Premium
Effects of Subbasin Size on Topographic Characteristics and Simulated Flow Paths in Sleepers River Watershed, Vermont
Author(s) -
Wolock David M.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/95wr01183
Subject(s) - watershed , hydrology (agriculture) , streamflow , spatial distribution , surface runoff , streams , flow (mathematics) , watershed area , environmental science , geology , drainage basin , mathematics , statistics , geometry , geography , cartography , geotechnical engineering , ecology , computer network , machine learning , computer science , biology
The effects of subbasin size on topographic characteristics and simulated flow paths were determined for the 111.5‐km 2 Sleepers River Research Watershed in Vermont using the watershed model TOPMODEL. Topography is parameterized in TOPMODEL as the spatial and statistical distribution of the index ln (a/tan B), where In is the Napierian logarithm, a is the upslope area per unit contour length, and tan B is the slope gradient. The mean, variance, and skew of the ln ( a /tan B ) distribution were computed for several sets of nested subbasins (0.05 to 111.5 km 2 )) along streams in the watershed and used as input to TOPMODEL. In general, the statistics of the ln ( a /tan B ) distribution and the simulated percentage of overland flow in total streamflow increased rapidly for some nested subbasins and decreased rapidly for others as subbasin size increased from 0.05 to 1 km 2 , generally increased up to a subbasin size of 5 km 2 , and remained relatively constant at a subbasin size greater than 5 km 2 . Differences in simulated flow paths among subbasins of all sizes (0.05 to 111.5 km 2 ) were caused by differences in the statistics of the ln ( a /tan B ) distribution, not by differences in the explicit spatial arrangement of ln ( a /tan B ) values within the subbasins. Analysis of streamflow chemistry data from the Neversink River watershed in southeastern New York supports the hypothesis that subbasin size affects flow‐path characteristics.