On the similarity of hillslope hydrologic function: a process-based approach
- 1Energy Geosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Road, M.S. 74R-316C, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
- anow at: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, 20771, MD, USA
- 1Energy Geosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Road, M.S. 74R-316C, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
- anow at: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, 20771, MD, USA
Abstract. Hillslope similarity is an active topic in hydrology because of its importance to improve our understanding of hydrologic processes and enable comparisons and paired studies. In this study, we propose a holistic bottom-up hillslope similarity classification based on a region’s integrative hydrodynamic response quantified by the seasonal changes in groundwater levels. The main advantage of the proposed classification is its ability to describe recharge and discharge processes. We test the performance of the proposed classification by comparing it to seven other common hillslope similarity classifications. These include simple classifications based on the aridity index, topographic wetness index, elevation, land cover, and more sophisticated machine-learning classifications that jointly integrate all these data. We assess the ability of these classifications to identify and categorize hillslopes with similar static characteristics, hydroclimatic behaviors, land surface processes, and subsurface dynamics in a mountainous watershed, the East River, located in the headwaters of the Upper Colorado River Basin. The proposed classification is robust as it reasonably identifies and categorizes hillslopes with similar elevation, land cover, hydroclimate, land surface processes, and subsurface hydrodynamics (and hence hillslopes with similar hydrologic function). In general, the other approaches are good in identifying similarity in a single characteristic, which is usually close to the selected variable. We further demonstrate the robustness of the proposed classification by testing its ability to predict hillslope responses to wet and dry hydrologic conditions, of which it performs well when based on average conditions.
Fadji Zaouna Maina et al.
Status: final response (author comments only)
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RC1: 'Comment on hess-2021-520', A. D. Parsekian, 05 Feb 2022
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Fadji Zaouna Maina, 09 Mar 2022
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RC2: 'Comment on hess-2021-520', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Feb 2022
I think this is interested study that is worthy of publication. However, a lot of improvements have to be made for its current form. I agree with that ground water dynamics may be a good proxy of surface hydrological processes in some places. However, this may not be the truth in some other areas. So this proposed approach may have its limits. This have to be clarified in the introduction and discussion. There are a lot of indices and methods used in this study were not presented in the Methodology section. I also feel that the methods section did not clearly present how the authors process the data and generate the results. In addition, and especially, discussion of the findings of this study has to be strengthen. currently, the discussion is weak, maybe due to the reason that the results and discussion were combined. References are needed for the interpretations. Explanation of the results and comparions with other published studies have to be improved.
1. the abstract lacks quantified description
2. line 41-44, references are needed to support this statement.
3. line 106, maybe give some examples of such models
4. line 138, maybe starting with a sentence to tell the reads the pupose or the reason of using ParFlow-CLM in this study
5. line 164, provide the examples of the application of ParFlow-CLM
6. line 239-240, what were those thresholds tested, specify
7. line 238-243, what were the thredholds of drainage area you finally used?
8. line 316, the clustering approaches have to be introduced in the methods section
9. line 369-379, most of the part would be better to move to the methods section
10. section 3.2.3, why were surface runoff not considered? I thinks it might be one of the most important hydrological processes.
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Fadji Zaouna Maina, 09 Mar 2022
Fadji Zaouna Maina et al.
Fadji Zaouna Maina et al.
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