#L05 Exploring the Capability of Topography-based Subgrid Structures

Abstract

Topography is an important factor in soil formation, exerting dominant control on the spatial patterns of soil properties such as soil depth over watersheds. For example, soils are deeper and finer in texture over valleys compared to the shallower and coarser texture over ridges of watersheds. As an effort to improve representation of the effect of topographic heterogeneity in land surface processes, recently, a new topography-based subgrid structure has been developed and evaluated for its capability to capture spatial variability of climate and land cover over topographically heterogeneous region of the western United States. In this study, the capability of the new subgrid structure is evaluated for its capability to capture spatial pattern of various soil properties. For this purpose, global datasets of soil properties such as depth to bedrock are mapped to the new topography-based subgrid structure. Results are compared against the current subgrid structure of the ACME land model using various statistical metrics.