Features of global hydrological processes using the Variable Infiltration Capacity Model simulation: focusing on five major river basins

Abstract

This study adopts a semi-distributed hydrological model, Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), to simulate the global terrestrial hydrological processes and analyze the variation of main processes, including precipitation, runoff, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture. To run the VIC model, we use the daily gridded precipitation product at a higher resolution (1°×1°) from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP). Besides, other daily meteorological data (including maximum and minimum daily temperatures) are derived from the NCAR/NCEP Reanalysis data. VIC model is run at a daily temporal step and 1° latitude-longitude spatial resolution for the period 1997-2008. The streamflow observations from five major continental river basins in the world (the Amazon River basin, the Mississippi River basin, the Yangtze River basin, the Rhine River basin and the Nile River basin) are used to verify the VIC simulation results. Then, this study quantifies the contributions of precipitation to soil moisture change, evapotranspiration and runoff over these five major river basins. This study also detects the response of those hydrological processes to the increase of temperature, which will benefit the regional environment and water management.