Evaluation of snow water storage estimations for hydropower catchments
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2021
Författare
Eklund, Edvin
Toresson, André
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Sweden’s power production is in the midst of a paradigm shift, where predictable
carbon- and nuclear-based production is being replaced by renewable energy, such as
wind and solar. Since both of these energy sources are intermittent, this introduces
predictability issues to the energy production sector. Hydropower energy does not
directly emit carbon dioxide in its power production, and it is to some extent a
predictable source of energy. However, this predictability can be improved with
enhanced estimation of the water stored in the form of snow over the catchment areas
involved.
The purpose of the project was to evaluate the impacts that topography and wind
have on snow distribution over a catchment in northern Sweden and trying to model
the snow conditions based on this, and how well snow and weather data-based and
satellite-based snow data products could predict the snow water equivalent volumes
within it. The analyses and evaluations were based on in situ data collected within the
catchment area during one week of the snow season of 2018 to 2020 and consisted of
data for, among other things, snow depth and density.
Several topographical features were found to consistently correlate with SWE, up to
69%, over the catchment. Furthermore, models based on all investigated features
could, at best, describe up to 51% of the snow variability. Even though the wind
direction was quite evenly distributed among all cardinal directions, the accumulation
of snow showed correlations with the net wind direction of the season, although with
consistent signs of other factors influencing the direction of accumulation as well.
Despite evaluating the satellite-based model with the highest resolution available, it
displayed very low accuracy in describing the snow’s spatial distribution, as well as the
aggregated volumes of SWE on the scale tested in this project. The snow and weather
data-based data appeared, with slight adjustments, to be the only observational
method successful in describing the snow’s spatial distribution, as well as accurately
predicting the aggregate snow water volume.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Catchment, Copernicus, GIS, GPR, Hydropower, Runoff, Snowmelt, SWE