Finnish Environment Institute's Watershed Simulation and Forecasting System
The impacts section of the Maps, diagrams and data section of the Climate guide includes model results of variables related to water resources. These variables are related to the duration of the snow cover, water equivalent of snow, soil moisture deficit, evaporation, runoff and time of occurrence of the greatest runoff.
Scenarios of the variables related to water resources
The scenarios of the variables related water resources have been produced with the Finnish Environment Institute's (SYKE) Watershed Simulation and Forecasting System (WSFS).[1] The WSFS is used to draft hydrological predictions and warn of floods in Finland.[2] The most important part of the system is a runoff model [3] that describes the hydrological cycle from precipitation to runoff using normal meteorological material as the starting information. The model covers the whole land area of Finland, a total of 390,000km², including cross-boundary watersheds overrunning the border. The model operates on a watershed sub-division level and the area is divided to approximately 6,400 watershed sub-divisions. The model's input data include precipitation and temperature, while the modelled variables of hydrological cycle include snow accumulation and melting, soil moisture, evaporation, ground water, runoff and discharge and water levels of the main rivers and lakes.