Ls. Kuchment et al., THE EFFECTS OF LAND-SURFACE HETEROGENEITIES ON THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE, Theoretical and applied climatology, 55(1-4), 1996, pp. 185-192
The effects of small-scale spatial heterogeneities of soil, land use a
nd vegetation on area-averaged components of the water balance of a ri
ver basin are investigated. Different parameterizations of these effec
ts are tested on the base of the distributed model of the hydrological
cycle. The model includes a description of the vertical moisture tran
sfer in the ''soil-vegetation-atmosphere'' system, the overland flow a
nd the river channel system routing. The heterogeneities are divided i
nto deterministic (mosaic) and stochastic components. To parameterize
stochastic components the procedures based on probability distribution
s of basin constants and the theory of fractals were used. The case st
udy is carried out for the Seim River basin located in the central par
t of the forest-steppe zone of Russia (catchment area about 7500 km(2)
).