HR: 09:25h
AN: CG21B-06 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Estimation of Hydrologic Components of a Watershed With a coupled Hydro-Climatic Model : the CRCM and its Application Over Some Catchment Basins in Québec
AU: * Musy, A
EM: Musy.Andre@ouranos.ca
AF: Ouranos consortium, 550 Sherbrooke Str West, Montreal, QC H3A 1B9, Canada
AU: Frigon, A
EM: frigon.anne@ouranos.ca
AF: Ouranos consortium, 550 Sherbrooke Str West, Montreal, QC H3A 1B9, Canada
AU: Slivitzky, M
EM: slivitz@cite.net
AF: Ouranos consortium, 550 Sherbrooke Str West, Montreal, QC H3A 1B9, Canada
AU: Turcotte, R
EM: richard.turcotte2@mddep.gouv.qc.ca
AF: Centre d'expertise hydrique du Québec, Édifice Marie-Guyart, 675, René-Lévesque Est, Québec, QC G1R 5V7, Canada
AB: Knowledge of the hydrologic behaviour of a watershed, particularly its anticipated reactions to unknown but not unlikely meteorological events, is necessarily derived by the development and application of a hydrologic model. Whatever its type, such a model needs basic calibration and validation data, which is not always available in sufficient quantity and quality. An interesting alternative is the use of coupled hydro-climatic models. Numerous developments have been made in this direction over the last few years at Ouranos with the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM). The main advantage of climate models is that they are based on closed water and energy budgets and include feedbacks between the surface and the atmosphere. The CRCM is a gridded model, now used operationally at a nominal 45 km resolution. Covering a limited area, this embedded model must be driven at its lateral boundaries by atmospheric data either from observational reanalyses or from a Global Climate Model (GCM). The hydro-energetic budget, computed over each grid point, provides directly the main components of the hydrologic budget: runoff and evaporation. Results from simulations performed over the recent past are then compared to observations, allowing the validation of the approach. Future climate projections can then be produced by changing the evolution of greenhouse gas concentrations, following various scenarios proposed by the IPCC (e.g., A2). These then allow for an estimation of the future hydrological behaviours with a changing climate. Studies have been performed over 21 basins covering the province of Québec, with drainage areas varying from 13 000 to 177 000 km2. Results obtained are promising and should allow interesting applications in the field of hydro-energetic production, and for water management. Examples presented from analyses performed over a large northern basin (La Grande) and a smaller southern one (Châteauguay) will illustrate this potential.
DE: 1804 Catchment
DE: 1834 Human impacts
DE: 1880 Water management (6334)
DE: 6334 Regional planning (1880)
SC: Canadian Geophysical Union [CG]
MN: 2009 Joint Assembly