Climate Variability and Impacts on Regional Surface Runoff in High Asia Mountains

高亚洲山区气候变化及其对区域地表径流的影响

• 批准号: 1116105
• 负责人: Leila Carvalho
• 金额: $ 56.35万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-15 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1116105&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Climate; Variability; Impacts; Regional; Surface

The current state and future fate of the 'High Asian water towers' (i.e., freshwater reservoirs at high elevations) are of central importance for water, food, and power supply of densely populated regions in south, east, and central Asia. In addition to the highly seasonal summer rainfall, winter precipitation is important for snowmelt and discharge in the pre-monsoon season. Runoff from snow is especially significant in the central Asian and western Himalayan regions, where hundreds of millions of people reside. This project aims to advance our current understanding of climate processes on regional-to-continental scales and how they affect the water balance in the High Asia Mountains. It focuses on multiannual-to-decadal variations in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and winter western disturbances (WD) and their impacts on rainfall, snow and runoff variability in High Asia. The investigators will: 1) characterize and investigate multi-annual-to-decadal variations in the ISM and WD and their regional impacts on the surface water budget, 2) examine the spatiotemporal variability of the surface water budget including changes in rainfall and snow and their relative roles in driving runoff variations in High Asia, and 3) develop case studies to investigate changes in ISM and WD and their influences on the long-term variability of snow and associated runoff in the High Asia Mountains.The broader impacts of this project involve scientific and educational components. This work will characterize and analyze the physical and dynamical processes associated with multi-annual-to-decadal variations in the Indian Summer Monsoon, winter western disturbances, rain, snowfall and surface runoff in the High Asia Mountains. It will produce unique observational and modeling data and validation results that will be available to the climate, hydrology, and geomorphology research community. Further understanding of the physical processes associated with rain, snow, glacial and snowmelt waters in the High Asia will bring significant benefits for society. The nature of this problem requires scientific expertise and educational training in different disciplines: meteorology, hydrology, and geomorphology. The project will support and involve two Ph.D. graduate students and broaden graduate classes in the Department of Geography at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

“亚洲高水塔”（即高海拔淡水水库）的现状和未来命运对于南亚、东亚和中亚人口稠密地区的水、食物和电力供应至关重要。除了季节性强的夏季降雨外，冬季降水对于季风前季节的融雪和排放也很重要。雪径流在中亚和喜马拉雅山西部地区尤其重要，那里有数亿人口居住。该项目旨在增进我们目前对区域到大陆尺度的气候过程及其如何影响高亚洲山脉水平衡的了解。它重点研究印度夏季季风（ISM）和冬季西部扰动（WD）的多年至十年变化及其对高亚洲降雨、降雪和径流变化的影响。研究人员将：1）描述和调查 ISM 和 WD 的多年到十年的变化及其对地表水预算的区域影响，2）检查地表水预算的时空变化，包括降雨和降雪的变化以及它们在驱动高亚洲径流变化中的相对作用，以及 3) 开展案例研究来调查 ISM 和 WD 的变化及其对高亚洲山脉积雪和相关径流的长期变化的影响。该项目的影响涉及科学和教育部分。这项工作将描述和分析与印度夏季季风的多年到十年变化、冬季西部扰动、高亚洲山脉降雨、降雪和地表径流相关的物理和动力过程。它将产生独特的观测和建模数据以及验证结果，供气候、水文学和地貌学研究界使用。进一步了解高亚洲地区雨、雪、冰川和融雪水相关的物理过程将为社会带来重大利益。这个问题的本质需要不同学科的科学专业知识和教育培训：气象学、水文学和地貌学。该项目将支持并涉及两名博士。加州大学圣巴巴拉分校地理系的研究生和扩大研究生课程。