Assessment of regional forest disasters in Soyang Basin using RHESSys
TERRECO WP 3-10
From 03/2009 to 12/2013Principal Investigator: Sinkyu Kang
Grant: IRTG 1565 WP III TERRECO - Complex Terrain and Ecological Heterogeneity - Evaluating ecosystem services in production versus water yield and water quality in mountainous landscapes
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.
Goal within the TERRECO Assessments:
- Predict phenological events within the Haean-myun and Soyang Lake watersheds and across Central Korea
- Estimate time dependent changes in soil water status, evapotranspiration and production with RHESSys, utilizing remote sensing, outputs from MM5 (WP 1-01), ground-based meteorology (WP 1-01 and WP 1-02), and information on transpiration (WP 1-04).
Doctoral candidates financed by KOSEF (Korea).
