Validation and sensitivity tests on improved parametrizations of a land surface process model (LSPM) in the Po Valley

The Land Surface Process Model (LSPM) has been improved with respect to the 1. version of 1994. The modifications have involved the parametrizations of the radiation terms and of turbulent heat fluxes. A parametrization of runoff has also been developed, in order to close the hydrologic balance. This 2. version of LSPM has been validated against experimental data gathered at Mottarone (Verbania, Northern Italy) during a field experiment. The results of this validation show that this new version is able to apportionate the energy into sensible and latent heat fluxes. LSPM has also been submitted to a series of sensitivity tests in order to investigate the hydrological part of the model. The physical quantities selected in these sensitivity experiments have been the initial soil moisture content and the rainfall intensity. In each experiment, the model has been forced by using the observations carried out at the synoptic stations of San Pietro Capofiume (Po Valley, Italy). The observed characteristics of soil and vegetation (not involved in the sensitivity tests) have been used as initial and boundary conditions. The results of the simulation show that LSPM can reproduce well the energy, heat and water budgets and their behaviours with varying the selected parameters. A careful analysis of the LSPM output shows also the importance to identify the effective soil type