Streamflow simulation for continental‐scale river basins

TLDR

VIC‑2L is a hydrologically based soil‑vegetation‑atmosphere transfer scheme designed to represent the land surface in numerical weather prediction and climate models. The study describes a grid network version of the VIC‑2L macroscale hydrologic model. The grid network scheme predicts streamflow for large continental rivers and was applied off‑line to the Columbia and Delaware Rivers at 1° and 0.5° resolution, respectively. The model reproduced seasonal hydrographs and annual flow volumes within a few percent for the Columbia and Delaware Rivers, but struggled in the arid Snake River basin due to unmodeled groundwater‑surface water interactions.

Abstract

A grid network version of the two‐layer variable infiltration capacity (VIC‐2L) macroscale hydrologic model is described. VIC‐2L is a hydrologically based soil‐ vegetation‐atmosphere transfer scheme designed to represent the land surface in numerical weather prediction and climate models. The grid network scheme allows streamflow to be predicted for large continental rivers. Off‐line (observed and estimated surface meteorological and radiative forcings) applications of the model to the Columbia River (1° latitude‐longitude spatial resolution) and Delaware River (0.5° resolution) are described. The model performed quite well in both applications, reproducing the seasonal hydrograph and annual flow volumes to within a few percent. Difficulties in reproducing observed streamflow in the arid portion of the Snake River basin are attributed to groundwater‐surface water interactions, which are not modeled by VIC‐2L.