Hydrosys

Alpine scenarios

The natural environment is undergoing a dramatic change. As the alpine environment in particular is often around the zero degree boundary, the effects of even small changes in the climate can have large and often catastrophic effects. In this context, the Alpine scenario will focus on hydrological consequences of cryosphere and permafrost degradation. Measurements and analysis of permafrost distribution, snow cover, soil moisture, evaporation and runoff will be carried out and new sensing devices such as wireless sensing stations, a blimp (remote airborne vehicle) and handheld devices will be tested and developed. The target area of the investigation are located in the Swiss alpine environment: Dorfberg above Davos, the La Fouly catchment within the Dranse and the Gemsstock skiing resort near Andermatt The investigations in the alpine scenario will use in-situ observations, new generation wireless sensing devices and the involvement of the community to integrate heterogeneous data in an innovative way. This will provide a network of dense, widespread observations on a scale not usually seen in environmental research.

The La Fouly area is close to the Gd-St-Bernard in Swtzerland. The catchment has a total surface of 20 km2 and the altitude ranges from 1777 m to 3206 m. It is characterized by steep and complex terrain, usually covered with snow from November to May, and with intense precipitation during the spring season , when also the snow melt takes place. Hydrological characteristics of this catchment have been measured and studied during the last 2 years, with the purpose of understanding complex interactions among the rain, temperature, wind, soil moisture and the river discharge. We have assessed the impact of spatial variability on stream flow generation, especially the effect of precipitation, and compared the results with those obtained using a simulation model (GEOtop). We have also performed the soil analysis and study the soil water characteristic curve of this area, finding an hysterical behaviour. Phase 3 of the deployment (May – November 2010) include 15 Sensorscope stations with some new sensors for measuring snow height and water level automatically. We also plan to use the new equipment for this campaign : the handheld device to check meteo data on-site, the blimp with the IR camera for obtaining skin temperature maps, as well as a high resolution DEM and the GSN to run simulations on real-time.

The Gemsstock scenario is dealing with the problem of retreating permafrost in alpine regions due to climate change and its consequences on human infrastructure located in such areas. It is an important safety issue for ski resorts where structures such as cable car buildings or pillars suffer any dramatic changes e.g. tilting of the pillar base or station walls due to thawing of the frozen ground. In this context a user-friendly measurement system shall be developed which enables end-users, e.g. cable car companies, to assess stability of infrastructure in a quick and easy way:

At the Dorfberg site, located above Davos, scientists are investigating wet snow avalanches. Wet snow avalanches are hazards of high importance occurring with high frequency and a high degree of potential damage to infrastructure in mountainous regions. The processes of formation and triggering of this type of avalanches are currently poorly understood. HYDROSYS will provide technology to support the scientists in their daily field work: e.g. data from different sensors like automatic weather stations or the blimp can be assessed, combined, compared and displayed with the handheld units in real time, overlayed on top of the visual information of the current avalanche/snowpack situation. Snow cover simulations using this information, can also be recovered from SLFs grid processing system and displayed in the same device.

Results

For environmental science one of the main outcomes of the HYDROSYS project is the generation of different sets of high quality environmental data. For Dorfberg and Gemsstock this dataset contains of several meteorological and snowpack data obtained form different sensors and sources. The data collection is running permanently and first analyses are on their way and results will be published as soon as available. Furthermore ALPINE3D has been adapted to the requirements of the project and is now ready for first on-site tests and applications. For the Gemsstock scenario, special wallmounts are now available that will allow for high-precision wall inclination measurements, which will be installed and tested shortly.

Publications

Mott, R. and Lehning, M.: Meteorological modelling of very high resolution wind fields and snow deposition for mountains, J. Hydromet., doi:10.1175/2010JHM1216.1, in press. [INFO]

Mitterer, C.; Mott, R.; Schweizer, J., 2009: Observations and analysis of two large wet-snow avalanche cycles. Proceedings of the International Snow Science Workshop (ISSW 09 Europe), 27. September to 2 October 2009, Davos,  Switzerland, 2009. [PDF]

Simoni, S., Assessing of the impact of spatial heterogeneity on natural hazards for an Alpine watershed, Newsletter of the Mountain Research Initiative, no. 4, May 2010

Nordic scenarios

Changes in land-use pose a challenge to the health of the environment. Regions in southern Finland are still undergoing rapid urbanization without the city planning, site design, and construction stages recognizing the effects, which could be degrading, mitigating or restoring, on the receiving waters and the watershed itself. In order to facilitate communication between involved stakeholders, the HYDROSYS Nordic Scenario attempts to research and visualize urban runoff quality and quantity relating processes at urban and urbanizing watersheds of varying scale. Three case watersheds are investigated, with the 21 km2 Kylmaoja (City of Vantaa-Municipality of Tuusula) watershed, 500 hectares Kilsoi (Municipality of Vihti) watershed, and one hectare Falcon (City of Helsinki, the Zoo) watershed land coverage ranging end-user management scales from city planning to site planning, as well as testing the reach and applicability of the on-site monitoring equipment and the new visualization tools developed. Specific events targeted include construction and snowmelt. The HYDROSYS project will develop novel tools which serve fruitful and efficient collaboration between interdisciplinary end-user teams working together on water environment sustainable urban development.

Publications

Ferencik, I., Niemi, T. and  Jolma, A. 2010. On site environmental modeling and monitoring: the Nordic Scenario in HYDROSYS project. In Proceedings of iEMSs 2010 International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software. Ottawa, Canada. (in press)

Niemi, T. 2010. Development of a hydraulic model and its application to a small urban stream . Master's thesis. Aalto University.