My research project involves the development of a land-surface
parameterization scheme for use in climate models. The objective is to improve
simulation of surface and subsurface hydrology. Specifically, two main issues are
investigated in this project. The first is how to incorporate the groundwater table
dynamics into a land surface scheme such that it can realistically simulate the complex
interactions between the unsaturated and saturated soils. This effect is
particularly important for the shallow water table regions, The second issue is the
inclusion of spatial (sub-grid) heterogeneities in land-surface schemes. The
natural land-surface usually exhibit numerous heterogeneities including soil, vegetation,
topography, water table, and so on. Given that the typical grid scale of climate
models is several hundreds of kilometers, accurate treatment of these heterogeneities is
indispensable if the climate is to be simulated faithfully. The approaches
accounting for the water table and spatial heterogeneity will be developed and implemented
using an off-line simulation model.
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