Mengelkamp, HT,Kiely, G,Warrach, K;

2001

January

Theoretical And Applied Climatology

Evaluation of the hydrological components added to an atmospheric land-surface scheme

Validated

()

RIVER BASIN EXPERIMENT PARAMETERIZATION SCHEMES MODELS WATER PROJECT SCALE PRECIPITATION VEGETATION IRELAND BALANCE

69

199

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Discharge from a small grassland catchment in Ireland is simulated with the atmospheric land-surface scheme SEWAB. Hydrological processes are parameterized to represent surface runoff and baseflow generation and soil moisture storage changes. Surface ponding and infiltration are explicitly described in order to account for the rapid response of streamflow to precipitation events. The annual discharge, the evapotranspiration and individual flood flows are accurately modelled. The simulation of soil moisture at various depths is close to the observations from time domain reflectometer measurements. An analysis of the significance of individual hydrological processes for discharge simulation from the small catchment found the ponding process to be essential for time periods of less than 12 hours. A depth dependent saturation hydraulic conductivity improves the simulations on all time scales.