Assessment of regional forest disasters in Soyang Basin using RHESSys

Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys) is a useful hydro-ecological model to simulate carbon, water, and nutrient fluxes.  This research aims to develop a forest environmental information simulation system (FEISS) for Inbuk sub-basin in Soyang basin, Kangwon, ROK, which helps forecast and reduce forest disasters such as landslide and fire under a changing climate.  Input data sets are created using GIS to simulate the Inbuk forest ecosystems.  These include chronological climate information as well as GIS-based map projection data such as DEM, land use, soil type, vegetation, and biomass.  Spin-up runs are performed to produce reasonable parameters for the current forest environments which are prescribed into the further simulations. Parameterization and/or calibration are executed using 3 yr (2001-2003) data and the validation is followed using 5 yr (2004-2008) data.  Simulations by the parameterized model show a reasonable agreement with the measurements of streamflow and biomass.  Results from the validation show a potential to reproduce the variables at a sub-basin scale.  Other issues including map projections of this on-going research for the disaster-related variables will be discussed.