Modelling of temporal and spatial trends in soil conditions in Finland using HydroBlocks model
Arctic urban environments and their infrastructure are at an increased risk of damage due to their direct interaction with the Critical Zone, where an increasing frequency of frost quakes was recently detected (Battaglia and Changnon, 2016). On the previous research (Okkonen et al., 2020), a method for calculating thermal stress in soil in Finland was introduced. The aim is to develop this approach and apply it on a larger scale for multiple different soil types across Finland. To evaluate the thermal stress, information on several parameters such as soil temperature, soil moisture and soil ice content is required but there in situ measurements of these with high spatial coverage are missing. HydroBlocks is a hydrological land surface model that simulates mentioned soil properties, at a given time, even at regional scale. Previously, HydroBlocks has been applied over the continental USA. In this study the model was configured for Finland and the modelling results were validated with observational data from soil stations. The model was run for Finland over the period of 2010-2022 with 90 m spatial resolution and 1 hour time step. Our modelling shows that HydroBlocks can overall predict snow and soil conditions in Finland.