Distributed hydrological model, water and energy budgets
Extended model description
GEOtop accommodates very complex topography and, besides the water balance integrates all the terms in the surface energy balance equation. For saturated and unsaturated subsurface flow, it uses the 3D Richards’ equation. An accurate treatment of radiation inputs is implemented in order to be able to return surface temperature.
The model GEOtop simulates the complete hydrological balance in a continuous way, during a whole year, inside a basin and combines the main features of the modern land surfaces models with the distributed rainfall-runoff models.
The new 0.875 version of GEOtop introduces the snow accumulation and melt module and describes sub-surface flows in an unsaturated media more accurately. With respect to the version 0.750 the updates are fundamental: the codex is completely eviewed, the energy and mass parametrizations are rewritten, the input/output file set is redifined.
GEOtop makes it possible to know the outgoing discharge at the basin's closing section, to estimate the local values at the ground of humidity, of soil temperature, of sensible and latent heat fluxes, of heat flux in the soil and of net radiation, together with other hydrometeorlogical distributed variables. Furthermore it describes the distributed snow water equivalent and surface snow temperature.
GEOtop is a model based on the use of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). It makes also use of meteorological measurements obtained thought traditional instruments on the ground. Yet, it can also assimilate distributed data like those coming from radar measurements, from satellite terrain sensing or from micrometeorological models.
The ideal data set is one as those of Panola catchment.
Do you have current or future plans for collaborating with other researchers?
Yes, see list-geotopdev@ing.unitn.it and the developer's website. There is also a list for users: list-geotopusers@ing.unitn.it.
Information at www.geotop.org
Provide key papers on model if any
Key Papers:
Structure and application of the extension of the GEOtop model to study landslides and debris flows:
Simoni, S., Zanotti, F., Bertoldi, G., Rigon, R.: Modelling the probability of occurrence of shallow landslides and channelized debris flows using GEOtop-SF. Hydrological Processes, 2007. Doi: (10.1002/hyp.6886).
Description and application of the GEOtop model v. 0.875:
Rigon, R., Bertoldi, G. and Over, T. M.: GEOtop: A Distributed Hydrological Model with Coupled Water and Energy Budgets., Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 7, No. 3, pages 371-388, 2006, Doi: (10.1175/JHM497.1).
Description and application of the snow module of the GEOtop model v. 0.875:
Zanotti, F., Endrizzi, S., Bertoldi, G. and Rigon, R., The GEOTOP snow module, Hydrological Processes, 18, 3667-3679, 2004. Doi: (10.1002/hyp.5794).
Development and application of the GEOtop model v. 0.75 and 0.875:
Bertoldi G., The water and energy balance at basin scale: a distributed modeling approach, University of Trento, Monograph of the School of Doctoral Studies in Environmental Engineering, 202 pp., ISBN 88-8443-069-0, 2004.
Development and application of the extension of the GEOtop model to study landslides and debris flows:
S. Simoni. A Comprehensive Approach to Landslide Triggering. Ph.D Dissertation in Environmental Engineering, University of Trento, Italy, 2007.
Other Papers:
Bertoldi, G., Notarnicola, C., Leitinger, G., Endrizzi, S., Zebisch, M., and Tappeiner, U.: Morphological and ecohydrological controls on land surface temperature in an Alpine catchment, Ecohydrology, under revision, 2009.
Application of the GEOtop model v. 0.875 to complex topography and sensitivity study: 4 Bertoldi, G., Rigon, R. and Over, T. M.: Impact of Watershed Geomorphic Characteristics on the Energy and Water Budgets, Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 7, No. 3, pages 389-403, 2006.
Ph.D Thesis
The the Richard's equation numerical scheme of GEOtop v. 0.9375: E.Cordano, Subsurface water flow in a catchment: theoretical tools. PhD thesis, Universita, degli Studi di Genova, 2006.
Development and application of the snow module of the GEOtop model v. 0.935.: S. Endrizzi. Snow cover modelling at a local and distributed scale over complex terrain. Ph.D Dissertation in Environmental Engineering, University of Trento, Italy, 2007.
Automatic parameter estimation of GEOtop model v. 0.75 and 0.875.: R. Entezarolmahdi. SParameter Estimation for Hydrologic Models. Ph.D Dissertation in Environmental Engineering, University of Trento, Italy, 2007.
