Some Aspects of the Hydrology of the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia

A simple computational procedure for calculating the water balance in the Fraser River basin in British Columbia is presented. The computational model uses readily available meteorological records and is based on the definitional equality that, for a given year, runoff is equal to the difference between precipitation and evapotranspiration adjusted for basin storage fluctuation. The annual hydrologic record generated by this model indicates that, for the period 1951 to 1976, precipitation basin runoff, and evapotranspiration, respectively averaged 737 mm, 433 mm and 301 mm per year, while the mean annual temperature for the same period was 2.1°C. The relationships among the hydrologic components and basin temperature are discussed. It is concluded that, given the known errors in the computational model, the measured water balance is not inconsistent with that derived from the estimating procedure of Thornthwaite and Mather.