Evaluation of Hydrological Models and GRACE/GRACE-FO in the South Saskatchewan River Basin

Canada, with 20% of the Earth’s freshwater resources, is experiencing changes to its terrestrial water cycle as the impacts of climate change progress. This can lead to complex water storage changes manifesting as flood risks and droughts on various spatiotemporal scales. This project aims to compare a state-of-the-art physics-based hydrological modelling platform, namely HydroGeoSphere, part of the Canada1Water project, with independent products from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its follow-on mission. Specifically, the Alberta portion of the South Saskatchewan River Basin will be evaluated over the two decades of monthly snapshots of Earth’s time variable gravity field, used to derive terrestrial water storage anomalies. The analysis will be carried out using the newly developed Aquanty and spherical harmonic solutions of the Canadian Geodetic Survey of Natural Resources Canada. Calibrating the various terrestrial water storage models using satellite gravimetry data will improve the model output and will help fill the gaps in Canada’s hydrologic data to effectively characterize and manage terrestrial water resources, during times of high-risk flooding and droughts. Results will directly impact government and industry efforts designed to improve community access to freshwater necessary for quality of life in the South Saskatchewan River Basin.

Faculty Supervisor:

Georgia Fotopoulos

Student:

Partner:

Aquanty Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Queen's University

Program: