Springtime Snowmelt and Streamflow Predictions in the Himalayan Mountains
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 19, Issue 7
Abstract
Perennial rivers (i.e., the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahamputra) originating from the Himalayas are fed by temperature-induced snowmelt, rainfall, and base flow. Daily, weekly, or monthly streamflows of non-monsoon periods are critical for about a billion people living in these perennial river basins for water supply, irrigation, hydropower, and other water needs. The streamflow in snow and glacier dominated watersheds are affected mainly by solar energy and temperature. The existing models for streamflow and snow depth estimation are tedious and lack reliability. The impact of climate change has further enhanced the uncertainty. The springtime streamflow for the study area has increased by 2% yearly due to changes in climate during the last 25 years. The paper describes a nomogram, which combines the effect of climate change, temperature, and melting snow depth to estimate the daily average flow/discharge during spring time for a subbasin in the Himalayas. The concept is simple and uses location-specific regressed weekly main temperature, snow depth and discharge during ablating snowpack. The analysis focused on 3 typical years (1983, 2003, and 2008) and an average of 5–6 years during the spring period. The results of the study indicate a shift in temperature trend over the years and identify critical temperatures influencing the rate of snowmelt. The use of the temperature trendline has improved the streamflow simulation and further adaptation of average conditions under the changing climate and human influences in the region has enhanced the predictability of snowmelt/runoff. The glacier melts mostly occur in the summer-monsoon season so this trend cannot be addressed here with the springtime data set. However, a similar nomogram can be prepared for the summer-monsoon season if there is a snow cover area (SCA) of more than 50%.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the valuable data and help received from Ashwagosha Ganju, Director of SASE; N. K. Thakur, SASE; Ashok Gupta, BBMB and R. Handa, BBMB for this study. The authors also express their gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for making insightful comments and suggestions, which immensely improved the contents and the presentation in the revised manuscript. A. Verdhen also wishes to thank the Director of the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee (India) for his guidance and help.
References
Abudu, S., King, J. P., and Bawajir, A. S. (2011). “Forecasting monthly streamflow of spring-summer runoff season in Rio Grande Headwaters basin using stochastic hybrid modeling approach.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 384–390.
Akyurek, Z., Surer, S., and Beser, O. (2011). “Investigation of snow cover dynamics in the Upper Euphrates Basin of Turkey using remotely sensed snow-cover products and hydro meteorological data.” Hydrol. Process., 25(23), 3637–3648.
Bhutiyani, M. R., Kale, V. S., and Pawar, N. J. (2008). “Changing streamflow patterns in the rivers of northwestern Himalaya: Implications of global warming in the 20th century.” Curr. Sci., 95(5), 618–626.
Bhutiyani, M. R., Kale, V. S., and Pawar, N. J. (2009). “Climate change and the precipitation variations in the northwestern Himalaya: 1866–2006.” Int. J. Climatol., 30(4), 535–548.
DeBeer, C. M., and Pomeroy, J. W. (2010). “Simulation of the snowmelt runoff contributing area in a small Alpine basin.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 14(7), 1205–1219.
Debele, B., Srinivasan, R., and Gosain, A. K. (2010). “Comparison of process-based and temperature-index snowmelt modelling in SWAT.” Water Resour. Manage., 24(6), 1065–1088.
Ferguson, R. I. (1984). “Magnitude and modelling of snowmelt runoff in the Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 29(1), 49–62.
Ferguson, R. I. (1999). “Snowmelt runoff models.” Progr. Phys. Geography, 23(2), 205–227.
Hock, R. (2003). “Temperature index modelling in mountain area.” J. Hydrol., 282(1–4), 104–115.
Jain, S. K., Lohani, A. K., and Singh, R. D. (2012). “Snowmelt runoff modeling in a basin located in Bhutan Himalaya.” Proc., India Water Week 2012–Water, Energy and Food Security: Call for Solutions, National Water Development Agency, Delhi, Ministry of Water Resources, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
Kaur, R., Saikumar, D., Kulkarni, A. V., and Chaudhary, B. S. (2009). “Variations in snow cover and snowline altitude in Baspa Basin.” Curr. Sci., 96(9), 1255–1258.
Kulkarni, A. V., et al. (2007). “Glacial retreat in Himalaya using Indian remote sensing satellite data.” Curr. Sci., 92(1), 69–74.
Kulkarni, A. V., Mathur, P., Rathore, B. P., Alex, S., Thakur, N., and Kumar, M. (2002). “Effect of global warming on snow ablation pattern in the Himalaya.” Curr. Sci., 83(2), 120–123.
Kulkarni, A. V., Singh, S. K., Mathur, P., and Mishra, V. D. (2006). “Algorithm to monitor snow cover using AWiFS data of RESOURCESAT for the Himalayan region.” Int. J. Remote Sens., 27(12), 2449–2457.
Kumar, V. S., Haefner, H., and Seidel, K. (1991). “Satellite snow cover mapping and snow melt runoff modelling in Beas basin.” Proc., Vienna Symp. on Snow, Hydrology and Forests in High Alpine Areas, IAHS Press, Wallingford, U.K., 101–109.
Kuras, P. K., Alila, Y., Weiler, M., Spittlehouse, D., and Winkler, R. (2011). “Internal catchment process simulation in a snow dominated basin: Performance evaluation with spatiotemporally variable runoff generation and groundwater dynamics.” Hydrol. Process., 25, 3187–3230.
Martinec, J. (1980). “Limitations in hydrological interpretations of the snow coverage.” Nordic Hydrol., 11(5), 209–220.
Mote, P. W. (2006). “Climate driven variability and trends in mountain snowpack in western North America.” J. Clim., 19(23), 6209–6220.
Negi, H. S., Kulkarni, A. V., and Semwal, B. S. (2009). “Estimation of snow cover distribution in Beas basin, Indian Himalaya using satellite data and ground measurements.” J. Earth Syst. Sci., 118(5), 525–538.
Ohara, N., Kavvas, M. L., Easton, D., Dogrul, Yoon, J. Y., and Chen, Z. Q. (2011). “Role of snow in runoff processes in subhill slope: Field study in the Ward Creek watershed, Lake Tahoe, California, during 2000 and 2001 water years.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 521–533.
Prasad, V. H., and Roy, P. S. (2005). “Estimation of snowmelt runoff in Beas basin, India.” Geocarto Int., 20(2), 41–47.
Rango, A. S., and Martinec, J. (1998). “Effects of global warming on runoff in mountain basins representing different climatic zones.” Hydrology in changing environment, H. Weater and C. Kirby, eds., Vol. 1, Wiley, Chichester, U.K., 133–139.
Rao, N. M., Bandyopadhyay, B. K., and Verdhen, A. (1991). “Snow hydrology studies in the Beas basin for developing snowmelt runoff model.” J. Inst. Eng. (I), 72(CV3), 92–102.
Rebetez, M. (1996). “Seasonal relationship between temperature, precipitation and snow cover in a mountainous region.” Theor. Appl. Clim., 54(3–4), 99–106.
Singh, P., and Jain, S. K. (2002). “Snow and glacier melt in the Satluj River at Bhakra Dam in the western Himalayan region.” Hydro. Sci. J., 47(1), 93–106.
Singh, P., and Kumar, N. (1996). “Determination of snowmelt factor in the Himalayan region.” Hydro. Sci. J., 41(3), 301–310.
Singh, P., and Kumar, N. (1997). “Impact assessment of climate change on the hydrological response of snow and glacier melt runoff dominated Himalayan river,” J. Hydrol., 193(1–4), 316–350.
Singh, R. D., Goel, M. K., and Jain, S. K. (2012). “Operation analysis of Tehri reservoir under different climate change scenarios.” BIS Seminar on Dams and Spillways in Himalayan Regions (30 November 2012), Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi, India.
Skaugen, T. (2007). “Modelling the spatial variability of snow water equivalent at the catchment scale.” Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 11(5), 1543–1550.
Thayyen, R. J., and Gergan, J. T. (2010). “Role of glaciers in watershed hydrology: A preliminary study of a ‘Himalayan catchment’.” Cryosphere, 4(1), 115–128.
Verdhen, A., Chahar, B., and Sharma, O. P. (2011). “Climate change impact on snow and glacier hydrology simulation of a Himalayan watershed.” Proc., Int. Persp. on Water and Environment, Singapore.
Verdhen, A., and Chahar, B. R. (2012). “Efficiency of snowmelt modelling approaches in watershed models.” Proc., E-presentation of 2012 Int. SWAT Conf., Dept. of Civil Engineering, IIT Delhi, India, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
Verdhen, A., and Prasad, T. (1993). “Snowmelt runoff simulation models and their suitability in Himalayan conditions.” Proc., Kathmandu Symp. on Snow and Glacier Hydrology, Dept. Hydrology and Meteorology, Ministry of Water resources, Nepal, IAHS, Wallingford, U.K., 239–248.
Whitaker, A. C., and Sugiyama, H. (2005). “Seasonal snowpack dynamics and runoff in a cool temperate forest: Lysimeter experiment in Niigata, Japan.” Hydrol. Process., 19(20), 4179–4200.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 19 • Issue 7 • July 2014
Pages: 1452 - 1461
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 5, 2012
Accepted: Mar 12, 2013
Published online: Mar 14, 2013
Discussion open until: Aug 14, 2013
Published in print: Jul 1, 2014
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.