To conduct a subbasin-scale hydrologic sensitivity analysis over the eight digit Hydrologic Unit Code (cataloging unit) subbasins within the Columbia River basin and adjacent coastal drainages, which would help to understand the hydrologic changes that can be etruepected to be associated with summer and winter warming. Identfied the cataloging units within the region, and equivalent sub-basins within the Canadian portion of the Columbia River basin. These sub-basins are essentially equivalent to the Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs) within Washington but cover the entire Columbia River basin and adjacent coastal drainages, consisting of 226 watershed units, with an average area of about 3000 km2. (2) Conducted sensitivity analyses similar to those reported in Vano et al. (2012) and Das et al. (2011) for the Columbia River basin as a whole (in addition to the Colorado River basin, and two partitions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin basin) using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model applied at 1/16th degree latitude and longitude. (3) in the process of including additional models that are hydrologically credible in the analysis. These include the National Weather Service Sacramento model, the NASA Catchment model, the new Unified Land Model (a merger of NOAA’s Noah and Sacramento Models) and the new GFDL land surface model. (4) early results have allowed us to categorize subbasins with similar winter and summer sensitivities. Generally, the subbasins group into a high elevation category which has a positive sensitivity to cool season warming (meaning that warmer winter temperatures lead to increased annual flows), and two categories (both of which have reduced annual flows in response to winter warming): one that is more sensitive to cool season warming (mostly low elevation subbasins) and another that is more sensitive to warm season warming (mostly transitional rain-snow watersheds). These variations and differences will be etrueplored in a paper that is in progress.
Project Extension
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To conduct a subbasin-scale hydrologic sensitivity analysis over the eight digit Hydrologic Unit Code (cataloging unit) subbasins within the Columbia River basin and adjacent coastal drainages, which would help to understand the hydrologic changes that can be expected to be associated with summer and winter warming. Identified the cataloging units within the region, and equivalent sub-basins within the Canadian portion of the Columbia River basin. These sub-basins are essentially equivalent to the Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs) within Washington but cover the entire Columbia River basin and adjacent coastal drainages, consisting of 226 watershed units, with an average area of about 3000 km2. (2) Conducted sensitivity analyses similar to those reported in Vano et al. (2012) and Das et al. (2011) for the Columbia River basin as a whole (in addition to the Colorado River basin, and two partitions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin basin) using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model applied at 1/16th degree latitude and longitude. (3) in the process of including additional models that are hydrologically credible in the analysis. These include the National Weather Service Sacramento model, the NASA Catchment model, the new Unified Land Model (a merger of NOAA’s Noah and Sacramento Models) and the new GFDL land surface model. (4) early results have allowed us to categorize subbasins with similar winter and summer sensitivities. Generally, the subbasins group into a high elevation category which has a positive sensitivity to cool season warming (meaning that warmer winter temperatures lead to increased annual flows), and two categories (both of which have reduced annual flows in response to winter warming): one that is more sensitive to cool season warming (mostly low elevation subbasins) and another that is more sensitive to warm season warming (mostly transitional rain-snow watersheds). These variations and differences will be explored in a paper that is in progress.
