VICGlobal: soil and vegetation parameters for the Variable Infiltration Capacity hydrological model

VICGlobal: soil, vegetation, and elevation band input files for the VIC hydrological model
Date uploaded: Nov. 13, 2019
Authors and affiliations: Jacob Schaperow (1), Dongyue Li (1,2)
1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UCLA
2. Department of Geography, UCLA
Author contact info: jschap@g.ucla.edu

===== Overview =====

VICGlobal is an uncalibrated parameter dataset that can be used to run the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrological model over regional to continental scales. The dataset is at 1/16 degree resolution and has latitudinal coverage from -60 to 85 degrees. 

Vegetation parameters uses the IGBP classification and use partial land use types. The vegetation parameter rooting depths and root fractions are computed based on the method of Zeng (2001). The vegetation library file is largely the same as that of Livneh et al. (2015); however, the monthly average LAI, canopy fraction, and albedo values for each land cover type are calculated based on MODIS observations from 2017, using the method of Bohn and Vivoni (2019).

There are two vegetation libraries: one for the northern hemisphere, and one for the southern hemisphere, in order to account for the seasonality of LAI, canopy fraction, and albedo.

WARNING: although it appears small in compressed form, the image driver parameter input file, VICGlobal_params.nc, is ~140 GB when unzipped.

A data descriptor is in preparation for submission to Earth System Science Data (https://earth-system-science-data.net).

===== List of Contents =====

Inputs for VIC-4 or the VIC-5 Classic Driver
--Soil parameter file
--Vegetation parameter file
--Elevation band file
--Vegetation library files (one each for the northern and southern hemispheres)
 
Inputs for the VIC-5 Image Driver
--Parameter file
--Domain file

--Matlab codes for subsetting the VICGlobal parameters to a region of interest

===== References =====

Bohn and Vivoni (2019). MOD-LSP, MODIS-based parameters for hydrologic modeling of North American land cover change. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0150-2

Livneh et al. (2015). A spatially comprehensive, hydrometeorological data set for Mexico, the U.S., and Southern Canada 1950–2013. https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201542

Zeng (2001). Global Vegetation Root Distribution for Land Modeling. Journal of Hydrometeorology. https://doi.org/10.1175/1525-7541(2001)002<0525:GVRDFL>2.0.CO;2