Construction and verification of distributed hydrothermal coupling model in the source area of the Yangtze River

Study region

The source area of the Yangtze River, a typical catchment in the cryosphere on the Tibet Plateau, was used to develop and validate a distributed hydrothermal coupling model.

Study focus

Climate change has caused significant changes in hydrological processes in the cryosphere, and related research has become hot topic. The source area of the Yangtze River (SAYR) is a key catchment for studies of hydrological processes in the cryosphere, which contains widespread glacier, snow, and permafrost. However, the current hydrological modeling of the SAYR rarely depicts the process of glacier/snow and permafrost runoff from the perspective of coupled water and heat transfer, resulting in distortion of simulations of hydrological processes. Therefore, we developed a distributed hydrothermal coupling model, namely WEP-SAYR, based on the WEP-L (Water and energy transfer process in large river basins) model by introducing modules for glacier and snow melt and permafrost freezing and thawing.

New hydrological insights for the region

In the WEP-SAYR model, the soil hydrothermal transfer equations were improved, and a freezing point equation for permafrost was introduced. In addition, the glacier and snow meltwater processes were described using the temperature index model. Compared to previously applied models, the WEP-SAYR portrays in more detail glacier/snow melting, dynamic changes in permafrost water and heat coupling, and runoff dynamics, with physically meaningful and easily accessible model parameters. The model can describe the soil temperature and moisture changes in soil layers at different depths from 0 to 140 cm. Moreover, the model has a good accuracy in simulating the daily/monthly runoff and evaporation. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency exceeded 0.75, and the relative error was controlled within ±20 %. The results showed that the WEP-SAYR model balances the efficiency of hydrological simulation in large scale catchments and the accurate portrayal of the cryosphere elements, which provides a reference for hydrological analysis of other catchments in the cryosphere.