development.

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