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Schnee Material Schnee Atmosphäre, Schnee, Boden Schnee als Wasserreservoir Projects Runoff gaging station CCES-BigLink Verification Alpine3D hydropower Snow Cover's Spatial Distribution EBISCO CCAP Schnee und Klima Technischer Schnee Anwendung für die Industrie Lawinen Permafrost Risikomanagement Gebirgsökosysteme

Meltwater discharge from mountainous catchments

Motivation

The research unit Mountain Hydrology and Torrents investigates hydrological processes in mountainous catchments. In an alpine environment, snow constitutes an important buffer of winter precipitation, which is released months later during snowmelt in spring. Understanding the discharge dynamics from mountainous catchments is important to assess the risks related to flooding, debris flow and sediment transport. The Snow Hydrology Research Group is particularly interested in the dynamics of snow water resources and subsequent meltwater generation from snow-dominated catchments – e.g. with respect to predicting snowmelt related flooding in spring, or to climate change effects on hydropower production.

Channel of the Albertibach at the gaging station

Research site

The river Albertibach above Davos is a typical mountain stream, which constitutes a significant risk to subjacent settlement areas. These risks have already been counteracted with elaborate control structures in the riverbed. Its proximity to the SLF and existing measuring infrastructure from other SLF research projects in the headwaters of Albertibach made this particular stream an excellent subject for a study on meltwater generation. Starting in autumn 2008, an automatic gaging station has been build just above the tree line at Lochalp. The station complements infrastructure at the research site Wannengrat, mainly established thanks to the project Swiss-Experiment.

Measurements and model simulations

Continuous runoff data are typically deduced from stage measurements, a technique also used at Albertibach. Manual runoff measurements at different stage levels are required to convert stage data into discharge. This method, however, is inaccurate if the riverbed changes its profile over time. Therefore, the profile of the Albertibach was fixated at the runoff gage (see image). The stage is picked up by an ultrasonic range sensor as well as by a pressure probe in the measuring channel.

Runoff gaging station below the Wannengrat catchment above Davos-Platz

The gaging station adds to the ongoing intensive investigations of the snowcover in the Wannengrat area. Apart from data from automatic measuring stations and field campaigns, the spatio-temporal distribution of snow is regularly measured using a specialized mobile laser scanner. The data is being used to enhance snowcover models developed at SLF (e.g. Alpine3D), which allow simulating snowcover distributions or snow melt processes, and predicting meltwater runoff from whole catchment areas. The runoff data in particular is a valuable source for model validation. The study ultimately aims at operational model applications for the prevention of meltwater related damages.

Tobias Jonas