VIC model and its application to the Yellow River basin

Coupling between land surface and atmosphere is a key to study effect of climate change.Variable Infiltration Capacity(VIC model) which is involved in Surface Vegetation Atmospheric Transfer Schemes(SVATS) was introduced firstly.The Yellow River basin was divided into 432 grid cells with scale of 50km×50km.And daily meteorological data at 108 stations in the Yellow River basin were interpolated into these grid cells.According to the properties of soil and vegetation,soil parameters and vegetation parameters were physically determined.Based on the hydrological calibration of 15 representative sub"catchments,hydrological parameters were transferred to the nongauge areas of the Yellow River basin in which climatic conditions are similar to the calibrated sub"catchments. And spatial distribution of runoff was simulated.Simulation results indicate that VIC model has good performance of monthly discharge simulation,hydrological transformation is an effective way to perform discharge simulation of nongauge basin,and VIC model is qualified to assess the impacts of environmental change on water resources in the Yellow River basin.