Predictions of un-gauged sub-basins in Canadian prairies dominated by boreal forest

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Hydrologic models built for predicting streamflow of river basins are mostly data driven.  This study will develop a suite of techniques/tools to predict for un-gauged basins (PUB), an initiative started by the International Association of Hydrologic Sciences (IAHS) in 2003.  Study sites to be chosen are such as the regional scale, Athabasca River Basin (ARB) in the Canadian Prairies dominated by the Boreal Forest (BF) that exerts strong influence on the heat and water fluxes between land surface and the atmosphere.  Through field data collections, modifying soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer models (SVAT) such as the MISBA, we can gain scientific understanding of climate, landscape and controls on hydrologic processes of the semi-arid Canadian Prairies, especially the BF.  To constrain uncertainties in un-gauged basin predictions, we will attempt to minimize uncertainty in local-scale climate input obtained from downscaling GCM scale, re-analysis data of ERA-40 of the European Centre for Mid-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and/or NCEP re-analysis data of NASA, and regional scale observed data of say, ARB by a 2-stage process, e.g., GCM-regional scale and regional-local scale.  Next, we will modify MISBA's model structure to the Prairies' hydrologic and climatic conditions, and adding winter features of BF from another SVAT called SWAP to MISBA with modifications.  Lastly, we will geographically transfer model parameters calibrated for some gauged local-scale sub-basins located within or near ARB to the un-gauged sub-basin that are hydrologically similar.  We expect to adjust the model parameters through some stochastic schemes before transferring them to the un-gauged basin whose performance will be assessed quantitatively.  This combination of techniques will improve our ability to predict for un-gauged basins, and better prepared to assess future developments of relatively unknown river basins.