Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T14:46:38.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Snowmelt modelling in the Cairngorms, NE Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

R. I. Ferguson  and
E. M. Morris
R. I. Ferguson
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Science, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland, U.K.
E. M. Morris
Affiliation:
Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BB, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Snowmelt modelling is of potential value in flood forecasting, reservoir management, and understanding stream acidification. It involves meteorological extrapolation, snowmelt calculation, meltwater routing, and snowpack depletion. A simple conceptual model using air temperature can reproduce the general pattern of daily streamflow in basins of >100 km2 but is prone to parameter instability. At a point scale and with the benefit of automatic weather station data the energy balance approach is superior to temperature index methods, but the roughness length parameter is again unstable in time and space. Even in a small (0·4 km2) basin this approach has to be coupled with an adequate flow routing model. Current research is comparing alternative models and data inputs in an intermediate-sized basin.

Keywords

energy balanceflow routingmeteorological extrapolationparameter stabilitysnowpack depletiontemperature index.
Type
Hydrometeorology
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 78 , Issue 4: Hydrology in Scotland , 1987 , pp. 261 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, E. A. 1968. Development and testing of snowpack energy balance equations. WATER RESOUR RES 4, 19–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, D. R. 1981. Severe snowmelt runoff in north-east England and its implications. PROC INST CIVIL ENG Part 2, 71, 1047–60.Google Scholar
Beven, K. J. & O'Connell, P. E. 1982. On the role of physically-based distributed modelling in hydrology. INST HYDROL REP 81.Google Scholar
Braun, L. N. & Lang, H. 1986. Simulation of snowmelt runoff in lowland and lower Alpine regions of Switzerland. INT ASSOC HYDROL SCI PUBL 155, 125–40.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, A. C. 1983. Roughness length of sea, sand and snow. BOUNDARY LAYER METEOROL 25, 405–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deas, A. 1986. Modelling of snowmelt runoff from Scottish Highland catchments. Unpublished B.Sc. dissertation, Department of Environmental Science, Stirling University.Google Scholar
Ferguson, R. I. 1984. Magnitude and modelling of snowmelt runoff in the Cairngorm mountains, Scotland. HYDROL SCI J 29, 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, R. I. 1985. High densities, water equivalents, and melt rates of snow in the Cairngorm mountains, Scotland. WEATHER 40, 272–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, R. 1986. Parametric modelling of daily and seasonal snowmelt using snowpack water equivalent as well as snow covered area. INT ASSOC HYDROL SCI PUBL 155, 151–61.Google Scholar
Harding, R. J. 1986. Exchanges of energy and mass associated with a melting snowpack. INT ASSOC HYDROL SCI PUBL 155, 3–15.Google Scholar
Martinec, J. 1975. Snowmelt runoff model for stream flow forecasts. NORD HYDROL 6, 145–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martinec, J. & Rango, A. 1986. Parameter values for snowmelt runoff modelling. J HYDROL 84, 197–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, E. M. 1980. Forecasting flood flows in the Plynlimon catchments using a deterministic, distributed mathematical model. INT ASSOC HYDROL SCI PUBL 129, 247–55.Google Scholar
Morris, E. M. 1982. Sensitivity of the European Hydrological System snow models. INT ASSOC HYDROL SCI PUBL 138, 221–31.Google Scholar
Morris, E. M. 1983. Modelling the flow of mass and energy within a snowpack for hydrological forecasting. ANN GLACIOL 4, 198–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, E. M. & Thomas, A. G. 1985. Preferential discharge of pollutants during snowmelt in Scotland. J GLACIOL 31, 190–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rango, A. & Martinec, J. 1982. Snow accumulation derived from modified depletion curves of snow coverage. INT ASSOC HYDROL SCI PUBL 138, 83–90.Google Scholar
Rogers, C. C. M. & Anderson, M. G. 1986. Spatial variability of hillslope hydrological parameters and the problems of optimal model design. Final report, NERC research grant GR3/4840.Google Scholar
WMO 1986. Intercomparison of models of snowmelt runoff. Geneva: Operational Hydrology Report 23, World Meteorological Organisation.Google Scholar