Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.5194/gmd-12-2501-2019
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) The multiscale routing model mRM v1.0: simple river routing at resolutions from 1 to 50 km
Author Thober, S.; Cuntz, M.; Kelbling, M.; Kumar, R. ORCID logo ; Mai, J.; Samaniego, L. ORCID logo
Source Titel Geoscientific Model Development
Year 2019
Department CHS
Volume 12
Issue 6
Page From 2501
Page To 2521
Language englisch
Abstract Routing streamflow through a river network is a fundamental requirement to verify lateral water fluxes simulated by hydrologic and land surface models. River routing is performed at diverse resolutions ranging from few kilometers to around 1°. The presented multiscale Routing Model mRM calculates streamflow at diverse spatial and temporal resolutions. mRM solves the kinematic wave equation using a finite difference scheme. An adaptive time stepping scheme fulfilling a numerical stability criteria is introduced in this study and compared against the original parametrization of mRM that has been developed within the mesoscale Hydrologic Model (mHM). mRM requires a high-resolution river network, which is upscaled internally to the desired spatial resolution. The user can change the spatial resolution by simply changing one number in the configuration file without any further adjustments of the input data. The performance of mRM is investigated on two datasets: a high-resolution German dataset and a slightly lower resolution European dataset. The adaptive time step scheme within mRM shows a remarkable scalability compared to its predecessor. Median Kling-Gupta efficiencies change less than 3 percent when the model parametrization is transferred from 3 to 48km resolution. mRM also exhibits seamless scalability in time, providing identical results when forced with hourly and daily runoff. The streamflow calculated over the Danube catchment by the Regional Climate Model REMO coupled to mRM is comparable at 25 and 50km resolution. The mRM source code is freely available and highly modular facilitating an easy internal coupling in existing Earth System Models.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=21483
Thober, S., Cuntz, M., Kelbling, M., Kumar, R., Mai, J., Samaniego, L. (2019):
The multiscale routing model mRM v1.0: simple river routing at resolutions from 1 to 50 km
Geosci. Model Dev. 12 (6), 2501 - 2521 10.5194/gmd-12-2501-2019