Abstract
Attaining a comprehensive and reliable water balance of snow-dominated
alpine catchments is fundamental for a holistic representation of the
hydrological and hydrogeological processes. A major limitation to the
elaboration of this balance in alpine terrain is the difficultly of data
acquisition as well as the limited presence of meteorological stations.
Remotely sensed data can provide valuable information for the balance
elaboration at a regional scale. We exploited Sentinel-satellite data to
estimate the groundwater storage for one hydrologic year in an extensive
Alpine catchment located in northern Italy. Evapotranspiration (ET) and
Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) were estimated once weekly with the combined
use of Sentinel data, at a spatial resolution of 20 m and 30 m,
respectively. Finally, the groundwater storage was estimated by means of
the residual water balance approach. The results show that the adopted
satellite-based methods allow obtaining consistent and physically
realistic values to describe the groundwater storage dynamics, with a
relatively low uncertainty (36%). For the studied hydrologic year, a
positive storage occurred only in the snowmelt period and the overall
storage was negative, leading to a lowering of the groundwater level in
the floodplain. In addition, the influence of physiographic parameters
(altitude, slope, and aspect) and the seasonal conditions on the
estimates of ET and snow-depth were investigated. For SWE estimates, an
altitude-dependent effect and a lower accuracy in the snowmelt phase
were observed. Finally, the estimated values of ET and the SWE-linked
components were verified for a gauged tributary valley with negligible
groundwater storage.