Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada
Glacier melt provides important contributions to streamflow in many mountainous regions. Hydrologic model calibration in glacier-fed catchments is difficult because errors in modelling snow accumulation can be offset by compensating errors in glacier melt. This problem is particularly severe in catc...
Published in: | Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
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Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2012
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-849-2012 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/849/2012/hess-16-849-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/b0c82ea0a9024ecaa47572be3ac9e6ca |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:b0c82ea0a9024ecaa47572be3ac9e6ca 2023-05-15T16:22:30+02:00 Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada G. Jost R. D. Moore B. Menounos R. Wheate 2012-03-01 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-849-2012 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/849/2012/hess-16-849-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/b0c82ea0a9024ecaa47572be3ac9e6ca en eng Copernicus Publications doi:10.5194/hess-16-849-2012 1027-5606 1607-7938 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/849/2012/hess-16-849-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/b0c82ea0a9024ecaa47572be3ac9e6ca undefined Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol 16, Iss 3, Pp 849-860 (2012) envir geo Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2012 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-849-2012 2023-01-22T19:07:27Z Glacier melt provides important contributions to streamflow in many mountainous regions. Hydrologic model calibration in glacier-fed catchments is difficult because errors in modelling snow accumulation can be offset by compensating errors in glacier melt. This problem is particularly severe in catchments with modest glacier cover, where goodness-of-fit statistics such as the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency may not be highly sensitive to the streamflow variance associated with glacier melt. While glacier mass balance measurements can be used to aid model calibration, they are absent for most catchments. We introduce the use of glacier volume change determined from repeated glacier mapping in a guided GLUE (generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation) procedure to calibrate a hydrologic model. This approach is applied to the Mica basin in the Canadian portion of the Columbia River Basin using the HBV-EC hydrologic model. Use of glacier volume change in the calibration procedure effectively reduced parameter uncertainty and helped to ensure that the model was accurately predicting glacier mass balance as well as streamflow. The seasonal and interannual variations in glacier melt contributions were assessed by running the calibrated model with historic glacier cover and also after converting all glacierized areas to alpine land cover in the model setup. Sensitivity of modelled streamflow to historic changes in glacier cover and to projected glacier changes for a climate warming scenario was assessed by comparing simulations using static glacier cover to simulations that accommodated dynamic changes in glacier area. Although glaciers in the Mica basin only cover 5% of the watershed, glacier ice melt contributes up to 25% and 35% of streamflow in August and September, respectively. The mean annual contribution of ice melt to total streamflow varied between 3 and 9% and averaged 6%. Glacier ice melt is particularly important during warm, dry summers following winters with low snow accumulation and early snowpack ... Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier* Unknown Canada Nash ENVELOPE(-62.350,-62.350,-74.233,-74.233) Sutcliffe ENVELOPE(-81.383,-81.383,50.683,50.683) Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 16 3 849 860 |
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Open Polar |
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language |
English |
topic |
envir geo |
spellingShingle |
envir geo G. Jost R. D. Moore B. Menounos R. Wheate Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada |
topic_facet |
envir geo |
description |
Glacier melt provides important contributions to streamflow in many mountainous regions. Hydrologic model calibration in glacier-fed catchments is difficult because errors in modelling snow accumulation can be offset by compensating errors in glacier melt. This problem is particularly severe in catchments with modest glacier cover, where goodness-of-fit statistics such as the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency may not be highly sensitive to the streamflow variance associated with glacier melt. While glacier mass balance measurements can be used to aid model calibration, they are absent for most catchments. We introduce the use of glacier volume change determined from repeated glacier mapping in a guided GLUE (generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation) procedure to calibrate a hydrologic model. This approach is applied to the Mica basin in the Canadian portion of the Columbia River Basin using the HBV-EC hydrologic model. Use of glacier volume change in the calibration procedure effectively reduced parameter uncertainty and helped to ensure that the model was accurately predicting glacier mass balance as well as streamflow. The seasonal and interannual variations in glacier melt contributions were assessed by running the calibrated model with historic glacier cover and also after converting all glacierized areas to alpine land cover in the model setup. Sensitivity of modelled streamflow to historic changes in glacier cover and to projected glacier changes for a climate warming scenario was assessed by comparing simulations using static glacier cover to simulations that accommodated dynamic changes in glacier area. Although glaciers in the Mica basin only cover 5% of the watershed, glacier ice melt contributes up to 25% and 35% of streamflow in August and September, respectively. The mean annual contribution of ice melt to total streamflow varied between 3 and 9% and averaged 6%. Glacier ice melt is particularly important during warm, dry summers following winters with low snow accumulation and early snowpack ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
G. Jost R. D. Moore B. Menounos R. Wheate |
author_facet |
G. Jost R. D. Moore B. Menounos R. Wheate |
author_sort |
G. Jost |
title |
Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada |
title_short |
Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada |
title_full |
Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper Columbia River Basin, Canada |
title_sort |
quantifying the contribution of glacier runoff to streamflow in the upper columbia river basin, canada |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-849-2012 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/849/2012/hess-16-849-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/b0c82ea0a9024ecaa47572be3ac9e6ca |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-62.350,-62.350,-74.233,-74.233) ENVELOPE(-81.383,-81.383,50.683,50.683) |
geographic |
Canada Nash Sutcliffe |
geographic_facet |
Canada Nash Sutcliffe |
genre |
glacier* |
genre_facet |
glacier* |
op_source |
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol 16, Iss 3, Pp 849-860 (2012) |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/hess-16-849-2012 1027-5606 1607-7938 http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/849/2012/hess-16-849-2012.pdf https://doaj.org/article/b0c82ea0a9024ecaa47572be3ac9e6ca |
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op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-849-2012 |
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Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
849 |
op_container_end_page |
860 |
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1766010475108106240 |