Identification

Title

Quantifying streamflow forecast skill elasticity to initial condition and climate prediction skill

Abstract

Water resources management decisions commonly depend on monthly to seasonal streamflow forecasts, among other kinds of information. The skill of such predictions derives from the ability to estimate a watershed’s initial moisture and energy conditions and to forecast future weather and climate. These sources of predictability are investigated in an idealized (i.e., perfect model) experiment using calibrated hydrologic simulation models for 424 watersheds that span the continental United States. Prior work in this area also followed an ensemble-based strategy for attributing streamflow forecast uncertainty, but focused only on two end points representing zero and perfect information about future forcings and initial conditions. This study extends the prior approach to characterize the influence of varying levels of uncertainty in each area on streamflow prediction uncertainty. The sensitivities enable the calculation of flow forecast skill elasticities (i.e., derivatives) relative to skill in either predictability source, which are used to characterize the regional, seasonal, and predictand variations in flow forecast skill dependencies. The resulting analysis provides insights on the relative benefits of investments toward improving watershed monitoring (through modeling and measurement) versus improved climate forecasting. Among other key findings, the results suggest that climate forecast skill improvements can be amplified in streamflow prediction skill, which means that climate forecasts may have greater benefit for monthly-to-seasonal flow forecasting than is apparent from climate forecast skill considerations alone. The results also underscore the importance of advancing hydrologic modeling, expanding watershed observations, and leveraging data assimilation, all of which help capture initial hydrologic conditions that are often the dominant influence on hydrologic predictions.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7ff3txt

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

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Classification of spatial data and services

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geoscientificInformation

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title

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reference date

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publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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date type

publication

effective date

2016-02-01T00:00:00Z

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Copyright 2016 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

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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

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pointOfContact

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