Usage of the WRF/DHSVM model chain for simulation of extreme floods in mountainous areas: a pilot study for the Uzh River Basin in the Ukrainian Carpathians

Abstract

The mesoscale meteorological/distributed hydrological model chain WRF/DHSVM was calibrated for simulation of extreme flood events in Uzh River basin in Ukrainian Carpathians. The flood event which happened in July 2008 was successfully reproduced by using final analysis meteorological input data of the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). For climate run for the period of 1960–1990, the NCEP Reanalysis-1 meteorological data were used. Frequencies of extreme precipitation events obtained by fitting of the measured and simulated precipitation time series with the generalized extreme value distribution were very close. Simulated water discharges for the very extreme floods happening from once per 50 to once per 100 years were in good agreement with the water discharges of the same frequencies obtained by statistical processing of measurements.