Learning from watching snowmelt
Title | Learning from watching snowmelt |
Publication Type | Conference Proceedings |
Year of Conference | 1990 |
Authors | Frazier, J. W., and Brandow C. A. |
Conference Name | 58th Annual Western Snow Conference |
Series Title | Proceedings of the 58th Annual Western Snow Conference |
Date Published | April 1990 |
Publisher | Western Snow Conference |
Conference Location | Sacramento, California |
Keywords | Bed load movement, Ice flow, Oversnow flow, Rain-on-snow, Snowmelt observations, Stream morphology, Subalpine meadows |
Abstract | The WRENSS handbook contains a hydrologic procedure for estimating increased water yield from silvicultural treatments. The difference in annual evapotranspiration for a forested watershed under harvested and unharvested conditions approximates the annual water yield increase. Annual water yield inreases predicted by WRENSS require area precipitation and general forest stand characteristics. However, forest stand characteristics had little effect on predicted water yields. Annual water yield estimates were only as accurate as the basin wide precipitation data. The WRENSS predicted water yield increases were accurate for the snow dominated region. Potential model upgrades include improved estimates of snow vaporization, evapotranspiration rates, indexed precipitation or orographic functions, and assessment of streamfow generation processes from alpine areas for water yield increases in alpine-subalpine basins. |
URL | sites/westernsnowconference.org/PDFs/1990Frazier.pdf |