Lorraine Flint Alan Flint James Thorne Ryan Boynton 20140531 others California Climate Commons California Climate Commons http://climate.calcommons.org/dataset/california-basin-characterization-model-bcm-downscaled-climate-and-hydrology-2014 http://cida.usgs.gov/gdp/client/?development=true Lorraine E Flint, Alan L Flint, James H Thorne and Ryan Boynton 20130101 publication Davis, CA Ecological Processes http://climate.calcommons.org/bib/fine-scale-hydrologic-modeling-regional-landscape-applications-california-basin-characterization The California Basin Characterization Model (CA-BCM 2014) dataset provides historical and projected climate and hydrologic surfaces for the region that encompasses the state of California and all the streams that flow into it (California hydrologic region ). The CA-BCM 2014 applies a monthly regional water-balance model to simulate hydrologic responses to climate at the spatial resolution of a 270-m grid. The model has been calibrated using a total of 159 relatively unimpaired watersheds for the California region. The historical data is based on 800m PRISM data spatially downscaled to 270 m using the gradient-inverse distance squared approach (GIDS), and the projected climate surfaces include five CMIP-3 and nine CMIP-5 General Circulation Models under a range of emission scenarios or representative concentration pathways (RCPs) for a total of 18 futures that have been statistically downscaled using BCSD to 800 m and further downscaled using GIDS to 270 m for model application. The BCM approach uses a regional water balance model based on this high resolution precipitation and temperature as well as elevation, geology, and soils to produce surfaces for the following variables: precipitation, air temperature, April 1st snowpack, recharge, runoff, potential evapotranspiration (PET), actual evapotranspiration, and climatic water deficit, a parameter that is calculated as PET minus actual evapotranspiration. The revised modeling for the CA-BCM described in Flint et al. 2013, referenced below, includes the updated 800-m spatial resolution climate data from PRISM, the county level soils data (SSURGO) for the entire state, and more rigorous snow and PET calibrations for California. This dataset included updates to all the basin calibrations as well. The future climate projections included the original 4 projections that were revised with bias-corrections to the 800-m historical PRISM climate, plus an additional 3 projections from the CMIP3 dataset (IPCC 4th Assessment Report) and 11 projections from the CMIP5 datasets (IPCC 5th Assessment Report). These projections included a range of emissions scenarios and representative concentration pathways. All projections were processed by the BCM to provide hydrologic response to 18 future climates. Many current efforts aimed at climate change impact assessment and adaptation planning focus on water availability for both human populations and ecological systems. Projections of future climate scenarios from global climate models (GCMs) based on projected amounts and timing of precipitation and increases in air temperature are widely used in climate impact assessments. One of the goals of this dataset is to improve our understanding of the fate of precipitation in terrestrial ecosystems in the context of both historical and projected coupled climate-hydrology assessments. The three main pathways of precipitated water in a terrestrial system include the following: (1) returning to the air via evaporation and plant transpiration; (2) infiltrating subsurface into soils and potential recharge to aquifers; and (3) flowing overland to create runoff that feeds the flow of stream and river channel networks. Quantifying the relationships and tradeoffs between these pathways provides for much more detailed projections of the impacts of variability in water availability on ecosystems and their inhabitants. Data Parameters: CMIP 3 futures: GFDL-A2, GFDL-B1, PCM-A2, PCM-B1, MIROC3_2 -A2, CSIRO-A1B, GISS_AOM -A1B CMIP 5 futures: MIROC5-RCP26, MIROC-RCP45, MIROC-RCP60, MIROC-RCP85, GISS-RCP26, MRI-RCP26, MPI-RCP45, CCSM4-RCP85, IPSL-RCP85, CNRM-RCP85, FGOALS-RCP85 Variables: Actual evapotranspiration – PET when soil water content is less than field capacity and greater than wilting point, mm (aet); Climatic water deficit - Potential minus actual evapotranspiration, mm (cwd); Maximum monthly temperature, degrees C - (tmx); Minimum monthly temperature, degrees C - (tmn); Potential evapotranspiration - Water that could evaporate or transpire from plants if available, mm (pet); Recharge - Amount of water that penetrates below the root zone, mm (rch); Runoff - Amount of water that becomes stream flow, mm (run); April snowpack - Snow water equivalent in March equivalent to April 1st, mm (aprpck); Precipitation, mm - (ppt). Statistics: average (ave), standard deviation (std), detrended standard deviation (dsd) Time periods: Historic: 1921-1950, 1951-1980, 1981-2010 Projected: 2010-2039, 2040-2069, 2070-2099 All variables are available as 30-year summaries for water year and month-of-year. Also available: tmx and ppt for June-July-Aug (jja), tmn and ppt for Dec-Jan-Feb (djf), ppt for March-April-May (mam), ppt for Sept-Oct-Nov (son). For more about the data offered online, please visit http://climate.calcommons.org/article/about-2014-basin-characterization-model-dataset 19510101 21001231 ground condition complete Hydrologic California 125.455399 112.450323 44.292218 31.045345 Hydrology, climate, water balance California Due to the large size of the original dataset, 30-year statistical summaries by water year and by month of year are available via OPeNDAP on the Commons THREDDS server (link is external) and on the USGS GeoData Portal. The summaries are also planned for release in Sept. 2014 on the Commons "Platinum Services" interactive maps. See http://climate.calcommons.org/dataset/california-basin-characterization-model-bcm-downscaled-climate-and-hydrology-2014 for all of the above. The unsummarized monthly data (for each month of every year in the century - large) is available separately on the USGS GeoData Portal. No use constraints are associated with this data. USGS, CA LCC The Basin Characterization Model (BCM) is a regional water balance model (Flint and Flint 2007-- http://climate.calcommons.org/bib/regional-analysis-ground-water-recharge; Flint and Flint. 2012-- http://climate.calcommons.org/bib/downscaling-future-climate-scenarios-fine-scales-hydrologic-and-ecological-modeling-and-analysis). The model has been calibrated using a total of 159 relatively unimpaired watersheds for the California region. Please see Flint, L. E., A. L. Flint, J. H. Thorne, and R. Boynton. 2013. Fine-scale hydrologic modeling for regional landscape applications: the California Basin Characterization Model development and performance. Ecological Processes 2:25 (http://climate.calcommons.org/bib/fine-scale-hydrologic-modeling-regional-landscape-applications-california-basin-characterization) for details. No formal logical accuracy tests were conducted No formal positional accuracy tests were conducted field The Basin Characterization Model (BCM) is a regional water balance model (Flint and Flint 2007; Thorne et al. 2012). The BCM (Figure 2) mechanistically models the pathways of precipitation into evapotranspiration, infiltration into soils, runoff, or percolation below the root zone to recharge groundwater. The evapotranspiration component is derived through the use of PET equations (Priestley and Taylor 1972) that rely on the calculation of solar radiation using slope, aspect, topographic shading, and atmospheric parameters. For the purposes of comparison across watersheds (or other landscape units), PET in the BCM is not interactive with the other segments. In other words, potential water demand from plants is independent from other hydrodynamic components in the model. The soil storage component of the model uses soil properties to calculate how much soil moisture is available for plant evapotranspiration. Soil storage is also independent from the other hydrologic dynamics, except that groundwater recharge, calculated as infiltration below the zone of evapotranspiration, is calculated only from surplus, after soil moisture capacity has been filled. Groundwater recharge (recharge) is also tied to runoff, and the relationship between the two is driven by the level of permeability of bedrock. Therefore, the BCM can model the response of any given watershed to climate as driven by its energy balance (based on latitude, longitude, elevation, slope, and aspect), soil moisture storage capacity, and the characteristics of the materials that are deeper than the rooting zone, including deep alluvial valleys or bedrock that can permit percolation into groundwater. The BCM calculates hydrologic variables on a grid cell basis and can be run at any spatial resolution, generally limited by data resolution, computing power, or file storage capabilities. Grid cell values can be summarized for any spatial pattern, such as watersheds. A post-model calculation for basin discharge can be performed. The BCM has several subroutines or modules: the calculation of potential and actual evapotranspiration and climatic water deficit; snow accumulation and melt; available water; and recharge and runoff (Figure 2). The model begins with climatic inputs of precipitation and air temperature. This is followed by the calculation of PET, which relies on an hourly energy-balance calculation, based on solar radiation, air temperature, and the Priestley-Taylor equation (Flint and Childs 1991). Clear sky PET is calculated using a solar radiation model that incorporates seasonal atmospheric transmissivity with site parameters of slope, aspect, and topographic shading (to define the percentage of sky seen for every grid cell) (Flint and Childs 1987). Hourly PET is aggregated into monthly time series, and cloudiness corrections are made on the basis of calibrations using cloudiness data from National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; http://www.nrel.gov/; Flint and Flint 2008). Modeled PET for the southwest United States has been calibrated to measured PET from California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) and Arizona Meteorological Network (AZMET) stations (Flint and Flint 2007). Using PET and gridded precipitation, maximum and minimum air temperature, and the approach of the National Weather Service Snow-17 model (Anderson 1976), the snow module accumulates, sublimates, and melts snow to produce available water (Figure 2). These inputs to the water balance have been calibrated regionally to solar radiation and PET data, and snow cover estimates have been compared to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow cover maps (Flint and Flint 2007). This paper presents further snow module calibration work. The BCMs available water calculation quantifies water that is available for use in the remaining parts of the BCM, which balance watershed hydrologic components (Figure 2). Available water occupies the soil profile, where it will become actual evapotranspiration (AET), and may also result in runoff or recharge, depending on the soil storage and permeability of the underlying bedrock. Total soil-water storage is calculated as porosity multiplied by soil depth. Field capacity [soil water volume at 0.03 megapascals (MPa)] is the soil water volume below which gravity drainage is negligible, and wilting point (soil water volume at 1.5 MPa) is the soil water volume below which actual evapotranspiration does not occur (Hillel 1980). Once available water is calculated, it may exceed total soil storage and become runoff, or it may be less than total soil storage but greater than field capacity and become recharge. Anything less than field capacity is calculated as AET, at the rate of PET for that month, until it reaches wilting point. This permits the subsequent calculation of climatic water deficit (CWD). When soil water is less than total soil storage and greater than field capacity, soil water greater than field capacity equals recharge. If recharge is greater than bedrock permeability (K), then recharge = K and excess becomes runoff, else it will recharge at K until field capacity is reached. Runoff and recharge are combined to calculate basin discharge, and actual evapotranspiration is subtracted from PET to calculate CWD. Please see Flint, L. E., A. L. Flint, J. H. Thorne, and R. Boynton. 2013. Fine-scale hydrologic modeling for regional landscape applications: the California Basin Characterization Model development and performance. Ecological Processes 2:25 (http://climate.calcommons.org/bib/fine-scale-hydrologic-modeling-regional-landscape-applications-california-basin-characterization) for more details. Please see Flint, L. E., A. L. Flint, J. H. Thorne, and R. Boynton. 2013. Fine-scale hydrologic modeling for regional landscape applications: the California Basin Characterization Model development and performance. Ecological Processes 2:25 (http://climate.calcommons.org/bib/fine-scale-hydrologic-modeling-regional-landscape-applications-california-basin-characterization) for details. raster 270 270 meters Teale Albers Conical NAD 83 ? ? ? Producer defined California Climate Commons mailing and physical

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