Modelling Hydrological Impacts of Forest Clearcutting through Parameter Regionalization

• Main Author: Selling, Benjamin
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Luft-, vatten- och landskapslära 2015
• Subjects: Rainfall-runoff modeling; Forest clear cut; HBV model; Parameter regionalization; Impact assessment; Hydrologisk modellering; Skogsavverkning; HBV modellen; Parameterregionalisering; konsekvensanalys; Oceanography; Hydrology and Water Resources; Oceanografi; hydrologi och vattenresurser; Engineering and Technology; Teknik och teknologier; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-267402

The aim of this thesis was to test and evaluate whether parameter regionalization of a hydrological model can be used to model the impact of forest clearcutting on streamflow in Sweden. This is an important task to be able to perform water management and impact assessments adequately. The HBV conceptual rainfall-runoff model was applied for 218 Swedish catchments of different sizes that were spread across the country and covered a wide range of different forest cover percentages. The modelling approach included calibration of the model for each catchment using a genetic algorithm and then associating the resulting optimal parameter values with the percentage of forest cover. The obtained relationship between different model parameters and forest cover was validated with help of a paired catchment study site in northern Sweden where a clear cut was done in 2006: calibrated optimal parameter sets of pre- and post-clearcutting conditions were compared to parameter sets obtained from the Sweden-wide analysis. Correlations were found for about half of the fifteen hydrological model parameters, but the validation with the paired catchment study site could only partially confirm these obtained relationships. The results suggest that the adopted parameter regionalization approach is too basic. However, some of the results seem promising and emphasize the need for further research and development of the approach to provide a more reasonable method to model the impact of forest clearcutting on streamflow. Det huvudsakliga målet med detta examensarbete var att testa och utvärdera om parameterregionalisering av en hydrologisk modell kan vara en lämplig metod för att modellera och kvantifiera påverkan från skogsavverkning på vattenbalansen i Sverige. Detta är en viktig uppgift för att kunna hantera våra vattenresurser och utföra konsekvensanalyser på ett tillfredsställande sätt. En konceptuell hydrologisk modell tillämpades på 218 avrinningsområden av olika storlekar och som var geografiskt utspridda i ...