Identification

Title

A hybrid-3D hillslope hydrological model for use in Earth system models

Abstract

Hillslope-scale rainfall-runoff processes leading to a fast catchment response are not explicitly included in land surface models (LSMs) for use in earth system models (ESMs) due to computational constraints. This study presents a hybrid-3D hillslope hydrological model (h3D) that couples a 1-D vertical soil column model with a lateral pseudo-2D saturated zone and overland flow model for use in ESMs. By representing vertical and lateral responses separately at different spatial resolutions, h3D is computationally efficient. The h3D model was first tested for three different hillslope planforms (uniform, convergent and divergent). We then compared h3D (with single and multiple soil columns) with a complex physically based 3-D model and a simple 1-D soil moisture model coupled with an unconfined aquifer (as typically used in LSMs). It is found that simulations obtained by the simple 1-D model vary considerably from the complex 3-D model and are not able to represent hillslope-scale variations in the lateral flow response. In contrast, the single soil column h3D model shows a much better performance and saves computational time by 2-3 orders of magnitude compared with the complex 3-D model. When multiple vertical soil columns are implemented, the resulting hydrological responses (soil moisture, water table depth, and base flow along the hillslope) from h3D are nearly identical to those predicted by the complex 3-D model, but still saves computational time. As such, the computational efficiency of the h3D model provides a valuable and promising approach to incorporating hillslope-scale hydrological processes into continental and global-scale ESMs.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d70p11hj

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-10-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact