Entering the era of distributed snow models

Abstract

This paper discusses the implications of constraints on the use of site and catchment scale concepts, regionalisation techniqes, and calibration methods. In many cases model parameters are poorly defined or not unique when being optimized on the basis of runoff data. Snow cover depletion patterns are shown to be vastly superior to runoff data for discriminating between alternative model assumptions. The patterns are capable of addressing individual model components representing snow deposition and albedo while the respective parameters are highly intercorrelated in terms of catchment runoff. The paper concludes that site scale models of snow cover processes are fairly advanced but much is left to be done. More emphasis needs to be directed towards measuring and representing spatial variability in catchments as well as on spatially distributed model evaluation. -from Authors