An Application of the Statistical DownScaling Model (SDSM) to Simulate Climatic Data for Streamflow Modelling in Québec

Abstract

General Circulation Models (GCMs) are widely used tools to assess potential impacts of global climate warming. However, their outputs are difficult to use in regional impact studies with regard to water resources because of their coarse spatial resolution. Downscaling techniques have emerged as useful tools to reduce the problem of discordant scales by deriving regional climate information from global climate data. The objective of this study is to test the capability of one of these techniques, the Statistical DownScaling Model (SDSM), to derive local scale temperature and precipitation data series that can be used as inputs to a hydrologic model for streamflow modelling. Three river basins located in the province of Québec are analyzed. Results show that the SDSM provides reasonable downscaling data when using predictors representing the observed current climate. However, the performance is less reliable when using GCM predictors.