Abstract
As a result of global warming, the snow water equivalent is forecast to decrease and the snow melt season is forecast to start earlier. If the current typical water storage start dates at irrigation reservoirs in cold, snowy regions remain unchanged, the water stored in reservoirs may be insufficient in some years. Therefore, if the snow water equivalent can be estimated before the water storage start dates in spring, the estimated value will be useful for reservoir operation in the succeeding irrigation period. This study was carried out to develop a method for predicting snow water equivalent in irrigation reservoir basins using precipitation and temperature data from the Automated Meteorological Data Acquisition System (AMeDAS), which are easy to acquire. The following were discovered for the Sorachi and Kamikawa regions in Hokkaido. 1) Estimation of snow water equivalent is possible, and the estimation has satisfactory accuracy for actual use. 2) Estimation precision is stable when inflow data of about 5 years in the basins are used.
