2. Methods
Study area
The primary area of interest for this study, Cumbria, Northwest England
(Figure 1) where the Q-NFM project
(http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lec/sites/qnfm) is tasked with simulating
the effects of broad-scale tree planting scenarios on flood hydrographs
using a catchment hydrological model. The study catchments are within a
mountainous area where there have been 4 major flood events in the last
15 years. Cumbria, as for many mountainous regions of the UK, is
situated towards the west coast and hence strongly influenced by
temperate maritime airflows from the Atlantic Ocean. Mountainous regions
of the UK are areas of extremely complex topography which, in
combination with the predominant airflow, gives rise to
orographically-influenced and spatially heterogeneous meteorological
patterns (Blackie and Simpson, 1993; Ferranti, Whyatt, & Timmis, 2009,
Mayes, 2013). Annual rainfall is generally high; for example, across
Cumbria the long-term annual average rainfall ranges from below 1000 mm
yr-1 on the coast and in areas of rain shadow to
greater than 3500 mm yr-1 across the highest
mountains. Given there are no CWB Ewc data for this study area we
consider other mountainous sites in the UK (Figure 1) and other
temperate locations around the world.