Testing the ability of a semidistributed hydrological model to simulate contributing area

Abstract

A dry climate, the prevalence of small depressions, and the lack of a well‐developed drainage network are characteristics of environments with extremely variable contributing areas to runoff. These types of regions arguably present the greatest challenge to properly understanding catchment streamflow generation processes. Previous studies have shown that contributing area dynamics are important for streamflow response, but the nature of the relationship between the two is not typically understood. Furthermore, it is not often tested how well hydrological models simulate contributing area. In this study, the ability of a semidistributed hydrological model, the PDMROF configuration of Environment Canada's MESH model, was tested to determine if it could simulate contributing area. The study focused on the St. Denis Creek watershed in central Saskatchewan, Canada, which with its considerable topographic depressions, exhibits wide variation in contributing area, making it ideal for this type of investigation. MESH‐PDMROF was able to replicate contributing area derived independently from satellite imagery. Daily model simulations revealed a hysteretic relationship between contributing area and streamflow not apparent from the less frequent remote sensing observations. This exercise revealed that contributing area extent can be simulated by a semi‐distributed hydrological model with a scheme that assumes storage capacity distribution can be represented with a probability function. However, further investigation is needed to determine if it can adequately represent the complex relationship between streamflow and contributing area that is such a key signature of catchment behavior.

Multicriteria sensitivity analysis as a diagnostic tool for understanding model behaviour and characterizing model uncertainty

“…MESH is a semi‐distributed coupled land surface–hydrology modelling system developed by ECCC for large‐scale watershed modelling with consideration of cold region processes in Canada (Pietroniro et al, ). It has been widely used in different parts of Canada (e.g., Davison et al, ; Haghnegahdar et al, ; Mekonnen et al, ; Mengistu & Spence, ; Pietroniro et al, ; Pohl & Marsh, ) and has been under continuous development at the National Hydrology Research Centre in Saskatoon, Canada, via collaboration between researchers from the GIWS and ECCC.…”

An economic assessment of local farm multi-purpose surface water retention systems in a Canadian Prairie setting

“…Environment and Climate Change Canada uses MESH as part of an operational forecasting tool, and the system is currently being used within research projects such as the Drought Research Initiative (DRI) (University of Saskatchewan 2015). The modeling system, MESH, is designed to simulate several hydrologic processes: evaporation, snow accumulation and ablation, interception, interflow, infiltration, recharge, baseflow, and overland and channel routing processes (Kouwen et al 1993;Mengistu and Spence 2016). The model allows for streamflow to be simulated at any point within the watershed (Mengistu and Spence 2016).…”

“…The modeling system, MESH, is designed to simulate several hydrologic processes: evaporation, snow accumulation and ablation, interception, interflow, infiltration, recharge, baseflow, and overland and channel routing processes (Kouwen et al 1993;Mengistu and Spence 2016). The model allows for streamflow to be simulated at any point within the watershed (Mengistu and Spence 2016). This ability is a major advantage of a fully distributed model (Viji et al 2015).…”

“…The physically based land surface model, CLASS 1, calculated heat and moisture transfer at the surface, while CLASS 2 calculated energy and moisture fluxes at the canopy level (Verseghy 1991;Verseghy et al 1993). The algorithms used in CLASS 1 and 2 were run on each grouped response unit (GRU) independently (Kouwen et al 1993;Mengistu and Spence 2016). Precipitation data for MESH were from the Canadian precipitation analysis (CaPA) project which produces rainfall accumulations at a 6-h time step and resolution of 15 km over North America in real time (Mahfouf et al 2007).…”

On the Relationship Between Flood and Contributing Area

“…Using remotely sensed estimates of contributing area, Mengistu and Spence (2016) derived exponents for three headwater catchments at the St. Denis National Wildlife Area, in Saskatchewan, Canada, which…”