Articles | Volume 30, issue 14
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4823-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-4823-2026
Research article
 | 
30 Jul 2026
Research article |  | 30 Jul 2026

Enhancing runoff-infiltration partitioning in the SVS land surface model improves streamflow simulations under frozen soil conditions

Benjamin Bouchard, Vincent Vionnet, Étienne Gaborit, and Vincent Fortin

Related authors

Version 3.0.2 of the Crocus snowpack model
Matthieu Lafaysse, Marie Dumont, Basile De Fleurian, Mathieu Fructus, Rafife Nheili, Léo Viallon-Galinier, Matthieu Baron, Aaron Boone, Axel Bouchet, Julien Brondex, Carlo Carmagnola, Bertrand Cluzet, Kévin Fourteau, Ange Haddjeri, Pascal Hagenmuller, Giulia Mazzotti, Marie Minvielle, Samuel Morin, Louis Quéno, Léon Roussel, Pierre Spandre, François Tuzet, and Vincent Vionnet
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 6273–6334, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-6273-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-6273-2026, 2026
Short summary
Assimilation of synthetic observations of radar backscatters at Ku-band improves SWE estimates
Nicolas R. Leroux, Vincent Vionnet, Courtney Bayer, Julien Meloche, Arlan Dirkson, Franck Lespinas, Mark Buehner, Marco Carrera, Benoit Montpetit, Bernard Bilodeau, Maria Abrahamowicz, and Chris Derksen
The Cryosphere, 20, 2773–2792, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2773-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2773-2026, 2026
Short summary
Improving the CLASSIC (v1.8) Snow Model to Better Simulate Arctic Snowpacks
Mickaël Lalande, Alexandre Roy, Libo Wang, Diana Verseghy, Vincent Vionnet, Florent Dominé, and Christophe Kinnard
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-492,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-492, 2026
Short summary
The Canadian Surface Reanalysis (CaSR) v3.2 precipitation dataset: A 45-year high-resolution analysis for North America (1980–2024)
Dikraa Khedhaouiria, Nicolas Gasset, Vincent Fortin, Milena Dimitrijevic, Maxim Bulat, and Xihong Wang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-620,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-620, 2026
Short summary
Simulating snow properties and Ku-band backscatter across the forest-tundra ecotone
Georgina J. Woolley, Nick Rutter, Leanne Wake, Vincent Vionnet, Chris Derksen, Julien Meloche, Benoit Montpetit, Nicolas R. Leroux, Richard Essery, Gabriel Hould Gosselin, and Philip Marsh
The Cryosphere, 20, 1315–1338, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1315-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1315-2026, 2026
Short summary

Cited articles

Agnihotri, J., Behrangi, A., Tavakoly, A., Geheran, M., Farmani, M. A., and Niu, G.: Higher Frozen Soil Permeability Represented in a Hydrological Model Improves Spring Streamflow Prediction From River Basin to Continental Scales, Water Resour. Res., 59, e2022WR033075, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR033075, 2023. 
Ala-Aho, P., Autio, A., Bhattacharjee, J., Isokangas, E., Kujala, K., Marttila, H., Menberu, M., Meriö, L.-J., Postila, H., Rauhala, A., Ronkanen, A.-K., Rossi, P. M., Saari, M., Haghighi, A. T., and Kløve, B.: What conditions favor the influence of seasonally frozen ground on hydrological partitioning? A systematic review, Environ. Res. Lett., 16, 043008, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe82c, 2021. 
Alaoui, A.: Modelling susceptibility of grassland soil to macropore flow, J. Hydrol., 525, 536–546, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.04.016, 2015. 
Alavi, N., Bélair, S., Fortin, V., Zhang, S., Husain, S. Z., Carrera, M. L., and Abrahamowicz, M.: Warm Season Evaluation of Soil Moisture Prediction in the Soil, Vegetation, and Snow (SVS) Scheme, J. Hydrometeorol., 17, 2315–2332, https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-15-0189.1, 2016. 
Amani, A., Boucher, M.-A., Cabral, A. R., Vionnet, V., and Gaborit, É.: Cold climates, complex hydrology: can a land surface model accurately simulate deep percolation?, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 2445–2465, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-2445-2025, 2025. 
Download
Short summary
Enhancing frozen soil infiltration based on soil liquid water significantly improves streamflow simulation in the SVS land surface model. Tested at over 580 stations in the Great-Lakes and Saint-Lawrence region for five years, this approach can be easily transferred to other land surface models (LSM). Our results suggest that promoting frozen soil infiltration in LSM is key for realistic large-scale streamflow simulations and critical for operational hydrological prediction in cold regions.
Share