Title: Modelling of hydrological processes in snowmelt-governed permafrost-free catchments of the Western Siberian lowlands

Authors: Jens Kiesel; Matthias Pfannerstill; Britta Schmalz; Vitaliy Khoroshavin; Artyom Sheludkov; Tatiana Veshkurtseva; Nicola Fohrer

Addresses: Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Kiel University, Olshausenstr, 75, 24118 Kiel, Germany ' Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Kiel University, Olshausenstr, 75, 24118 Kiel, Germany ' Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Kiel University, Olshausenstr, 75, 24118 Kiel, Germany ' Department of Physical Geography and Ecology, Tyumen State University, Semakova St. 10, 625003 Tyumen, Russian Federation, Russia ' Department of Physical Geography and Ecology, Tyumen State University, Semakova St. 10, 625003 Tyumen, Russian Federation, Russia ' Department of Physical Geography and Ecology, Tyumen State University, Semakova St. 10, 625003 Tyumen, Russian Federation, Russia ' Department of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Institute for Natural Resource Conservation, Kiel University, Olshausenstr, 75, 24118 Kiel, Germany

Abstract: To date, no examples of small- to meso-scale hydrological simulations exist in the southern part of the Western Siberian lowlands, despite intensive agriculture and high vulnerability to climate change. We propose a first simulation approach in which we assess the importance of surface and groundwater processes on hydrological model performance. Therefore, we simulated three catchments, using four different model setups incorporating different landscape characteristics and processes. An objective calibration and comparison framework was applied to assess the different setups which reached very diverse performance: the setups where physically-based surface retention is considered, showed slightly more realistic surface runoff driven peak flows and the setups with a more complex groundwater concept improved the depiction of surface runoff, the recession phase and the contributing baseflow significantly. The best performing, most complex setup was used to assess the prevailing hydrological processes of the lowland with its cold, continental climate in more detail.

Keywords: groundwater; surface water retention; flow duration curve; FDC; hydrological process evaluation; SWAT3S.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHST.2018.093598

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 2018 Vol.8 No.3, pp.289 - 316

Received: 30 Dec 2016
Accepted: 15 Apr 2017
Published online: 30 Jul 2018 *

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