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Characteristics of Snowmelt and Runoff in a Mountain Basin in Tohoku District, Japan

Published in Hydrology (Volume 4, Issue 1)
Received: 25 January 2016     Accepted: 8 February 2016     Published: 25 February 2016
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Abstract

Winter snow cover occurs widely in Japan at comparatively low elevation and latitude. The water stored as snow is very important for irrigation of the rice crop during its early growth. We investigated the snowpack and snowmelt quantitatively on a daily and hourly basis during the snowmelt seasons from 2001 to 2008 in the Akazawa basin, Tohoku district. We used a snowmelt model to simulate the flux of snowmelt and rainwater in the snowpack. Among the years, total snowmelt varied between 190 to 540 mm from the beginning of Mar. to the late of Apr. We characterized the snowmelt runoff by making an index from the parameters of a storage routing model. We used the optimized parameters of the storage routing model to examine the output differences between the case in which the snowmelt flux at the snow surface was input, and the case in which the snowmelt flux from the base of the snowpack was input. The results clearly indicated that a snowpack influences the characteristics of snowmelt runoff.

Published in Hydrology (Volume 4, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11
Page(s) 1-9
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Snowpack Outflow, Snowmelt Runoff, SNTHERM, Storage Routing Model

References
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  • APA Style

    Yoshiko Muto, Eiichi Kurashima. (2016). Characteristics of Snowmelt and Runoff in a Mountain Basin in Tohoku District, Japan. Hydrology, 4(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11

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    ACS Style

    Yoshiko Muto; Eiichi Kurashima. Characteristics of Snowmelt and Runoff in a Mountain Basin in Tohoku District, Japan. Hydrology. 2016, 4(1), 1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11

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    AMA Style

    Yoshiko Muto, Eiichi Kurashima. Characteristics of Snowmelt and Runoff in a Mountain Basin in Tohoku District, Japan. Hydrology. 2016;4(1):1-9. doi: 10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11,
      author = {Yoshiko Muto and Eiichi Kurashima},
      title = {Characteristics of Snowmelt and Runoff in a Mountain Basin in Tohoku District, Japan},
      journal = {Hydrology},
      volume = {4},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-9},
      doi = {10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hyd.20160401.11},
      abstract = {Winter snow cover occurs widely in Japan at comparatively low elevation and latitude. The water stored as snow is very important for irrigation of the rice crop during its early growth. We investigated the snowpack and snowmelt quantitatively on a daily and hourly basis during the snowmelt seasons from 2001 to 2008 in the Akazawa basin, Tohoku district. We used a snowmelt model to simulate the flux of snowmelt and rainwater in the snowpack. Among the years, total snowmelt varied between 190 to 540 mm from the beginning of Mar. to the late of Apr. We characterized the snowmelt runoff by making an index from the parameters of a storage routing model. We used the optimized parameters of the storage routing model to examine the output differences between the case in which the snowmelt flux at the snow surface was input, and the case in which the snowmelt flux from the base of the snowpack was input. The results clearly indicated that a snowpack influences the characteristics of snowmelt runoff.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Characteristics of Snowmelt and Runoff in a Mountain Basin in Tohoku District, Japan
    AU  - Yoshiko Muto
    AU  - Eiichi Kurashima
    Y1  - 2016/02/25
    PY  - 2016
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11
    T2  - Hydrology
    JF  - Hydrology
    JO  - Hydrology
    SP  - 1
    EP  - 9
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-7617
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hyd.20160401.11
    AB  - Winter snow cover occurs widely in Japan at comparatively low elevation and latitude. The water stored as snow is very important for irrigation of the rice crop during its early growth. We investigated the snowpack and snowmelt quantitatively on a daily and hourly basis during the snowmelt seasons from 2001 to 2008 in the Akazawa basin, Tohoku district. We used a snowmelt model to simulate the flux of snowmelt and rainwater in the snowpack. Among the years, total snowmelt varied between 190 to 540 mm from the beginning of Mar. to the late of Apr. We characterized the snowmelt runoff by making an index from the parameters of a storage routing model. We used the optimized parameters of the storage routing model to examine the output differences between the case in which the snowmelt flux at the snow surface was input, and the case in which the snowmelt flux from the base of the snowpack was input. The results clearly indicated that a snowpack influences the characteristics of snowmelt runoff.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Japan

  • Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Morioka, Japan

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