Use of the recession characteristics of snowmelt hydrographs in the assessment of snow water storage in a basin

✍ Scribed by Pratap Singh; H. Huebl; H. W. Weinmeister

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 153 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6087
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1085(200001)14:1<91::aid-hyp912>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

For a better management of water resources, the information on water stored in a basin in the form of snow is of immense use. Changes in the snow water storage with time in¯uence the recession characteristics of the hydrographs. Recession is found to be slower in a basin when it contains higher snow water storage and becomes faster as the volume of stored water reduces. In other words, the recession coecient is not constant throughout the melt season, it changes with time. In the present study, the possibility of assessing snow water storage at any time during the melt season using recession coecients is examined. The hydrograph analyses have been made for the Glatzbach watershed in the Hohe Tauern region of the Austrian Alps. For this purpose, a relationship between snow water storage and the recession coecients is developed. This study suggests a simple and useful approach to assess the snow water storage in a basin at any time during the snowmelt season. The information on the snow water storage of a basin can be obtained using a readily derived single parameter, the recession coecient. The results are based on limited data, but they are sucient to illustrate how the changes in snow water storage control the recession characteristics of the hydrographs. These investigations set the pace for further research in this area.