Water Stewardship Information Sources
| Citation | Nitin, MV. 2004. Snow melt runoff modeling using MODIS in Elaho River Basin, British Columbia. Environmental Informatics Archives 2:526-530. |
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| Organization | University of Calgary |
| URL | http://www.iseis.org/eia/abstract.asp?no=04054 |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | Modeling and forecasting daily stream flow from snow melt is important in mountain basins when it is a major component of the water balance and is especially significant in regions prone to seasonal flooding. The Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) is employed and validated in the Elaho Basin of southwestern British Columbia, over a continuous 12-month period in 2001. For the study, zonal snow covered area is determined using multi-spectral optical remote sensing data from the TERRA MODIS satellite and provides a measure of maximum snow-cover extent prepared from 8-day composite images. The performance of the model was tested by comparing the daily measured discharge at the mouth of the basin with the model forecast for the entire year. The resulting SRM coefficient of determination (R2) based on the average daily discharge values is 0.43. Though the results are less than perfect, the model is able to characterize the bulk seasonal evolution in snowmelt runoff. Keywords: MODIS, Snow Runoff Modeling, Spline interpolation |
| Information Type | article |
| Regional Watershed | Howe Sound & Sunshine Coast |
| Sub-watershed if known | Elaho River |
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| Project status | complete |
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