Climate Change and Its Impacts on Streamflow: WRF and SCE-Optimized SWAT Models - Data Assimilation for Atmospheric, Oceanic and Hydrologic Applications - page 402

Chapter 17
Climate Change and Its Impacts on Streamflow:
WRF and SCE-Optimized SWAT Models

Shie-Yui Liong, Srivatsan V. Raghavan, and Minh Tue Vu

Abstract It has been noted that global warming is likely to increase both the
frequency and severity of weather events such as heat waves and heavy rainfall.
These could lead to large scale effects such as melting of large ice sheets with major
impacts on low-lying regions throughout the world (Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, IPCC 2007a ). Since these projected climate changes will impact
water resources, agriculture, bio-diversity and health, one of the key challenges of
climate research is the application of climate models to quantify both future climate
change and its impacts on the physical and biological environment. One of the
widely studied impacts is on hydrology, right from large scale river basins, river
deltas through to small scale urban reservoirs. In this context, this chapter discusses
some hydrological impact studies and presents results of a study done over the Sesan
catchment in Lower Mekong Basin (in Southeast Asia). Sensitivity analysis and
an optimization calibration scheme, SCE-UA algorithm, are applied to the SWAT
model.

17.1 Introduction

17.1.1 General Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has mentioned in its Fourth
Assessment Report (AR4) that “physical and biological systems on all continents
and in most oceans are already being affected by recent climate changes and climatic
effects on human systems, although more difficult to discern due to adaptation and