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WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 42, W08432, doi:10.1029/2005WR004387, 2006

Mountain hydrology of the western United States

Roger C. Bales

School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, California, USA


Noah P. Molotch

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA


Thomas H. Painter

National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA


Michael D. Dettinger

U.S. Geological Survey, La Jolla, California, USA


Robert Rice

School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, California, USA


Jeff Dozier

Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA


Abstract

Climate change and climate variability, population growth, and land use change drive the need for new hydrologic knowledge and understanding. In the mountainous West and other similar areas worldwide, three pressing hydrologic needs stand out: first, to better understand the processes controlling the partitioning of energy and water fluxes within and out from these systems; second, to better understand feedbacks between hydrological fluxes and biogeochemical and ecological processes; and, third, to enhance our physical and empirical understanding with integrated measurement strategies and information systems. We envision an integrative approach to monitoring, modeling, and sensing the mountain environment that will improve understanding and prediction of hydrologic fluxes and processes. Here extensive monitoring of energy fluxes and hydrologic states are needed to supplement existing measurements, which are largely limited to streamflow and snow water equivalent. Ground-based observing systems must be explicitly designed for integration with remotely sensed data and for scaling up to basins and whole ranges.

Received 1 July 2005; accepted 2 June 2006; published 26 August 2006.

Keywords: biogeochemical cycles; energy balance; Global change; hydrology; snowmelt.

Index Terms: 0740 Cryosphere: Snowmelt; 1630 Global Change: Impacts of global change (1225); 1800 Hydrology.

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Citation: Bales, R. C., N. P. Molotch, T. H. Painter, M. D. Dettinger, R. Rice, and J. Dozier (2006), Mountain hydrology of the western United States, Water Resour. Res., 42, W08432, doi:10.1029/2005WR004387.