HR: 1340h
AN: H13H-1407    [Abstracts]
TI: Impact of watershed geomorphic characteristics on the energy and water budgets
AU: Rigon, R
EM: riccardo.rigon@ing.unitn.it
AF: University of Trento, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering - CUDAM Via Mesiano 77, Trento, TN 38050 Italy
AU: * Bertoldi, G
EM: bertoldi@duke.edu
AF: Duke University, Department of Civil Engineering - Pratt School of Engineering CIEMAS Building Room 2417, Durham, NC 27708 United States
AU: Over, T M
EM: tmover@hotmail.com
AF: Eastern Illinois University, Department of Geology-Geography 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL 61920 United States
AB: The GEOtop model makes it possible to analyze the short- and long-term effects of geomorphic variation on the partitioning of the lateral surface and sub-surface water and surface energy fluxes. The topography of the Little Washita basin (Oklahoma, USA) and of the Serraia basin (Trentino, Italy) have been used as base topographies, from which virtual topographies with altered slopes and elevations have been created, with corresponding modifications of the soil thickness and of the extension of the channel network, according to applicable geomorphological theories, in order to quantify the contribution of these topographic features to the spatial and temporal variability of energy and water fluxes. Simulation results show that both a more extended channel network and more accentuated slopes cause an increase in the discharge balanced by a diminution of the evapotranspiration. The diminution of the latent heat flux is balanced by the increase in the sensible heat flux. Net radiation shows a minor sensitivity to topography. Evaporative fraction, on the contrary, is shown to be strongly dependent on geomorphic characteristics. The results confirm the importance of including an adequate treatment of topography in large-scale land surface models.
DE: 1814 Energy budgets
DE: 1818 Evapotranspiration
DE: 1824 Geomorphology: general (1625)
DE: 1836 Hydrological cycles and budgets (1218, 1655)
DE: 1843 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1631, 3322)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005