Snow hydrology

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Snowmelt is the most significant contribution to water resources in most of Canada and so is not only vital to Canada's water security, but forms the basis for many impacts of climate change on Canadian ecosystems, communities and economies. It is changing rapidly in the mountains, prairies and north due to climate and land use change. Models of snowcover are used in many hydrological, meteorological and ecological applications. Snow processes have been identified as an area of continuing weakness in models. The long-term objective of this research is to reduce uncertainty in describing and predicting snow hydrology by improving the fundamental understanding of snow. The specific objectives of this research are to: 1) Improve the understanding of snowfall and energy inputs to snow, 2) Improve the understanding of snowmelt and meltwater release, 3) Better describe snow-vegetation interactions. The approach will combine innovative field observation programmes in the Mountains, North and Prairies with laboratory advances in observational techniques and mathematical simulations of the fundamental snow hydrology processes. The field programme, observational technique advance and computer modelling will contribute to all three objectives through common sites and suite of computational platforms. The field observation programme will use established research basins (high elevation -Marmot Creek, Alberta; high latitude - Wolf Creek, Yukon; prairie/woodland - Smith Creek, Saskatchewan) to supplement baseline measurements with detailed physical measurements. Observational advances will focus primarily on the use of sound waves in snow to determine the internal structure and wetness of the snowpack. New models will be evaluated in the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling platform (CRHM) to determine the degree to which soil moisture and streamflow predictions in cold regions are improved by improved model physical process descriptions.