Identification

Title

Continental Hydrologic Intercomparison Project, Phase 1: A large-scale hydrologic model comparison over the continental United States

Abstract

High-resolution, coupled, process-based hydrology models, in which subsurface, land-surface, and energy budget processes are represented, have been applied at the basin-scale to ask a wide range of water science questions. Recently, these models have been developed at continental scales with applications in operational flood forecasting, hydrologic prediction, and process representation. As use of large-scale model configurations increases, it is exceedingly important to have a common method for performance evaluation and validation, particularly given challenges associated with accurately representing large domains. Here, we present phase 1 of a comparison project for continental-scale, high-resolution, processed-based hydrologic models entitled the Continental Hydrologic Intercomparison Project (CHIP). The first phase of CHIP is based on past Earth System Model intercomparisons and comprised of a two-model proof of concept comparing the ParFlow-CONUS hydrologic model, version 1.0 and a NOAA US National Water Model configuration of WRF-Hydro, version 1.2. The objectives of CHIP phase 1 are: (a) describe model physics and components, (b) design an experiment to ensure a fair comparison, and (b) assess simulated streamflow with observations to better understand model bias. To our knowledge, this is the first comparison of continental-scale, high-resolution, physics-based models which incorporate lateral subsurface flow. This model intercomparison is an initial step toward a continued effort to unravel process, parameter, and formulation differences in current large-scale hydrologic models and to engage the hydrology community in improving hydrology model configuration and process representation.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7qz2fcc

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2021-07-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-11T16:14:13.845138

Metadata language

eng; USA