Role of Snow in Runoff Processes in a Subalpine Hillslope: Field Study in the Ward Creek Watershed, Lake Tahoe, California, during 2000 and 2001 Water Years
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 16, Issue 6
Abstract
Field study is an essential component of hydrologic science because all hydrological studies must be conducted by such observation-based knowledge of real watersheds. Hillslope runoff processes have been intensively investigated, but the flow process at the boundary between the snowpack and ground surface has not been well documented. A field site at the northwest sector of the Ward Creek watershed, Lake Tahoe Basin, was built for observations of overland flow, subsurface stormflow, and channel flow, simultaneously with atmospheric measurements to examine the hydrology at a snow-covered hillslope. Also, the groundwater table under the snowpack was monitored by shallow wells at the hillslope. All field-measured atmospheric data were synthesized with an energy-balance snow model, and the snowmelt rate and energy balance were computed. The results of the analyses indicate that most of the snowmelt water infiltrated into the topsoil layers and that saturated subsurface flow was the largest contributor to the stream channel flow throughout the observation period. However, overland flow or longitudinal flow within the snowpack may still happen even over an unfrozen and unsaturated topsoil on a relatively mild hillslope (16%). The quantification of observations of overland/within snowpack flow showed that the snowpack enhanced the overland runoff, which caused higher peaks in flow discharge and sediment production. Analysis of the major rain-on-snow event of May 7, 2000, revealed that snowmelt water, caused by the energy flux from raindrops, might not be the major contributor to the runoff peak discharge since very little snowmelt was observed during the rain-on-snow event. Consequently, spring storm hydrographs in the Sierra Nevada seem to be affected by the high-soil water in the topsoil because of the daily water supply by snowmelt and by overland/within snowpack flow caused by the capillary suction forces in the snowpack.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the staff at Hydrologic Research Laboratory, University of California, Davis, for their help, U.S. Forest Service, USDA, and Alpine Meadow Ski Resort for allowing us to install and maintain the observation equipment at the site, and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for the soil data.
References
Bayard, D., Stähli, M., Parriaux, A., and Flühler, H. (2005). “The influence of seasonally frozen soil on the snowmelt runoff at two Alpine sites in southern Switzerland.” J. Hydrol. (Amsterdam), 309, 66–84 .
Bernier, P. Y. (1982). “VSAS2: A revised source area simulator for small forested basins.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA.
Betson, R. P. (1964). “What is watershed runoff?” J. Geophys, Res., 69(8), 1541–1552.
Colbeck, S. C. (1975). “A theory for water flow through a layered snowpack.” Water Resour. Res., 11(2), 261–266.
Dunne, T. (1978). “Field studies of hillslope flow processes.” Hillslope hydrology, M. J. Kirkby, ed., Wiley, Chichester, UK, 227–293.
Dunne, T., and Black, R. D. (1970). “An experimental investigation of runoff processes in permeable soils.” Water Resour. Res., 6(2), 478–490.
Dunne, T., and Black, R. D. (1971). “Runoff processes during snowmelt.” Water Resour. Res., 7(5), 1160–1172.
Dunne, T., Moore, T. R., and Taylor, C. H. (1975). “Recognition and prediction of runoff-producing zones in humid regions.” Hydrol. Sci. Bull., 20(3), 305–327.
Glancy, P. A. (1988). “Streamflow, sediment transport, and nutrient transport at Incline Village, Lake Tahoe, Nevada 1970–1973.” USGS Water Supply Paper 2313. Prepared in cooperation with the Nevada Division of Water Resources and Washoe County, 53.
Harr, R. D. (1981). “Some characteristics and consequences of snowmelt during rainfall in western Oregon.” J. Hydrol. (Amsterdam), 53, 277–304.
Hewlett, J. D. (1961). “Some idea about storm runoff and baseflow.” Southeast Forest Experiment Station, Annual Rep., USDA Forest Service, 62–66.
Hewlett, J. D., and Hibbert, A. R. (1967). “Factors affecting the response of small watersheds to precipitation in himid areas.” Proc., 1st Int. Symp. on Forest Hydrology, Pergamon, New York, 275–290.
Horton, R. E. (1935). “Surface runoff phenomena. Part I—Analysis of the hydrograph.” Horton Hydrological Laboratory Publication 101, Voorheesville, NY
Kavvas, M. L., et al. (2004). “Watershed environmental hydrology (WEHY) model, based on upscaled conservation equations: Hydrologic module.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 9, 450–464.
Kavvas, M. L., et al. (2006). “Watershed environmental hydrology model: Environmental module and its application to a California watershed.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 11(3), 261–272.
Kondo, J., and Yamazaki, T. (1990). “A prediction model for snowmelt, snow surface temperature and freezing depth using a heat balance methods.” J. Appl. Meteorol., 29, 375–384.
Kroll, C. G. (1976). “Sediment discharge from highway cut-slopes in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California.” USGS Water Resources Investigations 76-19, Prepared in cooperation with the California Dept. of Transportation Division of Highways.
Luce, C. H., and Tarboton, D. G. (2001). “A modified force-restore approach to modeling snow-surface heat fluxes.” 69th Annual Meeting of the Western Snow Conf., 2001.
Marks, D., Kimball, J., Tingey, D., and Link, T. (1998). “The sensitivity of snowmelt processes to climate conditions and forest cover during rain-on-snow: A case study of the 1996 Pacific Northwest flood.” Hydrol. Processes, 12, 1569–1587.
Mccabe, G. J., Clark, M. P., and Hay, L. E. (2006). “Rain-on-snow events in the western United States.” Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 7.
Ohara, N., and Kavvas, M. L. (2006). “Field observations and numerical model experiments for the snowmelt process at a field site.” Adv. Water Resour., 29, 194–211.
Reuter, J. E., and Miller, W. W. (2000). “Aquatic resources, water quality, and limnology of Lake Tahoe and its upland watershed.” Chapter 4, Lake Tahoe watershed assessment: Volume I, General Technical Rep. PSW-GTR-175. USDA Forest Service, D. D. Murphy and C. M. Knopp, eds., Pacific Southwest Research Station, Albany, CA, 215–399.
Roth, J, Thayer, T, Breibart, A., O’Connell, J., Christensen, W., and Norman, S. (2006). 2005/2006 Monitoring Program Annual Rep. USDA Forest Service, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.
Rowe, T. G., Rockwell, G. L., and Hess, G. W. (1998). “Flood of January 1997 in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California and Nevada.” USGS Fact Sheet.
Simon, A., et al. (2003). “Draft final Lake Tahoe Basin framework implementation study: Sediment loadings and channel erosion.” USDA Agricultural Research Service, Channel and Watershed Processes Research Unit, National Sedimentation Laboratory, Oxford, MS.
Singh, P., Spitzbart, G., Hübl, H., and Weinmeister, H. W. (1997). “Hydrological response of snowpack under rain-on-snow events: A field study.” J. Hydrol. (Amsterdam), 202(1–4), 1–20.
Stähli, M., Bayard, D., Wydler, H., and Flühler, H. (2004). “Snowmelt infiltration into alpine soils visualized by dye tracer technique.” Artic, Antarctic, Alpine Res., 36(1), 128–135.
Stubblefield, A. P. (2002). “Spatial and temporal dynamics of watershed sediment delivery, Lake Tahoe, California.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of California at Davis, Davis, CA.
Stubblefield, A. P., Reuter, J. E., and Charles, C. R. (2001). “Long term and high resolution approaches to watershed suspended sediment loading, Lake Tahoe Basin.” The Lake Tahoe Basin: Lesson in lake and watershed science for western North America, Abstract from AGU December 2001 Conf.
Stubblefield, A. P., Reuter, J. E., Dahlgren, R. A., and Goldman, C. R. (2007). “Use of turbidometry to characterize suspended sediment and phosphorus fluxes in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, USA.” Hydrol. Processes, 21, 281–291.
Troendle, C. A. (1985). “Variable source area models.” Hydrological Forecasting, M. G. Anderson and T. P. Burt, eds., Wiley, Chichester, UK, 347–403.
Wankiewcz, A. (1978). “Water pressure in ripe snowpacks.” Water Resour. Res., 14(4), 593–600.
Weyman, D. R. (1970). “Throughflow on hillslopes and its relation to stream hydrographs.” XV Annee, No. 3, Int. Association of Scientific Hydrology, 25–33.
Whipkey, R. Z. (1967). “Theory and mechanics of subsurface stormflow.” Int. Symp. on Forest Hydrology, W. E. Sopper and H. W. Lull, eds., Pergamon, Oxford.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 16 • Issue 6 • June 2011
Pages: 521 - 533
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 17, 2009
Accepted: Oct 28, 2010
Published online: Oct 30, 2010
Published in print: Jun 1, 2011
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.