A System Dynamics Approach to Modeling Future Climate Scenarios: Quantifying and Projecting Patterns of Evapotranspiration and Precipitation in the Salton Sea Watershed
Table 2
Description of variables used for the statistical analyses. Note that event refers to days in which precipitation occurred, either as a one day occurrence or as multiple contiguous days.
Name
Description
Type of variable
Description of levels
Prcp
Daily historic precipitation
Continuous
Daily values from 1982 to 2004
ETo
Daily historic evapotranspiration
Continuous
Daily values from 1982 to 2004
Month
Month of year
Discrete (12 levels)
1 = January, 2 = Feb., …, 12 = Dec.
RainEvent
Presence or absence of Prcp event
Discrete (binary)
0 = absent, 1 = present
ETo ≤ 0.21′′
Did ETo exceed 0.21′′?
Discrete (binary)
0 = true, 1 = false
CatEvent
Number of consecutive days of precipitation
Discrete (7 levels)
0 = no prcp, 1 = one day of prcp, …, 7 = seven consecutive days of prcp
CatVol
Comparison between volumes (v) of precipitation between subsequent time steps (i.e., comparing events at time to events at time )
Discrete (5 levels)
0 = no prcp
1 = single event (a prcp event not followed by another)
2 =
3 =
4 =
PrcpAmt
Amount of precipitation per event
Discrete (5 levels)
0 = no Prcp
1 = Prcp ≤ 0.1′′
2 = 0.1′′ < Prcp ≤ 0.2′′
3 = 0.2′′ < Prcp ≤ 0.5′′
4 = 0.5′′ < Prcp
Prcponafter
Denotes first day of event or day after event
Discrete (3 levels)
1 = for first day of prcp event, 2 = day after event, 0 = all other days
Prcpbefafter
Denotes day before event or day after event
Discrete (3 levels)
1 = for day preceding prcp event, 2 = day immediately after event, 0 = all other days
PrcpOn
Denotes first day of event
Discrete (binary)
1 = first day in series of prcp event, 0 = all other days
EToAmt
Amount of ETo per event
Discrete (6 levels)
0 = ETo ≤ 0.11
1 = 0.11 < ETo ≤ 0.21
2 = 0.21 < ETo ≤ 0.32
3 = 0.32 < ETo ≤ 0.41
4 = 0.41 < ETo ≤ 0.5
5 = 0.5 < ETo
EToPerCh
Percent change in ETo from one time step to next
Continuous
EToFirst
Compares ETo on day before event to ETo on day of event
Discrete (4 levels)
0 = no prcp or a consecutive day
1 = ETo before prcp event < ETo on day of event
2 = ETo before prcp event = ETo on day of event
3 = ETo before prcp event > ETo on day of event
ETolev2
Compares ETo on day of event to ETo on day after event
Discrete (4 levels)
0 = no prcp
1 = ETo after prcp event < ETo on day of event
2 = ETo after prcp event = ETo on day of event
3 = ETo after prcp event > ETo on day of event
EToOne
Compares ETo on day before an event to ETo on day after event
Discrete (4 levels)
0 = no prcp or a consecutive day
1 = ETo on day after event < ETo day before event
2 = ETo on day after event = ETo day before event
3 = ETo on day after event > ETo day before event
EToTwo
Compares ETo of first day of an event to ETo on day after event
Discrete (4 levels)
0 = no prcp or a consecutive day
1 = ETo on day after event < ETo on first day of event
2 = ETo on day after event = ETo on first day of event
3 = ETo on day after event > ETo on first day of event