Abstract
routing scheme affects simulations of peak discharge and may help to provide better agreement with observations. To this end we use runoff and discharge simulations of nine GHMs forced by observational climate data (1971–2010) within the ISIMIP2a project.
The runoff simulations were used as input for the global river routing model CaMa-Flood. The simulated daily discharge was compared to the discharge generated by each GHM using its native river routing scheme. For each GHM both versions of simulated discharge were compared to monthly and daily discharge observations from 1701 GRDC stations as a benchmark. CaMa-
Flood routing shows a general reduction of peak river discharge and a delay of about two to three weeks in its occurrence, likely induced by the buffering capacity of floodplain reservoirs. For a majority of river basins, discharge
produced by CaMa-Flood resulted in a better agreement with observations. In particular, maximum daily discharge was adjusted, with a multi-model averaged reduction in bias over about 2/3 of the analysed basin area. The increase in agreement was obtained in both managed and near-natural basins. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of routing scheme choice in peak discharge simulation, where CaMa-Flood routing accounts for floodplain storage and backwater effects that are not represented in most GHMs. Our study provides important hints that an explicit parameterisation of these processes may be essential in future impact studies.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 075003 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-14 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Environmental Research Letters |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 May 2017 |
Funding
G Leng and M Huang were supported by the Integrated Assessment Research program through the Integrated Multi-sector, Multiscale Modeling (IM3) Scientific Focus Area (SFA) sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research Division of Office of Science, US Department of Energy (DOE). The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is operated for the US DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. P Ciais and M Guimberteau were supported by the European Research Council Synergy grant ERC-2013-SyG610028-IMBALANCE-P. The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access Fund of the Leibniz Association.
Funders | Funder number |
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Biological and Environmental Research Division of Office of Science | |
US Department of Energy | |
U.S. Department of Energy | |
Battelle | DE-AC05-76RL01830 |
Seventh Framework Programme | 603864, 610028 |
European Research Council | |
Leibniz-Gemeinschaft |