WorldWideScience

Sample records for regulations hydrologic assessment

  1. Assessing hydrological changes in a regulated river system over the last 90 years in Rimac Basin (Peru)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vega-Jácome, Fiorella; Lavado-Casimiro, Waldo Sven; Felipe-Obando, Oscar Gustavo

    2018-04-01

    Hydrological changes were assessed considering possible changes in precipitation and regulation or hydraulic diversion projects developed in the basin since 1960s in terms of improving water supply of the Rimac River, which is the main source of fresh water of Peru's capital. To achieve this objective, a trend analysis of precipitation and flow series was assessed using the Mann-Kendall test. Subsequently, the Eco-flow and Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) methods were applied for the characterization and quantification of the hydrological change in the basin, considering for the analysis, a natural period (1920-1960) and an altered period (1961-2012). Under this focus, daily hydrologic information of the "Chosica R-2" station (from 1920 to 2013) and monthly rainfall information related to 14 stations (from 1964 to 2013) were collected. The results show variations in the flow seasonality of the altered period in relation to the natural period and a significant trend to increase (decrease) minimum flows (maximum flows) during the analyzed period. The Eco-flow assessment shows a predominance of Eco-deficit from December to May (rainy season), strongly related to negative anomalies of precipitation. In addition, a predominance of Eco-surplus was found from June to November (dry season) with a behavior opposite to precipitation, attributed to the regulations and diversion in the basin during that period. In terms of magnitude, the IHA assessment identified an increase of 51% in the average flows during the dry season and a reduction of 10% in the average flows during the rainy season (except December and May). Furthermore, the minimum flows increased by 35% with shorter duration and frequency, and maximum flows decreased by 29% with more frequency but less duration. Although there are benefits of regulation and diversion for developing anthropic activities, the fact that hydrologic alterations may result in significant modifications in the Rimac River ecosystem

  2. Hydrologic regulation of plant rooting depth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Ying; Miguez-Macho, Gonzalo; Jobbágy, Esteban G; Jackson, Robert B; Otero-Casal, Carlos

    2017-10-03

    Plant rooting depth affects ecosystem resilience to environmental stress such as drought. Deep roots connect deep soil/groundwater to the atmosphere, thus influencing the hydrologic cycle and climate. Deep roots enhance bedrock weathering, thus regulating the long-term carbon cycle. However, we know little about how deep roots go and why. Here, we present a global synthesis of 2,200 root observations of >1,000 species along biotic (life form, genus) and abiotic (precipitation, soil, drainage) gradients. Results reveal strong sensitivities of rooting depth to local soil water profiles determined by precipitation infiltration depth from the top (reflecting climate and soil), and groundwater table depth from below (reflecting topography-driven land drainage). In well-drained uplands, rooting depth follows infiltration depth; in waterlogged lowlands, roots stay shallow, avoiding oxygen stress below the water table; in between, high productivity and drought can send roots many meters down to the groundwater capillary fringe. This framework explains the contrasting rooting depths observed under the same climate for the same species but at distinct topographic positions. We assess the global significance of these hydrologic mechanisms by estimating root water-uptake depths using an inverse model, based on observed productivity and atmosphere, at 30″ (∼1-km) global grids to capture the topography critical to soil hydrology. The resulting patterns of plant rooting depth bear a strong topographic and hydrologic signature at landscape to global scales. They underscore a fundamental plant-water feedback pathway that may be critical to understanding plant-mediated global change.

  3. Hydrologic regulation of plant rooting depth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Ying; Miguez-Macho, Gonzalo; Jobbágy, Esteban G.; Jackson, Robert B.; Otero-Casal, Carlos

    2017-10-01

    Plant rooting depth affects ecosystem resilience to environmental stress such as drought. Deep roots connect deep soil/groundwater to the atmosphere, thus influencing the hydrologic cycle and climate. Deep roots enhance bedrock weathering, thus regulating the long-term carbon cycle. However, we know little about how deep roots go and why. Here, we present a global synthesis of 2,200 root observations of >1,000 species along biotic (life form, genus) and abiotic (precipitation, soil, drainage) gradients. Results reveal strong sensitivities of rooting depth to local soil water profiles determined by precipitation infiltration depth from the top (reflecting climate and soil), and groundwater table depth from below (reflecting topography-driven land drainage). In well-drained uplands, rooting depth follows infiltration depth; in waterlogged lowlands, roots stay shallow, avoiding oxygen stress below the water table; in between, high productivity and drought can send roots many meters down to the groundwater capillary fringe. This framework explains the contrasting rooting depths observed under the same climate for the same species but at distinct topographic positions. We assess the global significance of these hydrologic mechanisms by estimating root water-uptake depths using an inverse model, based on observed productivity and atmosphere, at 30″ (˜1-km) global grids to capture the topography critical to soil hydrology. The resulting patterns of plant rooting depth bear a strong topographic and hydrologic signature at landscape to global scales. They underscore a fundamental plant-water feedback pathway that may be critical to understanding plant-mediated global change.

  4. A Framework to Assess the Cumulative Hydrological Impacts of Dams on flow Regime

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Y.; Wang, D.

    2016-12-01

    In this study we proposed a framework to assess the cumulative impact of dams on hydrological regime, and the impacts of the Three Gorges Dam on flow regime in Yangtze River were investigated with the framework. We reconstructed the unregulated flow series to compare with the regulated flow series in the same period. Eco-surplus and eco-deficit and the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration parameters were used to examine the hydrological regime change. Among IHA parameters, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Principal Components Analysis identified the representative indicators of hydrological alterations. Eco-surplus and eco-deficit showed that the reservoir also changed the seasonal regime of the flows in autumn and winter. Annual extreme flows and October flows changes lead to negative ecological implications downstream from the Three Gorges Dam. Ecological operation for the Three Gorges Dam is necessary to mitigate the negative effects on the river ecosystem in the middle reach of Yangtze River. The framework proposed here could be a robust method to assess the cumulative impacts of reservoir operation.

  5. Hydrological performance assessment on siting the high level radioactive waste repository

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guo Yonghai; Liu Shufen; Wang Ju; Wang Zhiming; Su Rui; Lv Chuanhe; Zong Zihua

    2007-01-01

    Based on the research experiences in China and some developed countries in the world, the processes and methods on hydrological performance assessment for the siting of high radioactive repository are discussed in this paper. The methods and contents of hydrological performance assessment are discussed respectively for region, area and site hydrological investigation stages. At the same time, the hydrological performance assessment of the potential site for high level radioactive waste in China is introduced. (authors)

  6. Linking hydrology, morphodynamics and ecology to assess the restoration potential of the heavily regulated Sarca River, NE Italy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carolli, Mauro; Zolezzi, Guido; Pellegrini, Stefano; Gelmini, Francesca; Deriu, Micaela

    2017-04-01

    We develop an integrated eco-hydro-morphological quantitative investigation of the upper course of the Alpine Sarca River (NE Italy), for the purpose of assessing its potential in terms of environmental restoration. The Sarca River has been subject to heavy exploitation for hydropower production since the 1950s through a complex infrastructural system. As for many regulated Alpine rivers, increasing local interest has recently been developing to design and implement river restoration measures to improve the environmental conditions and ecosystem services that the river can provide. The aim of the work is to develop and apply a quantitative approach for a preliminary assessment of the successful potential of different river restoration options in the light of the recent eco-hydro-morphological dynamics of the Sarca river system at the catchment scale. The proposed analysis consists of three main steps: (1) detection of the main drivers of flow and sediment supply regimes alteration and characterization of such alteration; (2) a quantification of the effects of those alterations on geomorphic processes and fish habitat conditions; (3) the analysis of the restoration potential in the light of the results of the previous assessment. The analysis is tailored to the existing data availability, which is relatively high as for most river systems of comparable size in Europe, but not as much as in the case of a targeted research project, thus providing a representative case for many other regulated river catchments. Hydrological alteration is quantified by comparing recent (20 years) streamflow time series with a reconstructed series of analogous length, using a hydrological model that has been run excluding any man-made water abstraction, release and artificial reservoirs. upstream and downstream a large dam in the middle course of the river. By choosing the adult marble trout as target (endemic) fish species, effects of the alterations on the temporal and spatial habitat

  7. Developing New Modelling Tools for Environmental Flow Assessment in Regulated Salmon Rivers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geris, Josie; Soulsby, Chris; Tetzlaff, Doerthe

    2013-04-01

    of the natural flow variability and the hydrological impacts of the regulation is unavailable, partly because pre-regulation data of existing hydropower schemes are lacking. Here we develop a novel modelling approach for characterising natural flow regimes and defining hydrological flow indices. This allows us to quantitatively assess the impacts of hydropower to better inform environmental flow requirements for the Atlantic salmon river ecosystem. Results are presented for the River Lyon (390 km2), a regulated headwater catchment of the River Tay. The HBV hydrological rainfall-runoff model is used to simulate flows, based on calibrated parameters from regulated flow data, with the current hydropower scheme active. For this, the HBV model is adapted to be able to incorporate water transfers and regulated flows. The natural hydrological indices are derived from the simulated pre-regulation data, and compared with those of the regulated data to investigate the impact of the regulation on these at different critical times for Atlantic salmon. The sensitivity of the system to change is also investigated to explore the extent to which flow variables can be modified without major degradation to the river's ecosystem, while still maintaining viable hydropower generation. The modelling approach presented will provide the basis for assessing impacts on hydrological flow indices and informing environmental flows in regions with similar heavily regulated mountain river ecosystems.

  8. Assessing Student Understanding of Physical Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castillo, A. J.; Marshall, J.; Cardenas, M. B.

    2012-12-01

    Our objective is to characterize and assess upper division and graduate student thinking by developing and testing an assessment tool for a physical hydrology class. The class' learning goals are: (1) Quantitative process-based understanding of hydrologic processes, (2) Experience with different methods in hydrology, (3) Learning, problem solving, communication skills. These goals were translated into two measurable tasks asked of students in a questionnaire: (1) Describe the significant processes in the hydrological cycle and (2) Describe laws governing these processes. A third question below assessed the students' ability to apply their knowledge: You have been hired as a consultant by __ to (1) assess how urbanization and the current drought have affected a local spring and (2) predict what the effects will be in the future if the drought continues. What information would you need to gather? What measurements would you make? What analyses would you perform? Student and expert responses to the questions were then used to develop a rubric to score responses. Using the rubric, 3 researchers independently blind-coded the full set of pre and post artifacts, resulting in 89% inter-rater agreement on the pre-tests and 83% agreement on the post-tests. We present student scores to illustrate the use of the rubric and to characterize student thinking prior to and following a traditional course. Most students interpreted Q1 in terms of physical processes affecting the water cycle, the primary organizing framework for hydrology, as intended. On the pre-test, one student scored 0, indicating no response, on this question. Twenty students scored 1, indicating rudimentary understanding, 2 students scored a 2, indicating a basic understanding, and no student scored a 3. Student scores on this question improved on the post-test. On the 22 post-tests that were blind scored, 11 students demonstrated some recognition of concepts, 9 students showed a basic understanding, and 2

  9. [Gene method for inconsistent hydrological frequency calculation. 2: Diagnosis system of hydrological genes and method of hydrological moment genes with inconsistent characters].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Ping; Zhao, Jiang Yan; Wu, Zi Yi; Sang, Yan Fang; Chen, Jie; Li, Bin Bin; Gu, Hai Ting

    2018-04-01

    The analysis of inconsistent hydrological series is one of the major problems that should be solved for engineering hydrological calculation in changing environment. In this study, the diffe-rences of non-consistency and non-stationarity were analyzed from the perspective of composition of hydrological series. The inconsistent hydrological phenomena were generalized into hydrological processes with inheritance, variability and evolution characteristics or regulations. Furthermore, the hydrological genes were identified following the theory of biological genes, while their inheritance bases and variability bases were determined based on composition of hydrological series under diffe-rent time scales. To identify and test the components of hydrological genes, we constructed a diagnosis system of hydrological genes. With the P-3 distribution as an example, we described the process of construction and expression of the moment genes to illustrate the inheritance, variability and evolution principles of hydrological genes. With the annual minimum 1-month runoff series of Yunjinghong station in Lancangjiang River basin as an example, we verified the feasibility and practicability of hydrological gene theory for the calculation of inconsistent hydrological frequency. The results showed that the method could be used to reveal the evolution of inconsistent hydrological series. Therefore, it provided a new research pathway for engineering hydrological calculation in changing environment and an essential reference for the assessment of water security.

  10. Hydrological and geochemical consequences of river regulation - hyporheic perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siergieiev, Dmytro; Lundberg, Angela; Widerlund, Anders

    2014-05-01

    River-aquifer interfaces, essential for ecosystem functioning in terms of nutrient exchange and biological habitat, appear greatly threatened worldwide. Although river regulation is a vast pressure on river-aquifer interaction, influencing entire watersheds, knowledge about hyporheic exchange in regulated rivers is rather limited. In this study, we combine two decades of research on hydrological and geochemical impacts of hydropower regulation on river water and hyporheic zone in two large boreal rivers, unregulated Kalix River and regulated Lule River. Altered river discharge, with reduced spring peaks, daily summer fluctuations and elevated winter base flow severely modified Lule River water geochemistry and thus the transport of solutes to the Bothnian Bay (Baltic Sea). Further, these river modifications changed the river-aquifer exchange on both daily and seasonal scale, which resulted in deteriorated hyporheic conditions with reduced riverbed hydraulic conductivity (formation of a clogging layer) reflected in a declined hyporheic flux. Altered hydrological regime of the hyporheic zone created quasi-stagnant conditions beneath the river-aquifer interface and promoted the formation of geochemically suboxic environment. Taken that hyporheic water is a mixture of river water and groundwater, mixing models for the regulated site demonstrate a considerable addition of Fe, Mn, Al, NH4 and removal of dissolved oxygen and nitrate, which suggests the hyporheic zone in the Lule River to be a source of solutes. This contradicts the observations from the hyporheic zone in the unregulated river, with opposite behaviour functioning as a barrier. These results suggest that the hyporheic zone function is dependent on the river discharge and the state of the river-aquifer connectivity. Improved knowledge about the latter on a watershed scale will substantially increase our understanding about the status and potential pressures of riverine ecosystems and assist management and

  11. Hydrologic Extremes and Risk Assessment under Non-stationarity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mondal, A.

    2015-12-01

    In the context of hydrologic designs, robust assessment and communication of risk is crucial to ascertain a sustainable water future. Traditional methods for defining return period, risk or reliability assumes a stationary regime which may no longer be valid because of natural or man-made changes. Reformulations are suggested in recent literature to account for non-stationarity in the definition of hydrologic risk, as time evolves. This study presents a comparative analysis of design levels under non-stationarity based on time varying annual exceedance probabilities, waiting time of a hazardous event, number of hazardous events and probability of failure. A case study application is shown for peak streamflow in the flood-prone delta area of the Krishna River in India where an increasing trend in annual maximum flows are observed owing to persistent silting. Considerable disagreement is found between the design magnitudes of flood obtained by the different definitions of hydrologic risk. Such risk is also found to be highly sensitive to the assumed design life period and projections of trend in that period or beyond. Additionally, some critical points on the assumption of a deterministic non-stationary model for an observed natural process are also discussed. The findings highlight the necessity for a unifying framework for assessment and communication of hydrologic risk under transient hydro-climatic conditions. The concepts can also be extended to other applications such as regional hydrologic frequency analysis or development of precipitation intensity-duration-frequency relationships for infrastructure design.

  12. Using hydrologic landscape classification to assess streamflow vulnerability to changes in climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Identifying regions with similar hydrology is useful for assessing water quality and quantity across the U.S., especially areas that are difficult or costly to monitor. For example, hydrologic landscapes (HLs) have been used to map streamflow variability and assess the spatial di...

  13. Development and comparison of Bayesian modularization method in uncertainty assessment of hydrological models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, L.; Xu, C.-Y.; Engeland, K.

    2012-04-01

    With respect to model calibration, parameter estimation and analysis of uncertainty sources, different approaches have been used in hydrological models. Bayesian method is one of the most widely used methods for uncertainty assessment of hydrological models, which incorporates different sources of information into a single analysis through Bayesian theorem. However, none of these applications can well treat the uncertainty in extreme flows of hydrological models' simulations. This study proposes a Bayesian modularization method approach in uncertainty assessment of conceptual hydrological models by considering the extreme flows. It includes a comprehensive comparison and evaluation of uncertainty assessments by a new Bayesian modularization method approach and traditional Bayesian models using the Metropolis Hasting (MH) algorithm with the daily hydrological model WASMOD. Three likelihood functions are used in combination with traditional Bayesian: the AR (1) plus Normal and time period independent model (Model 1), the AR (1) plus Normal and time period dependent model (Model 2) and the AR (1) plus multi-normal model (Model 3). The results reveal that (1) the simulations derived from Bayesian modularization method are more accurate with the highest Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency value, and (2) the Bayesian modularization method performs best in uncertainty estimates of entire flows and in terms of the application and computational efficiency. The study thus introduces a new approach for reducing the extreme flow's effect on the discharge uncertainty assessment of hydrological models via Bayesian. Keywords: extreme flow, uncertainty assessment, Bayesian modularization, hydrological model, WASMOD

  14. Assessing the hydrologic response to wildfires in mountainous regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Havel, Aaron; Tasdighi, Ali; Arabi, Mazdak

    2018-04-01

    This study aims to understand the hydrologic responses to wildfires in mountainous regions at various spatial scales. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to evaluate the hydrologic responses of the upper Cache la Poudre Watershed in Colorado to the 2012 High Park and Hewlett wildfire events. A baseline SWAT model was established to simulate the hydrology of the study area between the years 2000 and 2014. A procedure involving land use and curve number updating was implemented to assess the effects of wildfires. Application of the proposed procedure provides the ability to simulate the hydrologic response to wildfires seamlessly through mimicking the dynamic of the changes due to wildfires. The wildfire effects on curve numbers were determined comparing the probability distribution of curve numbers after calibrating the model for pre- and post-wildfire conditions. Daily calibration and testing of the model produced very good results. No-wildfire and wildfire scenarios were created and compared to quantify changes in average annual total runoff volume, water budgets, and full streamflow statistics at different spatial scales. At the watershed scale, wildfire conditions showed little impact on the hydrologic responses. However, a runoff increase up to 75 % was observed between the scenarios in sub-watersheds with high burn intensity. Generally, higher surface runoff and decreased subsurface flow were observed under post-wildfire conditions. Flow duration curves developed for burned sub-watersheds using full streamflow statistics showed that less frequent streamflows become greater in magnitude. A linear regression model was developed to assess the relationship between percent burned area and runoff increase in Cache la Poudre Watershed. A strong (R2 > 0.8) and significant (p statistics through application of flow duration curves revealed that the wildfires had a higher effect on peak flows, which may increase the risk of flash floods in post

  15. Hydrological Drought in the Anthropocene: Impacts of Local Water Extraction and Reservoir Regulation in the U.S.: Hydrological Drought in the Anthropocene

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wan, Wenhua [State Key Laboratory of Hydro-science and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing China; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA; Zhao, Jianshi [State Key Laboratory of Hydro-science and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing China; Li, Hong-Yi [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA; Now at Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences and Institute on Ecosystems, Montana State University, Bozeman MT USA; Mishra, Ashok [Glenn Department of Civil Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson SC USA; Ruby Leung, L. [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA; Hejazi, Mohamad [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA; Wang, Wei [The Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, and Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing China; Lu, Hui [The Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, and Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing China; Deng, Zhiqun [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland WA USA; Demissisie, Yonas [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman WA USA; Wang, Hao [State Key Laboratory of Hydro-science and Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing China; State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Hydropower and Water Resources, Beijing China

    2017-11-03

    Hydrological drought is a substantial negative deviation from normal hydrologic conditions and is influenced by climate and human activities such as water management. By perturbing the streamflow regime, climate change and water management may significantly alter drought characteristics in the future. Here we utilize a high-resolution integrated modeling framework that represents water management in terms of both local surface water extraction and reservoir regulation, and use the Standardized Streamflow Index (SSI) to quantify hydrological drought. We explore the impacts of water management on hydrological drought over the contiguous US in a warming climate with and without emissions mitigation. Despite the uncertainty of climate change impacts, local surface water extraction consistently intensifies drought that dominates at the regional to national scale. However, reservoir regulation alleviates drought by enhancing summer flow downstream of reservoirs. The relative dominance of drought intensification or relief is largely determined by the water demand, with drought intensification dominating in regions with intense water demand such as the Great Plains and California, while drought relief dominates in regions with low water demand. At the national level, water management increases the spatial extent of extreme drought despite some alleviations of moderate to severe drought. In an emissions mitigation scenario with increased irrigation demand for bioenergy production, water management intensifies drought more than the business-as-usual scenario at the national level, so the impacts of emissions mitigation must be evaluated by considering its benefit in reducing warming and evapotranspiration against its effects on increasing water demand and intensifying drought.

  16. Hydrological Modelling using HEC-HMS for Flood Risk Assessment of Segamat Town, Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romali, N. S.; Yusop, Z.; Ismail, A. Z.

    2018-03-01

    This paper presents an assessment of the applicability of using Hydrologic Modelling System developed by the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC-HMS) for hydrological modelling of Segamat River. The objective of the model application is to assist in the assessment of flood risk by providing the peak flows of 2011 Segamat flood for the generation of flood mapping of Segamat town. The capability of the model was evaluated by comparing the historical observed data with the simulation results of the selected flood events. The model calibration and validation efficiency was verified using Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient. The results demonstrate the interest to implement the hydrological model for assessing flood risk where the simulated peak flow result is in agreement with historical observed data. The model efficiency of the calibrated and validated exercises is 0.90 and 0.76 respectively, which is acceptable.

  17. A Watershed Scale Life Cycle Assessment Framework for Hydrologic Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tavakol-Davani, H.; Tavakol-Davani, PhD, H.; Burian, S. J.

    2017-12-01

    Sustainable hydrologic design has received attention from researchers with different backgrounds, including hydrologists and sustainability experts, recently. On one hand, hydrologists have been analyzing ways to achieve hydrologic goals through implementation of recent environmentally-friendly approaches, e.g. Green Infrastructure (GI) - without quantifying the life cycle environmental impacts of the infrastructure through the ISO Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. On the other hand, sustainability experts have been applying the LCA to study the life cycle impacts of water infrastructure - without considering the important hydrologic aspects through hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) analysis. In fact, defining proper system elements for a watershed scale urban water sustainability study requires both H&H and LCA specialties, which reveals the necessity of performing an integrated, interdisciplinary study. Therefore, the present study developed a watershed scale coupled H&H-LCA framework to bring the hydrology and sustainability expertise together to contribute moving the current wage definition of sustainable hydrologic design towards onto a globally standard concept. The proposed framework was employed to study GIs for an urban watershed in Toledo, OH. Lastly, uncertainties associated with the proposed method and parameters were analyzed through a robust Monte Carlo simulation using parallel processing. Results indicated the necessity of both hydrologic and LCA components in the design procedure in order to achieve sustainability.

  18. Assessing hydrological impacts of tree-based bioenergy feedstock

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Gush, Mark B

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available This chapter provides a methodology for assessing the hydrological impacts of tree-based bioenergy feedstock. Based on experience gained in South Africa, it discusses the tasks required to reach an understanding of the likely water resource impacts...

  19. Extreme hydrological events and the influence of reservoirs in a highly regulated river basin of northeastern Spain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S.M. Vicente-Serrano

    2017-08-01

    New hydrological insights: Results reveal a general reduction in the occurrence of extreme precipitation events in the Segre basin from 1950 to 2013, which corresponded to a general reduction in high flows measured at various gauged stations across the basin. While this study demonstrates spatial differences in the decrease of streamflow between the headwaters and the lower parts of the basin, mainly associated with changes in river regulation, there was no reduction in the frequency of the extraordinary floods. Changes in water management practices in the basin have significantly impacted the frequency, duration, and severity of hydrological droughts downstream of the main dams, as a consequence of the intense water regulation to meet water demands for irrigation and livestock farms. Nonetheless, the hydrological response of the headwaters to these droughts differed markedly from that of the lower areas of the basin.

  20. Hydrological self-regulation of domed peatlands in south-east Asia and consequences for conservation and restoration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Dommain

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available This article explores the hydrological constraints on the existence of forested peat domes (peat swamp forests in the humid tropics, the self-regulation mechanisms that enable them to persist and the implications for restoration of damaged domes. The most important requirement for the preservation of peat is permanent saturation by water. The variable input of precipitation must be translated into a constant water supply to the peat mound. In intact tropical peat swamp domes, water is stored above the peat surface in depressions between hummocks that surround tree trunks and between spreading buttress roots. This above-ground water store is analogous to the water stored in the loose upper layer of peat and vegetation in Sphagnum bogs. The horizontal differentiation of the peat swamp forest floor into hummocks with limited hydraulic conductivity and depressions with high storage capacity resembles the hummock-hollow patterning of these Sphagnum bogs. Hummocks and other surface elements functionally resemble V-notch weirs that regulate water availability. Buttressed trees play a key role in providing the structural elements for hydrological self-regulation. An additional level of regulation is found in the concentric zonation of forest types with increased presence of buttressed trees on steeper margins. Conservation and restoration efforts should take into account the inter-relationships between trees, water and peat and the hydrological feedbacks that operate as a consequence.

  1. Realizing ecosystem services: wetland hydrologic function along a gradient of ecosystem condition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLaughlin, Daniel L; Cohen, Matthew J

    2013-10-01

    Wetlands provide numerous ecosystem services, from habitat provision to pollutant removal, floodwater storage, and microclimate regulation. Delivery of particular services relies on specific ecological functions, and thus to varying degree on wetland ecological condition, commonly quantified as departure from minimally impacted reference sites. Condition assessments are widely adopted as regulatory indicators of ecosystem function, and for some services (e.g., habitat) links between condition and function are often direct. For others, however, links are more tenuous, and using condition alone to enumerate ecosystem value (e.g., for compensatory mitigation) may underestimate important services. Hydrologic function affects many services cited in support of wetland protection both directly (floodwater retention, microclimate regulation) and indirectly (biogeochemical cycling, pollutant removal). We investigated links between condition and hydrologic function to test the hypothesis, embedded in regulatory assessment of wetland value, that condition predicts function. Condition was assessed using rapid and intensive approaches, including Florida's official wetland assessment tool, in 11 isolated forested wetlands in north Florida (USA) spanning a land use intensity gradient. Hydrologic function was assessed using hydrologic regime (mean, variance, and rates of change of water depth), and measurements of groundwater exchange and evapotranspiration (ET). Despite a wide range in condition, no systematic variation in hydrologic regime was observed; indeed reference sites spanned the full range of variation. In contrast, ET was affected by land use, with higher rates in intensive (agriculture and urban) landscapes in response to higher leaf area. ET determines latent heat exchange, which regulates microclimate, a valuable service in urban heat islands. Higher ET also indicates higher productivity and thus carbon cycling. Groundwater exchange regularly reversed flow direction

  2. Nitrate reduction in geologically heterogeneous catchments — A framework for assessing the scale of predictive capability of hydrological models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Refsgaard, Jens Christian; Auken, Esben; Bamberg, Charlotte A.; Christensen, Britt S.B.; Clausen, Thomas; Dalgaard, Esben; Effersø, Flemming; Ernstsen, Vibeke; Gertz, Flemming; Hansen, Anne Lausten; He, Xin; Jacobsen, Brian H.; Jensen, Karsten Høgh; Jørgensen, Flemming; Jørgensen, Lisbeth Flindt; Koch, Julian; Nilsson, Bertel; Petersen, Christian; De Schepper, Guillaume; Schamper, Cyril

    2014-01-01

    In order to fulfil the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive nitrate load from agricultural areas to surface water in Denmark needs to be reduced by about 40%. The regulations imposed until now have been uniform, i.e. the same restrictions for all areas independent of the subsurface conditions. Studies have shown that on a national basis about 2/3 of the nitrate leaching from the root zone is reduced naturally, through denitrification, in the subsurface before reaching the streams. Therefore, it is more cost-effective to identify robust areas, where nitrate leaching through the root zone is reduced in the saturated zone before reaching the streams, and vulnerable areas, where no subsurface reduction takes place, and then only impose regulations/restrictions on the vulnerable areas. Distributed hydrological models can make predictions at grid scale, i.e. at much smaller scale than the entire catchment. However, as distributed models often do not include local scale hydrogeological heterogeneities, they are typically not able to make accurate predictions at scales smaller than they are calibrated. We present a framework for assessing nitrate reduction in the subsurface and for assessing at which spatial scales modelling tools have predictive capabilities. A new instrument has been developed for airborne geophysical measurements, Mini-SkyTEM, dedicated to identifying geological structures and heterogeneities with horizontal and lateral resolutions of 30–50 m and 2 m, respectively, in the upper 30 m. The geological heterogeneity and uncertainty are further analysed by use of the geostatistical software TProGS by generating stochastic geological realisations that are soft conditioned against the geophysical data. Finally, the flow paths within the catchment are simulated by use of the MIKE SHE hydrological modelling system for each of the geological models generated by TProGS and the prediction uncertainty is characterised by the variance between the

  3. Nitrate reduction in geologically heterogeneous catchments — A framework for assessing the scale of predictive capability of hydrological models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Refsgaard, Jens Christian, E-mail: jcr@geus.dk [Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) (Denmark); Auken, Esben [Department of Earth Sciences, Aarhus University (Denmark); Bamberg, Charlotte A. [City of Aarhus (Denmark); Christensen, Britt S.B. [Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) (Denmark); Clausen, Thomas [DHI, Hørsholm (Denmark); Dalgaard, Esben [Department of Earth Sciences, Aarhus University (Denmark); Effersø, Flemming [SkyTEM Aps, Beder (Denmark); Ernstsen, Vibeke [Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) (Denmark); Gertz, Flemming [Knowledge Center for Agriculture, Skejby (Denmark); Hansen, Anne Lausten [Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen (Denmark); He, Xin [Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) (Denmark); Jacobsen, Brian H. [Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen (Denmark); Jensen, Karsten Høgh [Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen (Denmark); Jørgensen, Flemming; Jørgensen, Lisbeth Flindt [Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) (Denmark); Koch, Julian [Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen (Denmark); Nilsson, Bertel [Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) (Denmark); Petersen, Christian [City of Odder (Denmark); De Schepper, Guillaume [Université Laval, Québec (Canada); Schamper, Cyril [Department of Earth Sciences, Aarhus University (Denmark); and others

    2014-01-01

    In order to fulfil the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive nitrate load from agricultural areas to surface water in Denmark needs to be reduced by about 40%. The regulations imposed until now have been uniform, i.e. the same restrictions for all areas independent of the subsurface conditions. Studies have shown that on a national basis about 2/3 of the nitrate leaching from the root zone is reduced naturally, through denitrification, in the subsurface before reaching the streams. Therefore, it is more cost-effective to identify robust areas, where nitrate leaching through the root zone is reduced in the saturated zone before reaching the streams, and vulnerable areas, where no subsurface reduction takes place, and then only impose regulations/restrictions on the vulnerable areas. Distributed hydrological models can make predictions at grid scale, i.e. at much smaller scale than the entire catchment. However, as distributed models often do not include local scale hydrogeological heterogeneities, they are typically not able to make accurate predictions at scales smaller than they are calibrated. We present a framework for assessing nitrate reduction in the subsurface and for assessing at which spatial scales modelling tools have predictive capabilities. A new instrument has been developed for airborne geophysical measurements, Mini-SkyTEM, dedicated to identifying geological structures and heterogeneities with horizontal and lateral resolutions of 30–50 m and 2 m, respectively, in the upper 30 m. The geological heterogeneity and uncertainty are further analysed by use of the geostatistical software TProGS by generating stochastic geological realisations that are soft conditioned against the geophysical data. Finally, the flow paths within the catchment are simulated by use of the MIKE SHE hydrological modelling system for each of the geological models generated by TProGS and the prediction uncertainty is characterised by the variance between the

  4. Assessment of potential for small hydro/solar power integration in a mountainous, data sparse region: the role of hydrological prediction accuracy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borga, Marco; Francois, Baptiste; Creutin, Jean-Dominique; Hingray, Benoit; Zoccatelli, Davide; Tardivo, Gianmarco

    2015-04-01

    In many parts of the world, integration of small hydropower and solar/wind energy sources along river systems is examined as a way to meet pressing renewable energy targets. Depending on the space and time scales considered, hydrometeorological variability may synchronize or desynchronize solar/wind, runoff and the demand opening the possibility to use their complementarity to smooth the intermittency of each individual energy source. Rivers also provide important ecosystem services, including the provision of high quality downstream water supply and the maintenance of in-stream habitats. With future supply and demand of water resources both impacted by environmental change, a good understanding of the potential for the integration among hydropower and solar/wind energy sources in often sparsely gauged catchments is important. In such cases, where complex data-demanding models may be inappropriate, there is a need for simple conceptual modelling approaches that can still capture the main features of runoff generation and artificial regulation processes. In this work we focus on run-of-the-river and solar-power interaction assessment. In order to catch the three key cycles of the load fluctuation - daily, weekly and seasonal, the time step used in the study is the hourly resolution. We examine the performance of a conceptual hydrological model which includes facilities to model dam regulation and diversions and hydrological modules to account for the effect of glaciarised catchments. The model is applied to catchments of the heavily regulated Upper Adige river system (6900 km2), Eastern Italian Alps, which has a long history of hydropower generation. The model is used to characterize and predict the natural flow regime, assess the regulation impacts, and simulate co-fluctuations between run-of- the-river and solar power. The results demonstrates that the simple, conceptual modelling approach developed here can capture the main hydrological and regulation processes

  5. Assessing predictability of a hydrological stochastic-dynamical system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelfan, Alexander

    2014-05-01

    The water cycle includes the processes with different memory that creates potential for predictability of hydrological system based on separating its long and short memory components and conditioning long-term prediction on slower evolving components (similar to approaches in climate prediction). In the face of the Panta Rhei IAHS Decade questions, it is important to find a conceptual approach to classify hydrological system components with respect to their predictability, define predictable/unpredictable patterns, extend lead-time and improve reliability of hydrological predictions based on the predictable patterns. Representation of hydrological systems as the dynamical systems subjected to the effect of noise (stochastic-dynamical systems) provides possible tool for such conceptualization. A method has been proposed for assessing predictability of hydrological system caused by its sensitivity to both initial and boundary conditions. The predictability is defined through a procedure of convergence of pre-assigned probabilistic measure (e.g. variance) of the system state to stable value. The time interval of the convergence, that is the time interval during which the system losses memory about its initial state, defines limit of the system predictability. The proposed method was applied to assess predictability of soil moisture dynamics in the Nizhnedevitskaya experimental station (51.516N; 38.383E) located in the agricultural zone of the central European Russia. A stochastic-dynamical model combining a deterministic one-dimensional model of hydrothermal regime of soil with a stochastic model of meteorological inputs was developed. The deterministic model describes processes of coupled heat and moisture transfer through unfrozen/frozen soil and accounts for the influence of phase changes on water flow. The stochastic model produces time series of daily meteorological variables (precipitation, air temperature and humidity), whose statistical properties are similar

  6. Modeling and assessment of hydrological changes in a developing urban catchment

    OpenAIRE

    Guan, M; Sillanpää, N; Koivusalo, H

    2015-01-01

    Urbanization strongly changes natural catchment by increasing impervious coverage and by creating a need for efficient drainage systems. Such land cover changes lead to more rapid hydrological response to storms and change distribution of peak and low flows. This study aims to explore and assess how gradual hydrological changes occur during urban development from rural area to a medium-density residential catchment. The Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) is utilized to simulate a series of sc...

  7. Hydrological assessment for mini hydropower potential at Sungai Pahang - Temerloh

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sidek, L M; Zaki, A Z A; Muda, Z C; Basri, H; Mustaffa, Z; Ibrahim, M I H; Thiruchelvam, S

    2013-01-01

    Sg Pahang at Temerloh was considered for assessment of hydropower potential using hydrological analysis method and hydrological model. The available data related to topography, soil, land use, weather and discharge pertaining to the study catchment were used to characterize the catchment. The characterization was required for water resources hence hydropower assessment. The hydrology of the study catchment was simulated through the model. This hydrological study is required due to the proposed mini hydroelectric power plant at Pulau Temerloh. It is essential to evaluate the existing river flow characteristic and to model the environmental flow assessment of the river. Two rainfalll stations, JPS Temerloh and Pintu Kawalan Paya Kertam Station are selected to develop the Rainfall Intensity Duration frequency (RIDF) Curve to determine the rainfall intensity of the area. Daily river flow were recorded at Sg Pahang at Temerloh and Sg Pahang at Lubok Paku were used to develop the Flow Duration Curve (FDC) to study the characteristic of Sungai Pahang flow. The 7 days low flow with 10 years return period (7Q10 low flow) was obtained using both Gumbel Method and Log Pearson Type III Method. The results from FDC shows that 50% percentage of time the Sg Pahang - Temerloh is exceeded over a historical period is 400 m 3 /s and 50% percentage of time the Sg Pahang - Lubok Paku is exceeded over a historical period is 650 m 3 /s. The required environmental flow are set to be 7Q10 low flow which is 64.215 m 3 /s for Sg Pahang at Temerloh and 79.24 m 3 /s for Sg Pahang at Lubok Paku. The results show the water resources are abundant and hence boost the mini hydropower potentiality at Sg Pahang.

  8. Regionalisation of Hydrological Indices to Assess Land-Use Change Impacts in the Tropical Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buytaert, W.; Ochoa Tocachi, B. F.

    2014-12-01

    Andean ecosystems are major water sources for cities and communities located in the Tropical Andes; however, there is a considerable lack of knowledge about their hydrology. Two problems are especially important: (i) the lack of monitoring to assess the impacts of historical land-use and cover change and degradation (LUCCD) at catchment scale, and (ii) the high variability in climatic and hydrological conditions that complicate the evaluation of land management practices. This study analyses how a reliable LUCCD impacts assessment can be performed in an environment of high variability combined with data-scarcity and low-quality records. We use data from participatory hydrological monitoring activities in 20 catchments distributed along the tropical Andes. A set of 46 hydrological indices is calculated and regionalized by relating them to 42 physical catchment properties. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is performed to maximise available data while minimising redundancy in the sets of variables. Hydrological model parameters are constrained by estimated indices, and different behavioural predictions are assembled to provide a generalised response on which we assess LUCCD impacts. Results from this methodology show that the attributed effects of LUCCD in pair-wise catchment comparisons may be overstated or hidden by different sources of uncertainty, including measurement inaccuracies and model structural errors. We propose extrapolation and evaluation in ungauged catchments as a way to regionalize LUCCD predictions and to provide statistically significant conclusions in the Andean region. These estimations may deliver reliable knowledge to evaluate the hydrological impact of different watershed management practices.

  9. Predicting the natural flow regime: Models for assessing hydrological alteration in streams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlisle, D.M.; Falcone, J.; Wolock, D.M.; Meador, M.R.; Norris, R.H.

    2009-01-01

    Understanding the extent to which natural streamflow characteristics have been altered is an important consideration for ecological assessments of streams. Assessing hydrologic condition requires that we quantify the attributes of the flow regime that would be expected in the absence of anthropogenic modifications. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether selected streamflow characteristics could be predicted at regional and national scales using geospatial data. Long-term, gaged river basins distributed throughout the contiguous US that had streamflow characteristics representing least disturbed or near pristine conditions were identified. Thirteen metrics of the magnitude, frequency, duration, timing and rate of change of streamflow were calculated using a 20-50 year period of record for each site. We used random forests (RF), a robust statistical modelling approach, to develop models that predicted the value for each streamflow metric using natural watershed characteristics. We compared the performance (i.e. bias and precision) of national- and regional-scale predictive models to that of models based on landscape classifications, including major river basins, ecoregions and hydrologic landscape regions (HLR). For all hydrologic metrics, landscape stratification models produced estimates that were less biased and more precise than a null model that accounted for no natural variability. Predictive models at the national and regional scale performed equally well, and substantially improved predictions of all hydrologic metrics relative to landscape stratification models. Prediction error rates ranged from 15 to 40%, but were 25% for most metrics. We selected three gaged, non-reference sites to illustrate how predictive models could be used to assess hydrologic condition. These examples show how the models accurately estimate predisturbance conditions and are sensitive to changes in streamflow variability associated with long-term land-use change. We also

  10. Development and comparison in uncertainty assessment based Bayesian modularization method in hydrological modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Lu; Xu, Chong-Yu; Engeland, Kolbjørn

    2013-04-01

    SummaryWith respect to model calibration, parameter estimation and analysis of uncertainty sources, various regression and probabilistic approaches are used in hydrological modeling. A family of Bayesian methods, which incorporates different sources of information into a single analysis through Bayes' theorem, is widely used for uncertainty assessment. However, none of these approaches can well treat the impact of high flows in hydrological modeling. This study proposes a Bayesian modularization uncertainty assessment approach in which the highest streamflow observations are treated as suspect information that should not influence the inference of the main bulk of the model parameters. This study includes a comprehensive comparison and evaluation of uncertainty assessments by our new Bayesian modularization method and standard Bayesian methods using the Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm with the daily hydrological model WASMOD. Three likelihood functions were used in combination with standard Bayesian method: the AR(1) plus Normal model independent of time (Model 1), the AR(1) plus Normal model dependent on time (Model 2) and the AR(1) plus Multi-normal model (Model 3). The results reveal that the Bayesian modularization method provides the most accurate streamflow estimates measured by the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency and provide the best in uncertainty estimates for low, medium and entire flows compared to standard Bayesian methods. The study thus provides a new approach for reducing the impact of high flows on the discharge uncertainty assessment of hydrological models via Bayesian method.

  11. An assessment of basin-scale glaciological and hydrological sensitivities in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Shea, Joseph M.; Immerzeel, Walter W.

    2016-01-01

    Glacier responses to future climate change will affect hydrology at sub-basin scales. The main goal of this study is to assess glaciological and hydrological sensitivities of sub-basins throughout the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region. We use a simple geometrical analysis based on a full glacier inventory

  12. Using GRACE Satellite Gravimetry for Assessing Large-Scale Hydrologic Extremes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Y. Sun

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Global assessment of the spatiotemporal variability in terrestrial total water storage anomalies (TWSA in response to hydrologic extremes is critical for water resources management. Using TWSA derived from the gravity recovery and climate experiment (GRACE satellites, this study systematically assessed the skill of the TWSA-climatology (TC approach and breakpoint (BP detection method for identifying large-scale hydrologic extremes. The TC approach calculates standardized anomalies by using the mean and standard deviation of the GRACE TWSA corresponding to each month. In the BP detection method, the empirical mode decomposition (EMD is first applied to identify the mean return period of TWSA extremes, and then a statistical procedure is used to identify the actual occurrence times of abrupt changes (i.e., BPs in TWSA. Both detection methods were demonstrated on basin-averaged TWSA time series for the world’s 35 largest river basins. A nonlinear event coincidence analysis measure was applied to cross-examine abrupt changes detected by these methods with those detected by the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI. Results show that our EMD-assisted BP procedure is a promising tool for identifying hydrologic extremes using GRACE TWSA data. Abrupt changes detected by the BP method coincide well with those of the SPI anomalies and with documented hydrologic extreme events. Event timings obtained by the TC method were ambiguous for a number of river basins studied, probably because the GRACE data length is too short to derive long-term climatology at this time. The BP approach demonstrates a robust wet-dry anomaly detection capability, which will be important for applications with the upcoming GRACE Follow-On mission.

  13. Hydrological pulse regulating the bacterial heterotrophic metabolism between Amazonian mainstems and floodplain lakes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luciana Oliveira Vidal

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available We evaluated in situ rates of bacterial carbon processing in Amazonian floodplain lakes and mainstems, during both high and low water phases (p < 0.05. Our results showed that Bacterial Production (BP was lower and more variable than Bacterial Respiration (BR, determined as total respiration. Bacterial Carbon Demand (BCD was mostly accounted by BR and presented the same pattern that BR in both water phases. Bacterial growth efficiency showed a wide range (0.2–23% and low mean value of 3 and 6 %, (in high and low water respectively suggesting that dissolved organic carbon (DOC was mostly allocated to catabolic metabolism. However, BGE was regulated by BP in low water phase. Consequently, changes in BGE showed the same pattern that BP. In addition, the hydrological pulse effects on mainstems and floodplains lakes connectivity were found for BP and BGE in low water. Multiple correlation analyses revealed that indexes of organic matter quality (chlorophyll-a, N stable isotopes and C/N ratios were the strongest seasonal drivers of bacterial carbon metabolism. Our work indicated that: (1 the bacterial metabolism was mostly driven by respiration in Amazonian aquatic ecosystems resulting in low BGE in either high and low water phase; (2 the hydrological pulse regulated

  14. Assessment of integrated watershed health based on the natural environment, hydrology, water quality, and aquatic ecology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. R. Ahn

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Watershed health, including the natural environment, hydrology, water quality, and aquatic ecology, is assessed for the Han River basin (34 148 km2 in South Korea by using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT. The evaluation procedures follow those of the Healthy Watersheds Assessment by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA. Six components of the watershed landscape are examined to evaluate the watershed health (basin natural capacity: stream geomorphology, hydrology, water quality, aquatic habitat condition, and biological condition. In particular, the SWAT is applied to the study basin for the hydrology and water-quality components, including 237 sub-watersheds (within a standard watershed on the Korea Hydrologic Unit Map along with three multipurpose dams, one hydroelectric dam, and three multifunction weirs. The SWAT is calibrated (2005–2009 and validated (2010–2014 by using each dam and weir operation, the flux-tower evapotranspiration, the time-domain reflectometry (TDR soil moisture, and groundwater-level data for the hydrology assessment, and by using sediment, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen data for the water-quality assessment. The water balance, which considers the surface–groundwater interactions and variations in the stream-water quality, is quantified according to the sub-watershed-scale relationship between the watershed hydrologic cycle and stream-water quality. We assess the integrated watershed health according to the U.S. EPA evaluation process based on the vulnerability levels of the natural environment, water resources, water quality, and ecosystem components. The results indicate that the watershed's health declined during the most recent 10-year period of 2005–2014, as indicated by the worse results for the surface process metric and soil water dynamics compared to those of the 1995–2004 period. The integrated watershed health tended to decrease farther downstream within the watershed.

  15. Assessment of NASA's Physiographic and Meteorological Datasets as Input to HSPF and SWAT Hydrological Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alacron, Vladimir J.; Nigro, Joseph D.; McAnally, William H.; OHara, Charles G.; Engman, Edwin Ted; Toll, David

    2011-01-01

    This paper documents the use of simulated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer land use/land cover (MODIS-LULC), NASA-LIS generated precipitation and evapo-transpiration (ET), and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) datasets (in conjunction with standard land use, topographical and meteorological datasets) as input to hydrological models routinely used by the watershed hydrology modeling community. The study is focused in coastal watersheds in the Mississippi Gulf Coast although one of the test cases focuses in an inland watershed located in northeastern State of Mississippi, USA. The decision support tools (DSTs) into which the NASA datasets were assimilated were the Soil Water & Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF). These DSTs are endorsed by several US government agencies (EPA, FEMA, USGS) for water resources management strategies. These models use physiographic and meteorological data extensively. Precipitation gages and USGS gage stations in the region were used to calibrate several HSPF and SWAT model applications. Land use and topographical datasets were swapped to assess model output sensitivities. NASA-LIS meteorological data were introduced in the calibrated model applications for simulation of watershed hydrology for a time period in which no weather data were available (1997-2006). The performance of the NASA datasets in the context of hydrological modeling was assessed through comparison of measured and model-simulated hydrographs. Overall, NASA datasets were as useful as standard land use, topographical , and meteorological datasets. Moreover, NASA datasets were used for performing analyses that the standard datasets could not made possible, e.g., introduction of land use dynamics into hydrological simulations

  16. The potential of historical hydrology in Switzerland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. Wetter

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Historical hydrology is based on data derived from historical written, pictorial and epigraphic documentary sources. It lies at the interface between hydrology and environmental history, using methodologies from both disciplines basically with the goal of significantly extending the instrumental measurement period with experience from the pre-instrumental past. Recently this field of research has gained increased recognition as a tool to improve current flood risk estimations when EU guidelines regulated by law the quantitative consideration of previous floods.1 Awareness to consider pre-instrumental experience in flood risk analysis seems to have risen at the level of local and federal authorities in Switzerland as well. The 2011 Fukushima catastrophe probably fostered this rethinking process, when pressure from the media, society and politics as well as the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA forced the authorities to reassess the current flood risk analysis for Swiss nuclear power plants. In 2015 a historical hydrological study was commissioned by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN to assess the magnitudes of pre-instrumental Aare River flood discharges, including the most important tributaries (the Saane, Emme, Reuss and Limmat rivers. The results of the historical hydrological study serve now as the basis for the main study, EXAR (commissioned under the lead of FOEN in cooperation with the Swiss Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE, the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP, and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss, which combines historical and climatological analysis with statistical approaches and mathematical models with the goal of better understanding the hazards and possible interactions that can be caused by extreme flood events. In a second phase the catchment of the River Rhine will be targeted as well. More recently several local

  17. The potential of historical hydrology in Switzerland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wetter, Oliver

    2017-11-01

    Historical hydrology is based on data derived from historical written, pictorial and epigraphic documentary sources. It lies at the interface between hydrology and environmental history, using methodologies from both disciplines basically with the goal of significantly extending the instrumental measurement period with experience from the pre-instrumental past. Recently this field of research has gained increased recognition as a tool to improve current flood risk estimations when EU guidelines regulated by law the quantitative consideration of previous floods.1 Awareness to consider pre-instrumental experience in flood risk analysis seems to have risen at the level of local and federal authorities in Switzerland as well. The 2011 Fukushima catastrophe probably fostered this rethinking process, when pressure from the media, society and politics as well as the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) forced the authorities to reassess the current flood risk analysis for Swiss nuclear power plants. In 2015 a historical hydrological study was commissioned by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) to assess the magnitudes of pre-instrumental Aare River flood discharges, including the most important tributaries (the Saane, Emme, Reuss and Limmat rivers). The results of the historical hydrological study serve now as the basis for the main study, EXAR (commissioned under the lead of FOEN in cooperation with the Swiss Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI), the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss)), which combines historical and climatological analysis with statistical approaches and mathematical models with the goal of better understanding the hazards and possible interactions that can be caused by extreme flood events. In a second phase the catchment of the River Rhine will be targeted as well. More recently several local historical

  18. Uncertainty of a hydrological climate change impact assessment - Is it really all about climate uncertainty?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Honti, Mark; Reichert, Peter; Scheidegger, Andreas; Stamm, Christian

    2013-04-01

    Climate change impact assessments have become more and more popular in hydrology since the middle 1980's with another boost after the publication of the IPCC AR4 report. During hundreds of impact studies a quasi-standard methodology emerged, which is mainly shaped by the growing public demand for predicting how water resources management or flood protection should change in the close future. The ``standard'' workflow considers future climate under a specific IPCC emission scenario simulated by global circulation models (GCMs), possibly downscaled by a regional climate model (RCM) and/or a stochastic weather generator. The output from the climate models is typically corrected for bias before feeding it into a calibrated hydrological model, which is run on the past and future meteorological data to analyse the impacts of climate change on the hydrological indicators of interest. The impact predictions are as uncertain as any forecast that tries to describe the behaviour of an extremely complex system decades into the future. Future climate predictions are uncertain due to the scenario uncertainty and the GCM model uncertainty that is obvious on finer resolution than continental scale. Like in any hierarchical model system, uncertainty propagates through the descendant components. Downscaling increases uncertainty with the deficiencies of RCMs and/or weather generators. Bias correction adds a strong deterministic shift to the input data. Finally the predictive uncertainty of the hydrological model ends the cascade that leads to the total uncertainty of the hydrological impact assessment. There is an emerging consensus between many studies on the relative importance of the different uncertainty sources. The prevailing perception is that GCM uncertainty dominates hydrological impact studies. There are only few studies, which found that the predictive uncertainty of hydrological models can be in the same range or even larger than climatic uncertainty. We carried out a

  19. Hydrological Drought in the Anthropocene: Impacts of Local Water Extraction and Reservoir Regulation in the U.S.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan, Wenhua; Zhao, Jianshi; Li, Hong-Yi; Mishra, Ashok; Ruby Leung, L.; Hejazi, Mohamad; Wang, Wei; Lu, Hui; Deng, Zhiqun; Demissisie, Yonas; Wang, Hao

    2017-11-01

    Hydrological drought is a substantial negative deviation from normal hydrologic conditions and is influenced by climate and human activities such as water management. By perturbing the streamflow regime, climate change and water management may significantly alter drought characteristics in the future. Here we utilize a high-resolution integrated modeling framework that represents water management in terms of both local surface water extraction and reservoir regulation and use the Standardized Streamflow Index to quantify hydrological drought. We explore the impacts of water management on hydrological drought over the contiguous U.S. in a warming climate with and without emissions mitigation. Despite the uncertainty of climate change impacts, local surface water extraction consistently intensifies drought that dominates at the regional to national scale. However, reservoir regulation alleviates drought by enhancing summer flow downstream of reservoirs. The relative dominance of drought intensification or relief is largely determined by the water demand, with drought intensification dominating in regions with intense water demand such as the Great Plains and California, while drought relief dominates in regions with low water demand. At the national level, water management increases the spatial extent of extreme drought despite some alleviations of moderate to severe drought. In an emissions mitigation scenario with increased irrigation demand for bioenergy production, water management intensifies drought more than the business-as-usual scenario at the national level, so the impacts of emissions mitigation must be evaluated by considering its benefit in reducing warming and evapotranspiration against its effects on increasing water demand and intensifying drought.

  20. Hydrologic Landscape Classification to Estimate Bristol Bay Watershed Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    The use of hydrologic landscapes has proven to be a useful tool for broad scale assessment and classification of landscapes across the United States. These classification systems help organize larger geographical areas into areas of similar hydrologic characteristics based on cl...

  1. HESS Opinions: A conceptual framework for assessing socio-hydrological resilience under change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mao, Feng; Clark, Julian; Karpouzoglou, Timothy; Dewulf, Art; Buytaert, Wouter; Hannah, David

    2017-07-01

    Despite growing interest in resilience, there is still significant scope for increasing its conceptual clarity and practical relevance in socio-hydrological contexts: specifically, questions of how socio-hydrological systems respond to and cope with perturbations and how these connect to resilience remain unanswered. In this opinion paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework for understanding and assessing resilience in coupled socio-hydrological contexts, and encourage debate on the inter-connections between socio-hydrology and resilience. Taking a systems perspective, we argue that resilience is a set of systematic properties with three dimensions: absorptive, adaptive, and transformative, and contend that socio-hydrological systems can be viewed as various forms of human-water couplings, reflecting different aspects of these interactions. We propose a framework consisting of two parts. The first part addresses the identity of socio-hydrological resilience, answering questions such as resilience of what in relation to what. We identify three existing framings of resilience for different types of human-water systems and subsystems, which have been used in different fields: (1) the water subsystem, highlighting hydrological resilience to anthropogenic hazards; (2) the human subsystem, foregrounding social resilience to hydrological hazards; and (3) the coupled human-water system, exhibiting socio-hydrological resilience. We argue that these three system types and resiliences afford new insights into the clarification and evaluation of different water management challenges. The first two types address hydrological and social states, while the third type emphasises the feedbacks and interactions between human and water components within complex systems subject to internal or external disturbances. In the second part, we focus on resilience management and develop the notion of the resilience canvas, a novel heuristic device to identify possible pathways and to

  2. A conceptual framework for assessing cumulative impacts on the hydrology of nontidal wetlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winter, Thomas C.

    1988-01-01

    Wetlands occur in geologic and hydrologic settings that enhance the accumulation or retention of water. Regional slope, local relief, and permeability of the land surface are major controls on the formation of wetlands by surface-water sources. However, these landscape features also have significant control over groundwater flow systems, which commonly play a role in the formation of wetlands. Because the hydrologic system is a continuum, any modification of one component will have an effect on contiguous components. Disturbances commonly affecting the hydrologic system as it relates to wetlands include weather modification, alteration of plant communities, storage of surface water, road construction, drainage of surface water and soil water, alteration of groundwater recharge and discharge areas, and pumping of groundwater. Assessments of the cumulative effects of one or more of these disturbances on the hydrologic system as related to wetlands must take into account uncertainty in the measurements and in the assumptions that are made in hydrologic studies. For example, it may be appropriate to assume that regional groundwater flow systems are recharged in uplands and discharged in lowlands. However, a similar assumption commonly does not apply on a local scale, because of the spatial and temporal dynamics of groundwater recharge. Lack of appreciation of such hydrologic factors can lead to misunderstanding of the hydrologic function of wetlands within various parts of the landscape and mismanagement of wetland ecosystems.

  3. Uncertainty assessment of integrated distributed hydrological models using GLUE with Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blasone, Roberta-Serena; Madsen, Henrik; Rosbjerg, Dan

    2008-01-01

    uncertainty estimation (GLUE) procedure based on Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling is applied in order to improve the performance of the methodology in estimating parameters and posterior output distributions. The description of the spatial variations of the hydrological processes is accounted for by defining......In recent years, there has been an increase in the application of distributed, physically-based and integrated hydrological models. Many questions regarding how to properly calibrate and validate distributed models and assess the uncertainty of the estimated parameters and the spatially......-site validation must complement the usual time validation. In this study, we develop, through an application, a comprehensive framework for multi-criteria calibration and uncertainty assessment of distributed physically-based, integrated hydrological models. A revised version of the generalized likelihood...

  4. Hydrologic modeling for water resource assessment in a developing country: the Rwanda case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steve McNulty; Erika Cohen Mack; Ge Sun; Peter Caldwell

    2016-01-01

    Accurate water resources assessment using hydrologic models can be a challenge anywhere, but particularly for developing countries with limited financial and technical resources. Developing countries could most benefit from the water resource planning capabilities that hydrologic models can provide, but these countries are least likely to have the data needed to run ...

  5. Assessing climate change impact by integrated hydrological modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lajer Hojberg, Anker; Jørgen Henriksen, Hans; Olsen, Martin; der Keur Peter, van; Seaby, Lauren Paige; Troldborg, Lars; Sonnenborg, Torben; Refsgaard, Jens Christian

    2013-04-01

    showed some unexpected results, where climate models predicting the largest increase in net precipitation did not result in the largest increase in groundwater heads. This was found to be the result of different initial conditions (1990 - 2010) for the various climate models. In some areas a combination of a high initial groundwater head and an increase in precipitation towards 2021 - 2050 resulted in a groundwater head raise that reached the drainage or the surface water system. This will increase the exchange from the groundwater to the surface water system, but reduce the raise in groundwater heads. An alternative climate model, with a lower initial head can thus predict a higher increase in the groundwater head, although the increase in precipitation is lower. This illustrates an extra dimension in the uncertainty assessment, namely the climate models capability of simulating the current climatic conditions in a way that can reproduce the observed hydrological response. Højberg, AL, Troldborg, L, Stisen, S, et al. (2012) Stakeholder driven update and improvement of a national water resources model - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364815212002423 Seaby, LP, Refsgaard, JC, Sonnenborg, TO, et al. (2012) Assessment of robustness and significance of climate change signals for an ensemble of distribution-based scaled climate projections (submitted) Journal of Hydrology Stisen, S, Højberg, AL, Troldborg, L et al., (2012): On the importance of appropriate rain-gauge catch correction for hydrological modelling at mid to high latitudes - http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/16/4157/2012/

  6. Hydrologic-geochemical modeling needs for nuclear waste disposal systems performance assessments from the NEA perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muller, A.B.

    1986-01-01

    Credible scenarios for releases from high level nuclear waste repositories require radionuclides to be mobilized and transported by ground water. The capability to predict ground water flow velocities and directions as well as radionuclide concentrations in the flow system as a function of time are essential for assessing the performance of disposal systems. The first of these parameters can be estimated by hydrologic modeling while the concentrations can be predicted by geochemical modeling. The complementary use of empirical and phenomenological approaches to the geochemical modeling, when effectively coupled with hydrologic models can provide the tools needed for realistic performance assessment. An overview of the activities of the NEA in this area, with emphasis on the geochemical data bases (ISIRS for Ksub(d) data and the thermochemical data base critical review), rock/water interaction modeling (code development and short-courses), and hydrologic-geochemical code coupling (workshop and in-house activities) is presented in this paper from the perspective of probabilistic risk assessment needs. (author)

  7. Regional drought assessment using a distributed hydrological model coupled with Standardized Runoff Index

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Shen

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Drought assessment is essential for coping with frequent droughts nowadays. Owing to the large spatio-temporal variations in hydrometeorology in most regions in China, it is very necessary to use a physically-based hydrological model to produce rational spatial and temporal distributions of hydro-meteorological variables for drought assessment. In this study, the large-scale distributed hydrological model Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC was coupled with a modified standardized runoff index (SRI for drought assessment in the Weihe River basin, northwest China. The result indicates that the coupled model is capable of reasonably reproducing the spatial distribution of drought occurrence. It reflected the spatial heterogeneity of regional drought and improved the physical mechanism of SRI. This model also has potential for drought forecasting, early warning and mitigation, given that accurate meteorological forcing data are available.

  8. Sources of uncertainty in hydrological climate impact assessment: a cross-scale study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hattermann, F. F.; Vetter, T.; Breuer, L.; Su, Buda; Daggupati, P.; Donnelly, C.; Fekete, B.; Flörke, F.; Gosling, S. N.; Hoffmann, P.; Liersch, S.; Masaki, Y.; Motovilov, Y.; Müller, C.; Samaniego, L.; Stacke, T.; Wada, Y.; Yang, T.; Krysnaova, V.

    2018-01-01

    Climate change impacts on water availability and hydrological extremes are major concerns as regards the Sustainable Development Goals. Impacts on hydrology are normally investigated as part of a modelling chain, in which climate projections from multiple climate models are used as inputs to multiple impact models, under different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, which result in different amounts of global temperature rise. While the goal is generally to investigate the relevance of changes in climate for the water cycle, water resources or hydrological extremes, it is often the case that variations in other components of the model chain obscure the effect of climate scenario variation. This is particularly important when assessing the impacts of relatively lower magnitudes of global warming, such as those associated with the aspirational goals of the Paris Agreement. In our study, we use ANOVA (analyses of variance) to allocate and quantify the main sources of uncertainty in the hydrological impact modelling chain. In turn we determine the statistical significance of different sources of uncertainty. We achieve this by using a set of five climate models and up to 13 hydrological models, for nine large scale river basins across the globe, under four emissions scenarios. The impact variable we consider in our analysis is daily river discharge. We analyze overall water availability and flow regime, including seasonality, high flows and low flows. Scaling effects are investigated by separately looking at discharge generated by global and regional hydrological models respectively. Finally, we compare our results with other recently published studies. We find that small differences in global temperature rise associated with some emissions scenarios have mostly significant impacts on river discharge—however, climate model related uncertainty is so large that it obscures the sensitivity of the hydrological system.

  9. The potential of historical hydrology in Switzerland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wetter, Oliver

    2017-01-01

    Historical hydrology is based on data derived from historical written, pictorial and epigraphic documentary sources. It lies at the interface between hydrology and environmental history, using methodologies from both disciplines basically with the goal of significantly extending the instrumental measurement period with experience from the pre-instrumental past. Recently this field of research has gained increased recognition as a tool to improve current flood risk estimations when EU guidelines regulated by law the quantitative consideration of previous floods.1 Awareness to consider pre-instrumental experience in flood risk analysis seems to have risen at the level of local and federal authorities in Switzerland as well. The 2011 Fukushima catastrophe probably fostered this rethinking process, when pressure from the media, society and politics as well as the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) forced the authorities to reassess the current flood risk analysis for Swiss nuclear power plants. In 2015 a historical hydrological study was commissioned by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) to assess the magnitudes of pre-instrumental Aare River flood discharges, including the most important tributaries (the Saane, Emme, Reuss and Limmat rivers). The results of the historical hydrological study serve now as the basis for the main study, EXAR (commissioned under the lead of FOEN in cooperation with the Swiss Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI), the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss)), which combines historical and climatological analysis with statistical approaches and mathematical models with the goal of better understanding the hazards and possible interactions that can be caused by extreme flood events. In a second phase the catchment of the River Rhine will be targeted as well. More recently several local historical

  10. The potential of historical hydrology in Switzerland

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wetter, Oliver [Bern Univ. (Switzerland). Section of Economic, Social and Environmental History (WSU)

    2017-07-01

    Historical hydrology is based on data derived from historical written, pictorial and epigraphic documentary sources. It lies at the interface between hydrology and environmental history, using methodologies from both disciplines basically with the goal of significantly extending the instrumental measurement period with experience from the pre-instrumental past. Recently this field of research has gained increased recognition as a tool to improve current flood risk estimations when EU guidelines regulated by law the quantitative consideration of previous floods.1 Awareness to consider pre-instrumental experience in flood risk analysis seems to have risen at the level of local and federal authorities in Switzerland as well. The 2011 Fukushima catastrophe probably fostered this rethinking process, when pressure from the media, society and politics as well as the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) forced the authorities to reassess the current flood risk analysis for Swiss nuclear power plants. In 2015 a historical hydrological study was commissioned by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) to assess the magnitudes of pre-instrumental Aare River flood discharges, including the most important tributaries (the Saane, Emme, Reuss and Limmat rivers). The results of the historical hydrological study serve now as the basis for the main study, EXAR (commissioned under the lead of FOEN in cooperation with the Swiss Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI), the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), and the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss)), which combines historical and climatological analysis with statistical approaches and mathematical models with the goal of better understanding the hazards and possible interactions that can be caused by extreme flood events. In a second phase the catchment of the River Rhine will be targeted as well. More recently several local historical

  11. Assessing wetland loss impacts on watershed hydrology using an improved modeling approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Despite the importance of wetland impacts on water cycling, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW) has experienced significant wetland losses. The resultant environmental degradation has not been fully characterized. Our aim is to assess wetland loss impacts on watershed hydrology for an agricultural wa...

  12. A Comprehensive Hydrologic Projections Resource to support Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments in the Western U.S

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brekke, L. D.; Pruitt, T.; Gangopadhyay, S.; Raff, D. A.

    2010-12-01

    The SECURE Water Act § 9503(b)(2) authorizes the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation to assess climate change risks for water and environmental resources in eight "major Reclamation river basins" in the Western United States (i.e. Colorado, Columbia, Klamath, Missouri, Rio Grande, Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Truckee basins). The legislation calls for Reclamation to provide periodic reports on implications for water supplies, water deliveries, hydropower generation, fish and wildlife, water quality, flood control, ecological resiliency, and recreation. Reclamation's is developing a framework for consistently characterizing risks in Western U.S. river basins through the West-Wide Climate Risk Assessments, part of the Basin Study Program. One initial activity within this framework is focused on characterizing hydrologic and water supply implications of climate change. The centerpiece of this activity is the development of a west-wide ensemble of hydrologic projections, tiering from information in the online archive "Bias Corrected and Downscaled WCRP CMIP3 Climate Projections" (http://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_cmip3_projections/dcpInterface.html) and utilizing a network of hydrologic model applications featured in the University of Washington and Princeton University's "Experimental National Hydrologic Prediction System" (http://www.hydro.washington.edu/forecast/westwide/index.shtml). The resulting hydrologic information has the same space and time attributes as the underlying downscaled climate information: 112 projections of monthly downscaled CMIP3 conditions from 1950-2099 at 1/8° resolution over the Western U.S. (nested within the underlying archive’s contiguous U.S. domain). Such attributes permit a time evolving risk-based portrayal of hydrologic conditions, which is useful for climate change adaptation discussions where the timing of impacts matters in relation the initiation and investment of adaptation or mitigation measures

  13. HRE-Pond Cryogenic Barrier Technology Demonstration: Pre- and Post-Barrier Hydrologic Assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moline, G.R.

    1999-01-01

    The Homogeneous Reactor Experiment (HRE) Pond is the site of a former impoundment for radioactive wastes on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) in east Tennessee. The pond received radioactive wastes from 1957 to 1962, and was subsequently drained, filled with soil, and covered with an asphalt cap. The site is bordered to the east and south by an unnamed stream that contains significant concentrations of radioactive contaminants, primarily 90 Sr. Because of the proximity of the stream to the HRE disposal site and the probable flow of groundwater from the site to the stream, it was hypothesized that the HRE Pond has been a source of contamination to the creek. The HRE-Pond was chosen as the site of a cryogenic barrier demonstration to evaluate this technology as a means for rapid, temporary isolation of contaminants in the type of subsurface environment that exists on the ORR. The cryogenic barrier is created by the circulation of liquid CO 2 through a system of thermoprobes installed in boreholes which are backfilled with sand. The probes cool the subsurface, creating a vertical ice wall by freezing adjacent groundwater, effectively surrounding the pond on four sides. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the hydrologic conditions within and around the pond prior to, during, and after the cryogenic barrier emplacement. The objectives were (1) to provide a hydrologic baseline for post-banner performance assessment, (2) to confirm that the pond is hydraulically connected to the surrounding sediments, (3) to determine the likely contaminant exit pathways from the pond, and (4) to measure changes in hydrologic conditions after barrier emplacement in order to assess the barrier performance. Because relatively little information about the subsurface hydrology and the actual configuration of the pond existed, data from multiple sources was required to reconstruct this complex system

  14. Assessing Impacts of Hydropower Regulation on Salmonid Habitat Connectivity to Guide River Restoration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buddendorf, Bas; Geris, Josie; Malcolm, Iain; Wilkinson, Mark; Soulsby, Chris

    2016-04-01

    in the upper reaches of the river. This study represents an improved approach over more commonly applied assessments that focus on the impact of impoundment on wetted area or river length. Simpler approaches often lack ecological and hydrological detail leading to over- or underestimation of the impacts of river regulation on connectivity depending on the relative quality of available habitat. Our work aims to integrate hydrological and ecological aspects into a spatially explicit connectivity framework. Such an approach can help to better identify those areas most important to the conservation of fish habitat, inform sustainable management of hydropower schemes, and aid cost-efficient river restoration and management efforts.

  15. Introduction to special section on Uncertainty Assessment in Surface and Subsurface Hydrology : An overview of issues and challenges

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Montanari, A.; Shoemaker, C.A.; Van de Giesen, N.C.

    This paper introduces the Water Resources Research special section on Uncertainty Assessment in Surface and Subsurface Hydrology. Over the past years, hydrological literature has seen a large increase in the number of papers dealing with uncertainty. In this article, we present an overview of the

  16. Modeling the Hydrological Regime of Turkana Lake (Kenya, Ethiopia) by Combining Spatially Distributed Hydrological Modeling and Remote Sensing Datasets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anghileri, D.; Kaelin, A.; Peleg, N.; Fatichi, S.; Molnar, P.; Roques, C.; Longuevergne, L.; Burlando, P.

    2017-12-01

    Hydrological modeling in poorly gauged basins can benefit from the use of remote sensing datasets although there are challenges associated with the mismatch in spatial and temporal scales between catchment scale hydrological models and remote sensing products. We model the hydrological processes and long-term water budget of the Lake Turkana catchment, a transboundary basin between Kenya and Ethiopia, by integrating several remote sensing products into a spatially distributed and physically explicit model, Topkapi-ETH. Lake Turkana is the world largest desert lake draining a catchment of 145'500 km2. It has three main contributing rivers: the Omo river, which contributes most of the annual lake inflow, the Turkwel river, and the Kerio rivers, which contribute the remaining part. The lake levels have shown great variations in the last decades due to long-term climate fluctuations and the regulation of three reservoirs, Gibe I, II, and III, which significantly alter the hydrological seasonality. Another large reservoir is planned and may be built in the next decade, generating concerns about the fate of Lake Turkana in the long run because of this additional anthropogenic pressure and increasing evaporation driven by climate change. We consider different remote sensing datasets, i.e., TRMM-V7 for precipitation, MERRA-2 for temperature, as inputs to the spatially distributed hydrological model. We validate the simulation results with other remote sensing datasets, i.e., GRACE for total water storage anomalies, GLDAS-NOAH for soil moisture, ERA-Interim/Land for surface runoff, and TOPEX/Poseidon for satellite altimetry data. Results highlight how different remote sensing products can be integrated into a hydrological modeling framework accounting for their relative uncertainties. We also carried out simulations with the artificial reservoirs planned in the north part of the catchment and without any reservoirs, to assess their impacts on the catchment hydrological

  17. Beyond hydrology in the sustainability assessment of dams: A planners perspective - The Sarawak experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andre, Edward

    2012-01-01

    SummaryThere is increasing concern about the availability of water supplies in developing countries to provide clean drinking water and sanitation as well as providing for irrigation for food security. This has led to hydrologically led investigation to establish the feasibility and storage capacity of potentially new dam sites. This task has become more difficult for hydrologists and others with the uncertainties created by climate change and the measurement of the hydrological, geographical and ecological footprint of new dams. The questions asked by hydrologists are increasingly likely to be required to be cast in terms of the four pillars of sustainability; environmental, economic, social and institutional. Similarly, regional planners have to be more cognisant of the social outcomes of dam development while understanding the wider hydrological context at a watershed and basin level. The paper defines the concept of sustainability assessment in the context of resettlement and analyses its implications for the Bakun Hydro-electric project in Sarawak, Malaysia. Specifically it attempts to address the question of what social sustainability would really mean in the context of communities affected by dam projects, and their catchments using hermeneutics, tradeoffs and offsets. The findings of this question were presented at a hydrological conference held in Santiago in October 2010, based on the outcome of specific questionnaire responses received from indigenous peoples affected by the Bakun Dam hydroelectric project. The paper also offers some insights pertaining to the social sustainability assessment aspects of dams and their catchments.

  18. Hydroclimatic regimes: a distributed water-balance framework for hydrologic assessment, classification, and management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weiskel, Peter K.; Wolock, David M.; Zarriello, Phillip J.; Vogel, Richard M.; Levin, Sara B.; Lent, Robert M.

    2014-01-01

    Runoff-based indicators of terrestrial water availability are appropriate for humid regions, but have tended to limit our basic hydrologic understanding of drylands – the dry-subhumid, semiarid, and arid regions which presently cover nearly half of the global land surface. In response, we introduce an indicator framework that gives equal weight to humid and dryland regions, accounting fully for both vertical (precipitation + evapotranspiration) and horizontal (groundwater + surface-water) components of the hydrologic cycle in any given location – as well as fluxes into and out of landscape storage. We apply the framework to a diverse hydroclimatic region (the conterminous USA) using a distributed water-balance model consisting of 53 400 networked landscape hydrologic units. Our model simulations indicate that about 21% of the conterminous USA either generated no runoff or consumed runoff from upgradient sources on a mean-annual basis during the 20th century. Vertical fluxes exceeded horizontal fluxes across 76% of the conterminous area. Long-term-average total water availability (TWA) during the 20th century, defined here as the total influx to a landscape hydrologic unit from precipitation, groundwater, and surface water, varied spatially by about 400 000-fold, a range of variation ~100 times larger than that for mean-annual runoff across the same area. The framework includes but is not limited to classical, runoff-based approaches to water-resource assessment. It also incorporates and reinterprets the green- and blue-water perspective now gaining international acceptance. Implications of the new framework for several areas of contemporary hydrology are explored, and the data requirements of the approach are discussed in relation to the increasing availability of gridded global climate, land-surface, and hydrologic data sets.

  19. Stress testing hydrologic models using bottom-up climate change assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephens, C.; Johnson, F.; Marshall, L. A.

    2017-12-01

    Bottom-up climate change assessment is a promising approach for understanding the vulnerability of a system to potential future changes. The technique has been utilised successfully in risk-based assessments of future flood severity and infrastructure vulnerability. We find that it is also an ideal tool for assessing hydrologic model performance in a changing climate. In this study, we applied bottom-up climate change to compare the performance of two different hydrologic models (an event-based and a continuous model) under increasingly severe climate change scenarios. This allowed us to diagnose likely sources of future prediction error in the two models. The climate change scenarios were based on projections for southern Australia, which indicate drier average conditions with increased extreme rainfall intensities. We found that the key weakness in using the event-based model to simulate drier future scenarios was the model's inability to dynamically account for changing antecedent conditions. This led to increased variability in model performance relative to the continuous model, which automatically accounts for the wetness of a catchment through dynamic simulation of water storages. When considering more intense future rainfall events, representation of antecedent conditions became less important than assumptions around (non)linearity in catchment response. The linear continuous model we applied may underestimate flood risk in a future climate with greater extreme rainfall intensity. In contrast with the recommendations of previous studies, this indicates that continuous simulation is not necessarily the key to robust flood modelling under climate change. By applying bottom-up climate change assessment, we were able to understand systematic changes in relative model performance under changing conditions and deduce likely sources of prediction error in the two models.

  20. Estimation of climate change impacts on hydrology and floods in Finland

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Veijalainen, N.

    2012-07-01

    Climate scenarios project increases in air temperature and precipitation in Finland during the 21st century and these will results in changes in hydrology. In this thesis climate change impacts on hydrology and floods in Finland were estimated with hydrological modelling and several climate scenarios. One of the goals was to understand the influence of different processes and catchment characteristics on the hydrological response to climate change in boreal conditions. The tool of the climate change impact assessment was the conceptual hydrological model WSFS (Watershed Simulation and Forecasting System). The studies employed and compared two methods of transferring the climate change signal from climate models to the WSFS hydrological model (delta change approach and direct bias corrected Regional Climate Model (RCM) data). Direct RCM data was used to simulate transient hydrological scenarios for 1951- 2100 and the simulation results were analysed to detect changes in water balance components and trends in discharge series. The results revealed that seasonal changes in discharges in Finland were the clearest impacts of climate change. Air temperature increase will affect snow accumulation and melt, increase winter discharge and decrease spring snowmelt discharge. The impacts of climate change on floods in Finland by 2070-2099 varied considerably depending on the location, catchment characteristics, timing of the floods and climate scenario. Floods caused by spring snowmelt decreased or remained unchanged, whereas autumn and winter floods caused by precipitation increased especially in large lakes and their outflow rivers. Since estimation of climate change impacts includes uncertainties in every step of the long modelling process, the accumulated uncertainties by the end of the process become large. The large differences between results from different climate scenarios highlight the need to use several climate scenarios in climate change impact studies

  1. Fish population responses to hydrological variation in a seasonal wetland in southeast México

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luis H. Escalera-Vázquez

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Hydrological variation differently affects fish species. In the present study, the response of local populations of 13 fish local species to hydrological variation in a tropical wetland was evaluated. The objectives were to analyze the abundance response of fish species with distinct life history strategies and to assess the role of hydrological variation on fish population patterns. We found that opportunistic strategists were favored by high hydrological variation in drought periods, the equilibrium strategists were related to stable habitats, and periodic strategists were regulated by floods and temperature. However, the life history strategies identified for some species in this study do not correspond to the classification reported in other studies. Our results highlight the importance to study the abundance responses of species at local and regional scales to identify variations in life-history strategies, which can reflect local adaptations of species to hydrological changes, this is useful in order to understand and predict the responses of fish populations to the local environment.

  2. Lags in hydrologic recovery following an extreme drought: Assessing the roles of climate and catchment characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Yuting; McVicar, Tim R.; Donohue, Randall J.; Zhang, Yongqiang; Roderick, Michael L.; Chiew, Francis H. S.; Zhang, Lu; Zhang, Junlong

    2017-06-01

    Drought, generally characterized by below-average water supply, propagates through the hydrologic system with consequent ecological and societal impacts. Compared with other drought aspects, the recovery of drought especially in the hydrological components, which directly relates to the recovery of water resources for agricultural, ecological and human needs, is less-understood. Here, taking the Millennium drought in southeast Australia (˜1997-2009) as an illustrating case, we comprehensively examined multiple aspects of the meteorological (i.e., precipitation) and hydrological (i.e., streamflow and base flow) droughts across 130 unimpaired catchments using long-term hydro-meteorological observations. Results show that the duration and intensity of the meteorological drought are both lengthened and amplified in the hydrological drought, suggesting a nonstationarity in the rainfall-runoff relationship during a prolonged drought. Additionally, we find a time lag commonly exists between the end of the meteorological droughts and the end of the hydrological drought, with the recovery of base flow showing a longer lag than the recovery of streamflow. The recovery rate of precipitation after drought was found to be the dominant factor that controls the recovery of hydrological droughts while catchment landscape (i.e., valley bottom flatness) plays an important but secondary role in controlling the lags in the hydrological recovery. Other hydro-climatic factors and catchment properties appear to have only minor influences governing hydrological drought recovery. Our findings highlight a delayed response in the terrestrial components of the hydrological cycle to precipitation after prolonged drought, and provide valuable scientific guidance to water resources management and water security assessment in regions facing future droughts.

  3. Assessment and Enhancement of MERRA Land Surface Hydrology Estimates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reichle, Rolf H.; Koster, Randal D.; deLannoy, Gabrielle J. M.; Forman, Barton A.; Liu, Qing; Mahanama, Sarith P. P.; Toure, Ally

    2012-01-01

    The Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) is a state-ofthe-art reanalysis that provides, in addition to atmospheric fields, global estimates of soil moisture, latent heat flux, snow, and runoff for 1979-present. This study introduces a supplemental and improved set of land surface hydrological fields ("MERRA-Land") generated by re-running a revised version of the land component of the MERRA system. Specifically, the MERRA-Land estimates benefit from corrections to the precipitation forcing with the Global Precipitation Climatology Project pentad product (version 2.1) and from revised parameter values in the rainfall interception model, changes that effectively correct for known limitations in the MERRA surface meteorological forcings. The skill (defined as the correlation coefficient of the anomaly time series) in land surface hydrological fields from MERRA and MERRA-Land is assessed here against observations and compared to the skill of the state-of-the-art ERA-Interim (ERA-I) reanalysis. MERRA-Land and ERA-I root zone soil moisture skills (against in situ observations at 85 US stations) are comparable and significantly greater than that of MERRA. Throughout the northern hemisphere, MERRA and MERRA-Land agree reasonably well with in situ snow depth measurements (from 583 stations) and with snow water equivalent from an independent analysis. Runoff skill (against naturalized stream flow observations from 18 US basins) of MERRA and MERRA-Land is typically higher than that of ERA-I. With a few exceptions, the MERRA-Land data appear more accurate than the original MERRA estimates and are thus recommended for those interested in using MERRA output for land surface hydrological studies.

  4. Climate induced changes on the hydrology of Mediterranean basins - assessing uncertainties and quantifying risks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludwig, Ralf

    2014-05-01

    According to current climate projections, the Mediterranean area is at high risk for severe changes in the hydrological budget and extremes. With innovative scientific measures, integrated hydrological modeling and novel field geophysical field monitoring techniques, the FP7 project CLIMB (Climate Induced Changes on the Hydrology of Mediterranean Basins; GA: 244151) assessed the impacts of climate change on the hydrology in seven basins in the Mediterranean area, in Italy, France, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and quantified uncertainties and risks for the main stakeholders of each test site. Intensive climate model auditing selected four regional climate models, whose data was bias corrected and downscaled to serve as climate forcing for a set of hydrological models in each site. The results of the multi-model hydro-climatic ensemble and socio-economic factor analysis were applied to develop a risk model building upon spatial vulnerability and risk assessment. Findings generally reveal an increasing risk for water resources management in the test sites, yet at different rates and severity in the investigated sectors, with highest impacts likely to occur in the transition months. Most important elements of this research include the following aspects: • Climate change contributes, yet in strong regional variation, to water scarcity in the Mediterranean; other factors, e.g. pollution or poor management practices, are regionally still dominant pressures on water resources. • Rain-fed agriculture needs to adapt to seasonal changes; stable or increasing productivity likely depends on additional irrigation. • Tourism could benefit in shoulder seasons, but may expect income losses in the summer peak season due to increasing heat stress. • Local & regional water managers and water users, lack, as yet, awareness of climate change induced risks; emerging focus areas are supplies of domestic drinking water, irrigation, hydropower and livestock. • Data

  5. A polynomial chaos ensemble hydrologic prediction system for efficient parameter inference and robust uncertainty assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, S.; Huang, G. H.; Baetz, B. W.; Huang, W.

    2015-11-01

    This paper presents a polynomial chaos ensemble hydrologic prediction system (PCEHPS) for an efficient and robust uncertainty assessment of model parameters and predictions, in which possibilistic reasoning is infused into probabilistic parameter inference with simultaneous consideration of randomness and fuzziness. The PCEHPS is developed through a two-stage factorial polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) framework, which consists of an ensemble of PCEs to approximate the behavior of the hydrologic model, significantly speeding up the exhaustive sampling of the parameter space. Multiple hypothesis testing is then conducted to construct an ensemble of reduced-dimensionality PCEs with only the most influential terms, which is meaningful for achieving uncertainty reduction and further acceleration of parameter inference. The PCEHPS is applied to the Xiangxi River watershed in China to demonstrate its validity and applicability. A detailed comparison between the HYMOD hydrologic model, the ensemble of PCEs, and the ensemble of reduced PCEs is performed in terms of accuracy and efficiency. Results reveal temporal and spatial variations in parameter sensitivities due to the dynamic behavior of hydrologic systems, and the effects (magnitude and direction) of parametric interactions depending on different hydrological metrics. The case study demonstrates that the PCEHPS is capable not only of capturing both expert knowledge and probabilistic information in the calibration process, but also of implementing an acceleration of more than 10 times faster than the hydrologic model without compromising the predictive accuracy.

  6. Hydrological classification of natural flow regimes to support environmental flow assessments in intensively regulated Mediterranean rivers, Segura River Basin (Spain).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belmar, Oscar; Velasco, Josefa; Martinez-Capel, Francisco

    2011-05-01

    Hydrological classification constitutes the first step of a new holistic framework for developing regional environmental flow criteria: the "Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA)". The aim of this study was to develop a classification for 390 stream sections of the Segura River Basin based on 73 hydrological indices that characterize their natural flow regimes. The hydrological indices were calculated with 25 years of natural monthly flows (1980/81-2005/06) derived from a rainfall-runoff model developed by the Spanish Ministry of Environment and Public Works. These indices included, at a monthly or annual basis, measures of duration of droughts and central tendency and dispersion of flow magnitude (average, low and high flow conditions). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) indicated high redundancy among most hydrological indices, as well as two gradients: flow magnitude for mainstream rivers and temporal variability for tributary streams. A classification with eight flow-regime classes was chosen as the most easily interpretable in the Segura River Basin, which was supported by ANOSIM analyses. These classes can be simplified in 4 broader groups, with different seasonal discharge pattern: large rivers, perennial stable streams, perennial seasonal streams and intermittent and ephemeral streams. They showed a high degree of spatial cohesion, following a gradient associated with climatic aridity from NW to SE, and were well defined in terms of the fundamental variables in Mediterranean streams: magnitude and temporal variability of flows. Therefore, this classification is a fundamental tool to support water management and planning in the Segura River Basin. Future research will allow us to study the flow alteration-ecological response relationship for each river type, and set the basis to design scientifically credible environmental flows following the ELOHA framework.

  7. Hydrology and Alkalinity Regulation of Soft Florida Waters: An Integrated Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stauffer, Robert E.; Canfield, Daniel E., Jr.

    1992-06-01

    Natural waters in ridge provinces of Florida and southeast Georgia were classified geographically, by degrees of cultural disturbance, and according to the dominant hydrologic and biogeochemical processes controlling chemistry. The ionic composition of lakes, upland streams, and surficial aquifer (water table) springs in relatively undeveloped catchments reflects the geographic variations in bulk deposition corrected for evapotranspiration (Na, Cl), plus a slight gain (net watershed mobilization) of Mg, and partial to nearly complete losses (net retention) of nitrate, sulfate, Ca, and K. Recharge to the Floridan aquifer in infertile, forested, sandy ridge provinces of northern Florida contains 360-580 μmol CO2. On the basis of indirect geochemical evidence, sulfate retention appears less important in lake sediments than in the region's highly weathered, ferruginous, kaolinitic, sand soils. Silica concentrations in upland streams and water table springs closely reflect the predicted equilibrium between kaolinite and gibbsite. Along with other evidence, the Si concentrations in ridge lakes indicate that seepage inflow is much more important than assumed in Baker et al.'s (1988) regional model. Lakes and streams are acidified either by humic acids or nonmarine sulfate but rarely by both, as reflected by the significant inverse correlation between these two components. Contrary to previous reports, there is no significant difference in alkalinity for culturally undisturbed lakes in the northern Trail versus southern Highlands Ridge areas.

  8. Assessing the impacts of dams and levees on the hydrologic record of the Middle and Lower Mississippi River, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Remo, Jonathan W.F.; Ickes, Brian; Ryherd, Julia K.; Guida, Ross J.; Therrell, Matthew D.

    2018-01-01

    The impacts of dams and levees on the long-term (>130 years) discharge record was assessed along a ~1200 km segment of the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. To aid in our evaluation of dam impacts, we used data from the U.S. National Inventory of Dams to calculate the rate of reservoir expansion at five long-term hydrologic monitoring stations along the study segment. We divided the hydrologic record at each station into three periods: (1) a pre-rapid reservoir expansion period; (2) a rapid reservoir expansion period; and (3) a post-rapid reservoir expansion period. We then used three approaches to assess changes in the hydrologic record at each station. Indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA) and flow duration hydrographs were used to quantify changes in flow conditions between the pre- and post-rapid reservoir expansion periods. Auto-regressive interrupted time series analysis (ARITS) was used to assess trends in maximum annual discharge, mean annual discharge, minimum annual discharge, and standard deviation of daily discharges within a given water year. A one-dimensional HEC-RAS hydraulic model was used to assess the impact of levees on flood flows. Our results revealed that minimum annual discharges and low-flow IHA parameters showed the most significant changes. Additionally, increasing trends in minimum annual discharge during the rapid reservoir expansion period were found at three out of the five hydrologic monitoring stations. These IHA and ARITS results support previous findings consistent with the observation that reservoirs generally have the greatest impacts on low-flow conditions. River segment scale hydraulic modeling revealed levees can modestly increase peak flood discharges, while basin-scale hydrologic modeling assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers showed that tributary reservoirs reduced peak discharges by a similar magnitude (2 to 30%). This finding suggests that the effects of dams and

  9. Integration of Local Hydrology into Regional Hydrologic Simulation Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Zee, R. J.; Lal, W. A.

    2002-05-01

    South Florida hydrology is dominated by the Central and South Florida (C&SF) Project that is managed to provide flood protection, water supply and environmental protection. A complex network of levees canals and structures provide these services to the individual drainage basins. The landscape varies widely across the C&SF system, with corresponding differences in the way water is managed within each basin. Agricultural areas are managed for optimal crop production. Urban areas maximize flood protection while maintaining minimum water levels to protect adjacent wetlands and local water supplies. "Natural" areas flood and dry out in response to the temporal distribution of rainfall. The evaluation of planning, regulation and operational issues require access to a simulation model that captures the effects of both regional and local hydrology. The Regional Simulation Model (RSM) uses a "pseudo-cell" approach to integrate local hydrology within the context of a regional hydrologic system. A 2-dimensional triangulated mesh is used to represent the regional surface and ground water systems and a 1-dimensional canal network is superimposed onto this mesh. The movement of water is simulated using a finite volume formulation with a diffusive wave approximation. Each cell in the triangulated mesh has a "pseudo-cell" counterpart, which represents the same area as the cell, but it is conceptualized such that it simulates the localized hydrologic conditions Protocols have been established to provide an interface between a cell and its pseudo-cell counterpart. . A number of pseudo-cell types have already been developed and tested in the simulation of Water Conservation Area 1 and several have been proposed to deal with specific local issues in the Southwest Florida Feasibility Study. This presentation will provide an overview of the overall RSM design, describe the relationship between cells and pseudo-cells, and illustrate how pseudo-cells are be used to simulate agriculture

  10. The development of a surface hydrology model for use in radiological safety assessments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Little, R.H.; Ashton, J.

    1991-01-01

    A detailed understanding and quantification of geosphere and biosphere water movements is vital when assessing the impact of a radioactive waste repository. Not only is water important in the transport of radionuclides from the repository into the geosphere and hence into the biosphere, but it is also important in the transport of radionuclides within the biosphere and their transport to humans. Although geosphere water fluxes have traditionally been rigorously quantified, the quantification of biosphere water fluxes has been far less rigorous. In order to redress the balance, Associated Nuclear Services Ltd (ANS) have proposed to develop a surface hydrology model for use within radiological assessments undertaken by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution (HMIP) of the United Kingdom Department of the Environment (UKDoE). It is proposed that the deterministic, lumped, quasi-physical/semi-empirical approach of conceptual models should be adopted for the model. The model will be sufficiently flexible to be applicable to a wide range of catchments, as well as a variety of temporal and spatial scales. It is envisaged that the model will have a variety of uses within the HMIP assessment methodology including the identification of significant surface hydrological processes, the provision of input data for assessment codes and the study of the biosphere-geosphere interface. (17 refs., 4 figs.)

  11. Uncertainty Assessment of Hydrological Frequency Analysis Using Bootstrap Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Ming Hu

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The hydrological frequency analysis (HFA is the foundation for the hydraulic engineering design and water resources management. Hydrological extreme observations or samples are the basis for HFA; the representativeness of a sample series to the population distribution is extremely important for the estimation reliability of the hydrological design value or quantile. However, for most of hydrological extreme data obtained in practical application, the size of the samples is usually small, for example, in China about 40~50 years. Generally, samples with small size cannot completely display the statistical properties of the population distribution, thus leading to uncertainties in the estimation of hydrological design values. In this paper, a new method based on bootstrap is put forward to analyze the impact of sampling uncertainty on the design value. By bootstrap resampling technique, a large number of bootstrap samples are constructed from the original flood extreme observations; the corresponding design value or quantile is estimated for each bootstrap sample, so that the sampling distribution of design value is constructed; based on the sampling distribution, the uncertainty of quantile estimation can be quantified. Compared with the conventional approach, this method provides not only the point estimation of a design value but also quantitative evaluation on uncertainties of the estimation.

  12. Applicability of Hydrologic Landscapes for Model Calibration ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Pacific Northwest Hydrologic Landscapes (PNW HL) at the assessment unit scale has provided a solid conceptual classification framework to relate and transfer hydrologically meaningful information between watersheds without access to streamflow time series. A collection of techniques were applied to the HL assessment unit composition in watersheds across the Pacific Northwest to aggregate the hydrologic behavior of the Hydrologic Landscapes from the assessment unit scale to the watershed scale. This non-trivial solution both emphasizes HL classifications within the watershed that provide that majority of moisture surplus/deficit and considers the relative position (upstream vs. downstream) of these HL classifications. A clustering algorithm was applied to the HL-based characterization of assessment units within 185 watersheds to help organize watersheds into nine classes hypothesized to have similar hydrologic behavior. The HL-based classes were used to organize and describe hydrologic behavior information about watershed classes and both predictions and validations were independently performed with regard to the general magnitude of six hydroclimatic signature values. A second cluster analysis was then performed using the independently calculated signature values as similarity metrics, and it was found that the six signature clusters showed substantial overlap in watershed class membership to those in the HL-based classes. One hypothesis set forward from thi

  13. Water allocation assessment in low flow river under data scarce conditions: a study of hydrological simulation in Mediterranean basin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bangash, Rubab F; Passuello, Ana; Hammond, Michael; Schuhmacher, Marta

    2012-12-01

    River Francolí is a small river in Catalonia (northeastern Spain) with an average annual low flow (~2 m(3)/s). The purpose of the River Francolí watershed assessments is to support and inform region-wide planning efforts from the perspective of water protection, climate change and water allocation. In this study, a hydrological model of the Francolí River watershed was developed for use as a tool for watershed planning, water resource assessment, and ultimately, water allocation purposes using hydrological data from 2002 to 2006 inclusive. The modeling package selected for this application is DHI's MIKE BASIN. This model is a strategic scale water resource management simulation model, which includes modeling of both land surface and subsurface hydrological processes. Topographic, land use, hydrological, rainfall, and meteorological data were used to develop the model segmentation and input. Due to the unavailability of required catchment runoff data, the NAM rainfall-runoff model was used to calculate runoff of all the sub-watersheds. The results reveal a potential pressure on the availability of groundwater and surface water in the lower part of River Francolí as was expected by the IPCC for Mediterranean river basins. The study also revealed that due to the complex hydrological regime existing in the study area and data scarcity, a comprehensive physically based method was required to better represent the interaction between groundwater and surface water. The combined ArcGIS/MIKE BASIN models appear as a useful tool to assess the hydrological cycle and to better understand water allocation to different sectors in the Francolí River watershed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Ecological assessment of fish biodiversity in relation to hydrological ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This research analysed the fish species diversity; ecological distribution and abundance in relation to hydrological variables of Ogun coastal water. Fish species were collected with the use of graded gillnet bimonthly for six-months. Correlation analysis between fish species richness with the hydrological attributes showed ...

  15. Can we Observe and Assess Whether the Global Hydrological Cycle is "Intensifying"?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, E. F.; Sheffield, J.

    2012-12-01

    There is controversy over whether the hydrological cycle is "intensifying" (or "accelerating"), and if so how and where? Resolving this critical question is a central goal of both national (e.g. NASA's Energy and Water cycle Study: NEWS) and international (WCRP Global Energy and Water cycle Experiment: GEWEX) programs. Its resolution has significant implications for understanding changes in hydroclimatic states and variability, and in future water security at regional to global scales. Over the last decade a number of papers have addressed trends and change in specific water cycle variables with results that can best be described as inconclusive, regardless of the conclusions of specific papers. In this presentation a number of recent studies will be reviewed for their consistency in assessing whether collectively one can make conclusions regarding how the hydrologic cycle is changing. The presentation will also demonstrate a pathway for analyzing where to observe for the detection of change based on a NASA-supported, global, 1983-2009, terrestrial water cycle Earth System Data Record project being led by the author. Initial results will be presented and a discussion presented on the extent that the proposed strategy can be used to detect change in the terrestrial hydrological cycle.

  16. Hydrological services and biodiversity conservation under forestation scenarios: comparing options to improve watershed management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carvalho-Santos, Claudia; Nunes, João Pedro; Sousa-Silva, Rita; Gonçalves, João; Pradinho Honrado, João

    2015-04-01

    Humans rely on ecosystems for the provision of hydrological services, namely water supply and water damage mitigation, and promoting forests is a widely used management strategy for the provision of hydrological services. Therefore, it is important to model how forests will contribute for this provision, taking into account the environmental characteristics of each region, as well as the spatio-temporal patterns of societal demand. In addition, ensuring forest protection and the delivery of forest ecosystem services is one of the aims included in the European Union biodiversity strategy to 2020. On the other hand, forest management for hydrological services must consider possible trade-offs with other services provision, as well as with biodiversity conservation. Accurate modeling and mapping of both hydrological services and biodiversity conservation value is thus important to support spatial planning and land management options involving forests. The objectives of this study were: to analyze the provision and spatial dynamics of hydrological services under two forest cover change scenarios (oak and eucalyptus/pine) compared to the current shrubland-dominated landscape; and to evaluate their spatial trade-offs with biodiversity conservation value. The Vez watershed (250km2), in northwest Portugal, was used as case-study area. SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was applied to simulate the provision of hydrological services (water supply quantity, timing and quality; soil erosion and flood regulation), and was calibrated against daily discharge, sediments, nitrates and evapotranspiration. Good agreement was obtained between model predictions and field measurements. The maps for each service under the different scenarios were produced at the Hydrologic Response Unit (HRU) level. Biodiversity conservation value was based on nature protection regimes and on expert valuation applied to a land cover map. Statistical correlations between hydrological services provision

  17. Distributed Hydrologic Modeling of Semiarid Basins in Arizona: A Platform for Land Cover and Climate Change Assessments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawkins, G. A.; Vivoni, E. R.

    2011-12-01

    Watershed management is challenged by rising concerns over climate change and its potential to interact with land cover alterations to impact regional water supplies and hydrologic processes. The inability to conduct experimental manipulations that address climate and land cover change at watershed scales limits the capacity of water managers to make decisions to protect future supplies. As a result, spatially-explicit, physically-based models possess value for predicting the possible consequences on watershed hydrology. In this study, we apply a distributed watershed model, the Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)-based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator (tRIBS), to the Beaver Creek basin in Arizona. This sub-basin of the Verde River is representative of the regional topography, land cover, soils distribution and availability of hydrologic data in forested regions of northern Arizona. As such, it can serve as a demonstration study in the broader region to illustrate the utility of distributed models for change assessment studies. Through a model application to summertime conditions, we compare the hydrologic response from three sources of meteorological input: (1) an available network of ground-based stations, (2) weather radar rainfall estimates, and (3) the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS). Comparisons focus on analysis of spatiotemporal distributions of precipitation, soil moisture, runoff generation, evapotranspiration and recharge from the root zone at high resolution for an assessment of sustainable water supplies for agricultural and domestic purposes. We also present a preliminary analysis of the impact of vegetation change arising from historical treatments in the Beaver Creek to inform the hydrologic consequences in the form of soil moisture and evapotranspiration patterns with differing degrees of proposed forest thinning. Our results are discussed in the context of improved hydrologic predictions for sustainability and decision

  18. Assessing the Added Value of Dynamical Downscaling in the Context of Hydrologic Implication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, M.; IM, E. S.; Lee, M. H.

    2017-12-01

    There is a scientific consensus that high-resolution climate simulations downscaled by Regional Climate Models (RCMs) can provide valuable refined information over the target region. However, a significant body of hydrologic impact assessment has been performing using the climate information provided by Global Climate Models (GCMs) in spite of a fundamental spatial scale gap. It is probably based on the assumption that the substantial biases and spatial scale gap from GCMs raw data can be simply removed by applying the statistical bias correction and spatial disaggregation. Indeed, many previous studies argue that the benefit of dynamical downscaling using RCMs is minimal when linking climate data with the hydrological model, from the comparison of the impact between bias-corrected GCMs and bias-corrected RCMs on hydrologic simulations. It may be true for long-term averaged climatological pattern, but it is not necessarily the case when looking into variability across various temporal spectrum. In this study, we investigate the added value of dynamical downscaling focusing on the performance in capturing climate variability. For doing this, we evaluate the performance of the distributed hydrological model over the Korean river basin using the raw output from GCM and RCM, and bias-corrected output from GCM and RCM. The impacts of climate input data on streamflow simulation are comprehensively analyzed. [Acknowledgements]This research is supported by the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) grant funded by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Grant 17AWMP-B083066-04).

  19. The role of rock moisture on regulating hydrologic and solute fluxes in the critical zone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rempe, D. M.; Druhan, J. L.; Hahm, W. J.; Wang, J.; Murphy, C.; Cargill, S.; Dietrich, W. E.; Tune, A. K.

    2017-12-01

    In environments where the vadose zone extends below the soil layer into underlying weathered bedrock, the water held in the weathering -generated pores can be an important source of moisture to vegetation. The heterogeneous distribution of pore space in weathered bedrock, furthermore, controls the subsurface water flowpaths that dictate how water is partitioned in the critical zone (CZ) and evolves geochemically. Here, we present the results of direct monitoring of the fluxes of water and solutes through the deep CZ using a novel vadose zone monitoring system (VMS) as well as geophysical logging and sampling in a network of deep wells across a steep hillslope in Northern California. At our study site (Eel River CZO), multi-year monitoring reveals that a significant fraction of incoming rainfall (up to 30%) is seasonally stored in the fractures and matrix of the upper 12 m of weathered bedrock as rock moisture. Intensive geochemical and geophysical observations distributed from the surface to the depth of unweathered bedrock indicate that the seasonal addition and depletion of rock moisture has key implications for hydrologic and geochemical processes. First, rock moisture storage provides an annually consistent water storage reservoir for use by vegetation during the summer, which buffers transpiration fluxes against variability in seasonal precipitation. Second, because the timing and magnitude of groundwater recharge and streamflow are controlled by the annual filling and drainage of the rock moisture, rock moisture regulates the partitioning of hydrologic fluxes. Third, we find that rock moisture dynamics—which influence the myriad geochemical and microbial processes that weather bedrock—strongly correspond with the observed vertical weathering profile. As a result of the coupling between chemical weathering reactions and hydrologic fluxes, the geochemical composition of groundwater and streamflow is influenced by the temporal dynamics of rock moisture. Our

  20. Assessing the Influence of the Three Gorges Dam on Hydrological Drought Using GRACE Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fupeng Li

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available With worldwide economic and social development, more dams are being constructed to meet the increasing demand for hydropower, which may considerably influence hydrological drought. Here, an index named the “Dam Influence Index” (DII is proposed to assess the influence of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD on hydrological drought in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB in China. First, the total terrestrial water storage (TTWS is derived from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data. Then, the natural-driven terrestrial water storage (NTWS is predicted from the soil moisture, precipitation, and temperature data based on an artificial neural network model. Finally, the DII is derived using the empirical (Kaplan-Meier cumulative distribution function of the differences between the TTWS and the NTWS. The DIIs of the three sub-basins in the YRB were 1.38, −4.66, and −7.32 between 2003 and 2008, which indicated an increase in TTWS in the upper sub-basin and a reduction in the middle and lower sub-basins. According to the results, we concluded that impoundments of the TGD between 2003 and 2008 slightly alleviated the hydrological drought in the upper sub-basin and significantly aggravated the hydrological drought in the middle and lower sub-basins, which is consistent with the Palmer Drought Severity Index. This study provides a new perspective for estimating the effects of large-scale human activities on hydrological drought and a scientific decision-making basis for the managing water resources over the operation of the TGD.

  1. Conceptual, experimental and computational approaches to support performance assessment of hydrology and chemical transport at Yucca Mountain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Narasimhan, T.N. Wang, J.S.Y.

    1992-07-01

    The authors of this report have been participating in the Sandia National Laboratory's hydrologic performance assessment of the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, since 1983. The scope of this work is restricted to the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain and to technical questions about hydrology and chemical transport. The issues defined here are not to be confused with the elaborate hierarchy of issues that forms the framework of the US Department of Energy plans for characterizing the site (DOE, 1989). The overall task of hydrologic performance assessment involves issues related to hydrology, geochemistry, and energy transport in a highly heterogeneous natural geologic system which will be perturbed in a major way by the disposal activity. Therefore, a rational evaluation of the performance assessment issues must be based on an integrated appreciation of the aforesaid interacting processes. Accordingly, a hierarchical approach is taken in this report, proceeding from the statement of the broad features of the site that make it the site for intensive studies and the rationale for disposal strategy, through the statement of the fundamental questions that need to be answered, to the identification of the issues that need resolution. Having identified the questions and issues, the report then outlines the tasks to be undertaken to resolve the issues. The report consists essentially of two parts. The first part deals with the definition of issues summarized above. The second part summarizes the findings of the authors between 1983 and 1989 under the activities of the former Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) and the current YMP

  2. Assessing water quality trends in catchments with contrasting hydrological regimes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherriff, Sophie C.; Shore, Mairead; Mellander, Per-Erik

    2016-04-01

    Environmental resources are under increasing pressure to simultaneously achieve social, economic and ecological aims. Increasing demand for food production, for example, has expanded and intensified agricultural systems globally. In turn, greater risks of diffuse pollutant delivery (suspended sediment (SS) and Phosphorus (P)) from land to water due to higher stocking densities, fertilisation rates and soil erodibility has been attributed to deterioration of chemical and ecological quality of aquatic ecosystems. Development of sustainable and resilient management strategies for agro-ecosystems must detect and consider the impact of land use disturbance on water quality over time. However, assessment of multiple monitoring sites over a region is challenged by hydro-climatic fluctuations and the propagation of events through catchments with contrasting hydrological regimes. Simple water quality metrics, for example, flow-weighted pollutant exports have potential to normalise the impact of catchment hydrology and better identify water quality fluctuations due to land use and short-term climate fluctuations. This paper assesses the utility of flow-weighted water quality metrics to evaluate periods and causes of critical pollutant transfer. Sub-hourly water quality (SS and P) and discharge data were collected from hydrometric monitoring stations at the outlets of five small (~10 km2) agricultural catchments in Ireland. Catchments possess contrasting land uses (predominantly grassland or arable) and soil drainage (poorly, moderately or well drained) characteristics. Flow-weighted water quality metrics were calculated and evaluated according to fluctuations in source pressure and rainfall. Flow-weighted water quality metrics successfully identified fluctuations in pollutant export which could be attributed to land use changes through the agricultural calendar, i.e., groundcover fluctuations. In particular, catchments with predominantly poor or moderate soil drainage

  3. Assessment of the effect of climate change on the hydrological cycle

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karlsson, Ida Bjørnholt

    , implying that when doing a future impact study, hydrological predictions could be compromised when using hydrological models calibrated on present time series. The hydrological response to a future high-end emission scenario was also explored. The hydrological model simulations and drought indices analyses...... showed longer and dryer periods leading to enhanced root zone dryness, lowered river discharge, and decreasing groundwater head elevation increasing the risk of stream flow drought and crop failure. In contrast, wetter winters will lead to increased flood risks. Finally, the influence of choosing...... a specific impact study setup was also investigated by simulating and analysing results from three factors; four climate models in combinations with three hydrological models and four land use scenarios. Results showed that the climate model was the dominant uncertainty factor on stream flow and hydraulic...

  4. Comparison and Validation of Hydrological E-Flow Methods through Hydrodynamic Modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuriqi, Alban; Rivaes, Rui; Sordo-Ward, Alvaro; Pinheiro, António N.; Garrote, Luis

    2017-04-01

    Flow regime determines physical habitat conditions and local biotic configuration. The development of environmental flow guidelines to support the river integrity is becoming a major concern in water resources management. In this study, we analysed two sites located in southern part of Portugal, respectively at Odelouca and Ocreza Rivers, characterised by the Mediterranean climate. Both rivers are almost in pristine condition, not regulated by dams or other diversion construction. This study presents an analysis of the effect on fish habitat suitability by the implementation of different hydrological e-flow methods. To conduct this study we employed certain hydrological e-flow methods recommended by the European Small Hydropower Association (ESHA). River hydrology assessment was based on approximately 30 years of mean daily flow data, provided by the Portuguese Water Information System (SNIRH). The biological data, bathymetry, physical and hydraulic features, and the Habitat Suitability Index for fish species were collected from extensive field works. We followed the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM) to assess the flow-habitat relationship taking into account the habitat suitability of different instream flow releases. Initially, we analysed fish habitat suitability based on natural conditions, and we used it as reference condition for other scenarios considering the chosen hydrological e-flow methods. We accomplished the habitat modelling through hydrodynamic analysis by using River-2D model. The same methodology was applied to each scenario by considering as input the e-flows obtained from each of the hydrological method employed in this study. This contribution shows the significance of ecohydrological studies in establishing a foundation for water resources management actions. Keywords: ecohydrology, e-flow, Mediterranean rivers, river conservation, fish habitat, River-2D, Hydropower.

  5. Factors Contributing to the Hydrologic Effectiveness of a Rain Garden Network (Cincinnati OH USA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William D. Shuster

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Infiltrative rain gardens can add retention capacity to sewersheds, yet factors contributing to their capacity for detention and redistribution of stormwater runoff are dynamic and often unverified. Over a four-year period, we tracked whole-system water fluxes in a two-tier rain garden network and assessed near-surface hydrology and soil development across construction and operational phases. The monitoring data provided a quantitative basis for determining effectiveness of this stormwater control measure. Based on 233 monitored warm-season rainfall events, nearly half of total inflow volume was detained, with 90 percent of all events producing no flow to the combined sewer. For the events that did result in flow to the combined sewer system, the rain garden delayed flows for an average of 5.5 h. Multivariate analysis of hydrologic fluxes indicated that total event rainfall depth was a predominant hydrologic driver for network outflow during both phases, with average event intensity and daily evapotranspiration as additional, independent factors in regulating retention in the operational phase. Despite sediment loads that can clog the rooting zone, and overall lower-than-design infiltration rates, tradeoffs among soil profile development and hydrology apparently maintained relatively high overall retention effectiveness. Overall, our study identified factors relevant to regulation of retention capacity of a rain garden network. These factors may be generalizable, and guide improvement of new or existing rain garden designs.

  6. Assessing hydrologic impacts of future Land Change scenarios in the San Pedro River (U.S./Mexico)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kepner, W. G.; Burns, S.; Sidman, G.; Levick, L.; Goodrich, D. C.; Guertin, P.; Yee, W.; Scianni, M.

    2012-12-01

    An approach was developed to characterize the hydrologic impacts of urban expansion through time for the San Pedro River, a watershed of immense international importance that straddles the U.S./Mexico border. Future urban growth is a key driving force altering local and regional hydrology and is represented by decadal changes in housing density maps from 2010 to 2100 derived from the Integrated Climate and Land-Use Scenarios (ICLUS) database. ICLUS developed future housing density maps by adapting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) social, economic, and demographic storylines to the conterminous United States. To characterize the hydrologic impacts of future growth, the housing density maps were reclassified to National Land Cover Database 2006 land cover classes and used to parameterize the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) using the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) tool. The presentation will report 1) the methodology for adapting the ICLUS data for use in AGWA as an approach to evaluate basin-wide impacts of development on water-quantity and -quality, 2) initial results of the application of the methodology, and 3) discuss implications of the analysis.

  7. An Assessment of Hydrological Safety for the Guri Underground Oil Storage Facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Geon Young; Kim, Kyung Su; Koh, Yong Kwon; Bae, Dae Seok; Park, Kyung Woo; Ji, Sung Hoon; Ryu, Ji Hoon

    2009-08-15

    Hydrological and geochemical analysis of the various kinds of water including observation borehole groundwater was carried out for the assessment of the hydrological safety of the underground oil storage cavern and the potentiality of mineralogical and microbiological clogging was estimated. There was no distinct chemical difference in the various kinds of water. All kinds of water are undersaturated with the calcite which is the major clogging mineral. Most water samples have low Fe and Mn concentrations. However, they are saturated or oversaturated with the iron-oxide/hydroxide minerals and have high dissolved oxygen contents which softiies the possibility of clogging by the iron-oxide/hydroxide minerals as a long-term aspect. Statistical analysis shows the degree of mineral precipitation or dissolution is mainly controlled by pH, Eh and DO of water samples. Because the slime forming bacteria ate dominant microbe in several observation boreholes, the clogging can be caused by it as a long-term aspect. In addition, the possibility of clogging can be increased if the microbial effect is combined with the mineralogical effect such as iron oxide/hydroxide minerals for the possibility of clogging. Therefore, the systematic and long-term program for the assessment of clogging is required for the safe operation of underground oil storage cavern.

  8. An Assessment of Hydrological Safety for the Guri Underground Oil Storage Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Geon Young; Kim, Kyung Su; Koh, Yong Kwon; Bae, Dae Seok; Park, Kyung Woo; Ji, Sung Hoon; Ryu, Ji Hoon

    2009-08-01

    Hydrological and geochemical analysis of the various kinds of water including observation borehole groundwater was carried out for the assessment of the hydrological safety of the underground oil storage cavern and the potentiality of mineralogical and microbiological clogging was estimated. There was no distinct chemical difference in the various kinds of water. All kinds of water are undersaturated with the calcite which is the major clogging mineral. Most water samples have low Fe and Mn concentrations. However, they are saturated or oversaturated with the iron-oxide/hydroxide minerals and have high dissolved oxygen contents which softiies the possibility of clogging by the iron-oxide/hydroxide minerals as a long-term aspect. Statistical analysis shows the degree of mineral precipitation or dissolution is mainly controlled by pH, Eh and DO of water samples. Because the slime forming bacteria ate dominant microbe in several observation boreholes, the clogging can be caused by it as a long-term aspect. In addition, the possibility of clogging can be increased if the microbial effect is combined with the mineralogical effect such as iron oxide/hydroxide minerals for the possibility of clogging. Therefore, the systematic and long-term program for the assessment of clogging is required for the safe operation of underground oil storage cavern

  9. Use of Isotopic Techniques for the Assessment of Hydrological Interaction Surface Water and Groundwater. Rio Man - Cienaga Colombia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Palacio B, P.; Betancur V, T.; Dapena, C.

    2011-01-01

    This job integrates the first results from the studies ''Conceptual Hydrological Model for the middle and lower parts of the Man River basin using hydrological, hydrochemical and isotopic techniques'' (Palacio, 2011) and ''Hydrochemical and Isotopic techniques for the assessment of hydrological processes in the the wetlands of Bajo Cauca Antioquia'' (University of Antioquia and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Man river basin covers an area of 688 km 2 ; with temperatures ranging from 25 to 30 o C; The average annual rainfall is 2.800 mm. The geology of the area is composed mainly of clastic sedimentary rocks of continental origin. A hydrological model of interaction between surface water and groundwater for the lower middle of the Man River basin was obtained by the use of hydrological analysis techniques. This model was refined, adjusted and validated using isotope techniques based mainly on the analysis of spatial and temporal variance of stable isotopes found in rain water, surface bodies of water such as streams and wetlands, and in an unconfined aquifer.

  10. Assessment of variability in the hydrological cycle of the Loess Plateau, China: examining dependence structures of hydrological processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, A.; Wang, Y.

    2017-12-01

    Investigating variability in dependence structures of hydrological processes is of critical importance for developing an understanding of mechanisms of hydrological cycles in changing environments. In focusing on this topic, present work involves the following: (1) identifying and eliminating serial correlation and conditional heteroscedasticity in monthly streamflow (Q), precipitation (P) and potential evapotranspiration (PE) series using the ARMA-GARCH model (ARMA: autoregressive moving average; GARCH: generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity); (2) describing dependence structures of hydrological processes using partial copula coupled with the ARMA-GARCH model and identifying their variability via copula-based likelihood-ratio test method; and (3) determining conditional probability of annual Q under different climate scenarios on account of above results. This framework enables us to depict hydrological variables in the presence of conditional heteroscedasticity and to examine dependence structures of hydrological processes while excluding the influence of covariates by using partial copula-based ARMA-GARCH model. Eight major catchments across the Loess Plateau (LP) are used as study regions. Results indicate that (1) The occurrence of change points in dependence structures of Q and P (PE) varies across the LP. Change points of P-PE dependence structures in all regions almost fully correspond to the initiation of global warming, i.e., the early 1980s. (3) Conditional probabilities of annual Q under various P and PE scenarios are estimated from the 3-dimensional joint distribution of (Q, P and PE) based on the above change points. These findings shed light on mechanisms of the hydrological cycle and can guide water supply planning and management, particularly in changing environments.

  11. Climate change impact assessment on the hydrological regime of the Kaligandaki Basin, Nepal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bajracharya, Ajay Ratna; Bajracharya, Sagar Ratna; Shrestha, Arun Bhakta; Maharjan, Sudan Bikash

    2018-06-01

    The Hindu Kush-Himalayan region is an important global freshwater resource. The hydrological regime of the region is vulnerable to climatic variations, especially precipitation and temperature. In our study, we modelled the impact of climate change on the water balance and hydrological regime of the snow dominated Kaligandaki Basin. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used for a future projection of changes in the hydrological regime of the Kaligandaki basin based on Representative Concentration Pathways Scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) of ensemble downscaled Coupled Model Intercomparison Project's (CMIP5) General Circulation Model (GCM) outputs. It is predicted to be a rise in the average annual temperature of over 4°C, and an increase in the average annual precipitation of over 26% by the end of the 21st century under RCP 8.5 scenario. Modeling results show these will lead to significant changes in the basin's water balance and hydrological regime. In particular, a 50% increase in discharge is expected at the outlet of the basin. Snowmelt contribution will largely be affected by climate change, and it is projected to increase by 90% by 2090.Water availability in the basin is not likely to decrease during the 21st century. The study demonstrates that the important water balance components of snowmelt, evapotranspiration, and water yield at higher elevations in the upper and middle sub-basins of the Kaligandaki Basin will be most affected by the increasing temperatures and precipitation. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Development of a Historical Hydrological online research and application platform for Switzerland - Historical Hydrological Atlas of Switzerland (HHAS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wetter, Oliver

    2017-04-01

    It is planned to develop and maintain a historical hydrological online platform for Switzerland, which shall be specially designed for the needs of research and federal, cantonal or private institutions being interested in hydrological risk assessment and protection measures. The aim is on the one hand to facilitate the access to raw data which generally is needed for further historical hydrological reconstruction and quantification, so that future research will be achieved in significantly shorter time. On the other hand, new historical hydrological research results shall be continuously included in order to establish this platform as a useful tool for the assessment of hydrological risk by including the long term experience of reconstructed pre-instrumental hydrological extreme events like floods and droughts. Meteorological parameters that may trigger extreme hydrological events, like monthly or seasonally resolved reconstructions of temperature and precipitation shall be made accessible in this platform as well. The ultimate goal will be to homogenise the reconstructed hydrological extreme events which usually appeared in the pre anthropogenic influence period under different climatological as well as different hydrological regimes and topographical conditions with the present day state. Long term changes of reconstructed small- to extreme flood seasonality, based on municipal accounting records, will be included in the platform as well. This helps - in combination with the before mentioned meteorological parameters - to provide an increased understanding of the major changes in the generally complex overall system that finally causes hydrological extreme events. The goal of my presentation at the Historical Climatology session is to give an overview about the applied historical climatological and historical hydrological methodologies that are applied on the historical raw data (evidence) to reconstruct pre instrumental hydrological events and meteorological

  13. Five Guidelines for Selecting Hydrological Signatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    McMillan, H. K.; Westerberg, I.; Branger, F.

    2017-12-01

    Hydrological signatures are index values derived from observed or modeled series of hydrological data such as rainfall, flow or soil moisture. They are designed to extract relevant information about hydrological behavior, such as to identify dominant processes, and to determine the strength, speed and spatiotemporal variability of the rainfall-runoff response. Hydrological signatures play an important role in model evaluation. They allow us to test whether particular model structures or parameter sets accurately reproduce the runoff generation processes within the watershed of interest. Most modeling studies use a selection of different signatures to capture different aspects of the catchment response, for example evaluating overall flow distribution as well as high and low flow extremes and flow timing. Such studies often choose their own set of signatures, or may borrow subsets of signatures used in multiple other works. The link between signature values and hydrological processes is not always straightforward, leading to uncertainty and variability in hydrologists' signature choices. In this presentation, we aim to encourage a more rigorous approach to hydrological signature selection, which considers the ability of signatures to represent hydrological behavior and underlying processes for the catchment and application in question. To this end, we propose a set of guidelines for selecting hydrological signatures. We describe five criteria that any hydrological signature should conform to: Identifiability, Robustness, Consistency, Representativeness, and Discriminatory Power. We describe an example of the design process for a signature, assessing possible signature designs against the guidelines above. Due to their ubiquity, we chose a signature related to the Flow Duration Curve, selecting the FDC mid-section slope as a proposed signature to quantify catchment overall behavior and flashiness. We demonstrate how assessment against each guideline could be used to

  14. Assessing self-regulation strategies

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    de Vet, Emely; de Ridder, Denise T. D.; Stok, Marijn

    2014-01-01

    intake and background characteristics. In study 3, the TESQ-E was administered twice within four weeks to evaluate test-retest reliability (n = 140). Study 4 was a cross-sectional survey (n = 93) that assessed the TESQ-E and related psychological constructs (e.g., motivation, autonomy, self-control). All...... general self-regulation and motivation measures. Conclusions: The TESQ-E provides a reliable and valid measure to assess six theory-based self-regulation strategies that adolescents may use to ensure their healthy eating....

  15. Hydrology of Ranger land application area

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McQuade, C.V.

    1992-01-01

    In 1984 Ranger Uranium Mines (RUM) began assessing the technique of water treatment by land application as a means of reducing the volume of stored water within the Restricted Release Zone. Knowledge of the hydrological characteristics of the treatment site is necessary for optimal day to day and season to season operation of the system and as an input into the assessment of the long-term viability of the site. This paper provides background information on the hydrological requirements for a water treatment site, describes the RUM's water treatment by land application system and summarises the operational statistics and current hydrological knowledge of the site. The general groundwater hydrology of the area comprises a surface soil aquifer overlying a semi-confined aquifer. Drainage of the surface aquifer follows the surface topography along the sandy clays. Vertical permeability ranges between 3 and 12 times greater than horizontal permeability. 7 refs., 2 tabs., 4 figs

  16. Hydrological modeling of the pipestone creek watershed using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT: Assessing impacts of wetland drainage on hydrology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cesar Perez-Valdivia

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Study region: Prairie Pothole Region of North America. Study focus: The Prairie Pothole Region of North America has experienced extensive wetland drainage, potentially impacting peak flows and annual flow volumes. Some of this drainage has occurred in closed basins, possibly impacting lake water levels of these systems. In this study we investigated the potential impact of wetland drainage on peak flows and annual volumes in a 2242 km2 watershed located in southeastern Saskatchewan (Canada using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT model. New hydrological insights: The SWAT model, which had been calibrated and validated at daily and monthly time steps for the 1997–2009 period, was used to assess the impact of wetland drainage using three hypothetical scenarios that drained 15, 30, and 50% of the non-contributing drainage area. Results of these simulations suggested that drainage increased spring peak flows by about 50, 79 and 113%, respectively while annual flow volumes increased by about 43, 68, and 98% in each scenario. Years that were wetter than normal presented increased peak flows and annual flow volumes below the average of the simulated period. Alternatively, summer peak flows presented smaller increases in terms of percentages during the simulated period. Keywords: Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT, Wetland drainage, Peak flow, Annual volume, Prairie Pothole Region

  17. A seamless global hydrological monitoring and forecasting system for water resources assessment and hydrological hazard early warning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheffield, Justin; He, Xiaogang; Wood, Eric; Pan, Ming; Wanders, Niko; Zhan, Wang; Peng, Liqing

    2017-04-01

    Sustainable management of water resources and mitigation of the impacts of hydrological hazards are becoming ever more important at large scales because of inter-basin, inter-country and inter-continental connections in water dependent sectors. These include water resources management, food production, and energy production, whose needs must be weighed against the water needs of ecosystems and preservation of water resources for future generations. The strains on these connections are likely to increase with climate change and increasing demand from burgeoning populations and rapid development, with potential for conflict over water. At the same time, network connections may provide opportunities to alleviate pressures on water availability through more efficient use of resources such as trade in water dependent goods. A key constraint on understanding, monitoring and identifying solutions to increasing competition for water resources and hazard risk is the availability of hydrological data for monitoring and forecasting water resources and hazards. We present a global online system that provides continuous and consistent water products across time scales, from the historic instrumental period, to real-time monitoring, short-term and seasonal forecasts, and climate change projections. The system is intended to provide data and tools for analysis of historic hydrological variability and trends, water resources assessment, monitoring of evolving hazards and forecasts for early warning, and climate change scale projections of changes in water availability and extreme events. The system is particular useful for scientists and stakeholders interested in regions with less available in-situ data, and where forecasts have the potential to help decision making. The system is built on a database of high-resolution climate data from 1950 to present that merges available observational records with bias-corrected reanalysis and satellite data, which then drives a coupled land

  18. Application of the ELOHA framework to regulated rivers in the upper Tennessee River Basin: A case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryan A. McManamay; Donald J. Orth; Charles A. Dolloff; David C. Mathews

    2013-01-01

    In order for habitat restoration in regulated rivers to be effective at large scales, broadly applicable frameworks are needed that provide measurable objectives and contexts for management. The Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA) framework was created as a template to assess hydrologic alterations, develop relationships between altered streamflow and...

  19. Problem-Based Learning and Assessment in Hydrology Courses: Can Non-Traditional Assessment Better Reflect Intended Learning Outcomes?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyon, Steve W.; Teutschbein, Claudia

    2011-01-01

    Hydrology has at its core a focus on real-world applications and problems stemming from the importance of water for society and natural systems. While hydrology is firmly founded in traditional "hard" sciences like physics and mathematics, much of the innovation and excitement in current and future research-oriented hydrology comes…

  20. Combined effects of climate models, hydrological model structures and land use scenarios on hydrological impacts of climate change

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Karlsson, Ida B.; Sonnenborg, Torben O.; Refsgaard, Jens Christian

    2016-01-01

    Impact studies of the hydrological response of future climate change are important for the water authorities when risk assessment, management and adaptation to a changing climate are carried out. The objective of this study was to model the combined effect of land use and climate changes...... use scenarios. The results revealed that even though the hydrological models all showed similar performance during calibration, the mean discharge response to climate change varied up to 30%, and the variations were even higher for extreme events (1th and 99th percentile). Land use changes appeared...... to cause little change in mean hydrological responses and little variation between hydrological models. Differences in hydrological model responses to land use were, however, significant for extremes due to dissimilarities in hydrological model structure and process equations. The climate model choice...

  1. An Educational Model for Hands-On Hydrology Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    AghaKouchak, A.; Nakhjiri, N.; Habib, E. H.

    2014-12-01

    This presentation provides an overview of a hands-on modeling tool developed for students in civil engineering and earth science disciplines to help them learn the fundamentals of hydrologic processes, model calibration, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty assessment, and practice conceptual thinking in solving engineering problems. The toolbox includes two simplified hydrologic models, namely HBV-EDU and HBV-Ensemble, designed as a complement to theoretical hydrology lectures. The models provide an interdisciplinary application-oriented learning environment that introduces the hydrologic phenomena through the use of a simplified conceptual hydrologic model. The toolbox can be used for in-class lab practices and homework assignments, and assessment of students' understanding of hydrological processes. Using this modeling toolbox, students can gain more insights into how hydrological processes (e.g., precipitation, snowmelt and snow accumulation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and runoff generation) are interconnected. The educational toolbox includes a MATLAB Graphical User Interface (GUI) and an ensemble simulation scheme that can be used for teaching more advanced topics including uncertainty analysis, and ensemble simulation. Both models have been administered in a class for both in-class instruction and a final project, and students submitted their feedback about the toolbox. The results indicate that this educational software had a positive impact on students understanding and knowledge of hydrology.

  2. Untenable nonstationarity: An assessment of the fitness for purpose of trend tests in hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serinaldi, Francesco; Kilsby, Chris G.; Lombardo, Federico

    2018-01-01

    The detection and attribution of long-term patterns in hydrological time series have been important research topics for decades. A significant portion of the literature regards such patterns as 'deterministic components' or 'trends' even though the complexity of hydrological systems does not allow easy deterministic explanations and attributions. Consequently, trend estimation techniques have been developed to make and justify statements about tendencies in the historical data, which are often used to predict future events. Testing trend hypothesis on observed time series is widespread in the hydro-meteorological literature mainly due to the interest in detecting consequences of human activities on the hydrological cycle. This analysis usually relies on the application of some null hypothesis significance tests (NHSTs) for slowly-varying and/or abrupt changes, such as Mann-Kendall, Pettitt, or similar, to summary statistics of hydrological time series (e.g., annual averages, maxima, minima, etc.). However, the reliability of this application has seldom been explored in detail. This paper discusses misuse, misinterpretation, and logical flaws of NHST for trends in the analysis of hydrological data from three different points of view: historic-logical, semantic-epistemological, and practical. Based on a review of NHST rationale, and basic statistical definitions of stationarity, nonstationarity, and ergodicity, we show that even if the empirical estimation of trends in hydrological time series is always feasible from a numerical point of view, it is uninformative and does not allow the inference of nonstationarity without assuming a priori additional information on the underlying stochastic process, according to deductive reasoning. This prevents the use of trend NHST outcomes to support nonstationary frequency analysis and modeling. We also show that the correlation structures characterizing hydrological time series might easily be underestimated, further

  3. Information on Hydrologic Conceptual Models, Parameters, Uncertainty Analysis, and Data Sources for Dose Assessments at Decommissioning Sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meyer, Philip D.; Gee, Glendon W.; Nicholson, Thomas J.

    1999-01-01

    This report addresses issues related to the analysis of uncertainty in dose assessments conducted as part of decommissioning analyses. The analysis is limited to the hydrologic aspects of the exposure pathway involving infiltration of water at the ground surface, leaching of contaminants, and transport of contaminants through the groundwater to a point of exposure. The basic conceptual models and mathematical implementations of three dose assessment codes are outlined along with the site-specific conditions under which the codes may provide inaccurate, potentially nonconservative results. In addition, the hydrologic parameters of the codes are identified and compared. A methodology for parameter uncertainty assessment is outlined that considers the potential data limitations and modeling needs of decommissioning analyses. This methodology uses generic parameter distributions based on national or regional databases, sensitivity analysis, probabilistic modeling, and Bayesian updating to incorporate site-specific information. Data sources for best-estimate parameter values and parameter uncertainty information are also reviewed. A follow-on report will illustrate the uncertainty assessment methodology using decommissioning test cases

  4. Information on Hydrologic Conceptual Models, Parameters, Uncertainty Analysis, and Data Sources for Dose Assessments at Decommissioning Sites

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meyer D, Philip; Gee W, Glendon

    2000-01-01

    This report addresses issues related to the analysis of uncertainty in dose assessments conducted as part of decommissioning analyses. The analysis is limited to the hydrologic aspects of the exposure pathway involving infiltration of water at the ground surface, leaching of contaminants, and transport of contaminants through the groundwater to a point of exposure. The basic conceptual models and mathematical implementations of three dose assessment codes are outlined along with the site-specific conditions under which the codes may provide inaccurate, potentially nonconservative results. In addition, the hydrologic parameters of the codes are identified and compared. A methodology for parameter uncertainty assessment is outlined that considers the potential data limitations and modeling needs of decommissioning analyses. This methodology uses generic parameter distributions based on national or regional databases, sensitivity analysis, probabilistic modeling, and Bayesian updating to incorporate site-specific information. Data sources for best-estimate parameter values and parameter uncertainty information are also reviewed. A follow-on report will illustrate the uncertainty assessment methodology using decommissioning test cases

  5. Evaluation of ecological instream flow using multiple ecological indicators with consideration of hydrological alterations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Qiang; Gu, Xihui; Singh, Vijay P.; Chen, Xiaohong

    2015-10-01

    Dam-induced hydrological alterations and related ecological problems have been arousing considerable concern from hydrologists, ecologists, and policy-makers. The East River basin in China is the major provider of water resources for mega-cities within the Pearl River Delta and meets 80% of annual water demand of Hong Kong. In this study, ecodeficit and ecosurplus were analyzed to determine the ecological impact of water impoundments. Also, Do and DHRAM were employed to evaluate the degree of alteration of hydrological regimes, and ERHIs were analyzed to evaluate the influence of hydrological alterations on ecological diversity. Results indicate that: (1) the magnitude and frequency of high flows decrease and those of low flows increase due to the regulation of reservoirs; (2) variations of annual ecosurplus are mainly the result of precipitation changes and the annual ecodeficit is significantly influenced by reservoirs. However, ecodeficit and ecosurplus in other seasons, particularly autumn and winter, are more influenced by reservoir regulation; (3) impacts of reservoirs on hydrological regimes and eco-flow regimes are different from one station to another due to different degrees of influence of reservoirs on hydrological processes at different stations. The longer the distance between a reservoir and a hydrological station is, the weaker the influence the water reservoir has on the hydrological processes; (4) ecodeficit and ecosurplus can be accepted in the evaluation of alterations of hydrological processes at annual and seasonal time scales. Results of Shannon Index indicate decreasing biological diversity after the construction of water reservoirs, implying negative impacts of water reservoirs on biological diversity of a river basin and this should arouse considerable human concerns. This study provides a theoretical background for water resources management with consideration of eco-flow variations due to reservoir regulation in other highly-regulated

  6. Assessment of the Suitability of High Resolution Numerical Weather Model Outputs for Hydrological Modelling in Mountainous Cold Regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rasouli, K.; Pomeroy, J. W.; Hayashi, M.; Fang, X.; Gutmann, E. D.; Li, Y.

    2017-12-01

    The hydrology of mountainous cold regions has a large spatial variability that is driven both by climate variability and near-surface process variability associated with complex terrain and patterns of vegetation, soils, and hydrogeology. There is a need to downscale large-scale atmospheric circulations towards the fine scales that cold regions hydrological processes operate at to assess their spatial variability in complex terrain and quantify uncertainties by comparison to field observations. In this research, three high resolution numerical weather prediction models, namely, the Intermediate Complexity Atmosphere Research (ICAR), Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), and Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) models are used to represent spatial and temporal patterns of atmospheric conditions appropriate for hydrological modelling. An area covering high mountains and foothills of the Canadian Rockies was selected to assess and compare high resolution ICAR (1 km × 1 km), WRF (4 km × 4 km), and GEM (2.5 km × 2.5 km) model outputs with station-based meteorological measurements. ICAR with very low computational cost was run with different initial and boundary conditions and with finer spatial resolution, which allowed an assessment of modelling uncertainty and scaling that was difficult with WRF. Results show that ICAR, when compared with WRF and GEM, performs very well in precipitation and air temperature modelling in the Canadian Rockies, while all three models show a fair performance in simulating wind and humidity fields. Representation of local-scale atmospheric dynamics leading to realistic fields of temperature and precipitation by ICAR, WRF, and GEM makes these models suitable for high resolution cold regions hydrological predictions in complex terrain, which is a key factor in estimating water security in western Canada.

  7. Nanomaterials: Regulation and Risk Assessment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Steffen Foss; Grieger, Khara Deanne; Baun, Anders

    2013-01-01

    , the Water Framework Directive, pharmaceuticals regulation, and the Novel Foods Regulation. Current regulation of nanomaterials entail three overall challenges: 1) limitations in regard to terminology and definitions of key terms such as a “substance,” “novel food,” etc.; 2) safety assessment requirements...

  8. Assessing the potential hydrological impact of the Gibe III Dam on Lake Turkana water level using multi-source satellite data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velpuri, N. M.; Senay, G. B.

    2012-10-01

    Lake Turkana, the largest desert lake in the world, is fed by ungauged or poorly gauged river systems. To meet the demand of electricity in the East African region, Ethiopia is currently building the Gibe III hydroelectric dam on the Omo River, which supplies more than 80% of the inflows to Lake Turkana. On completion, the Gibe III dam will be the tallest dam in Africa with a height of 241 m. However, the nature of interactions and potential impacts of regulated inflows to Lake Turkana are not well understood due to its remote location and unavailability of reliable in situ datasets. In this study, we used 12 yr (1998-2009) of existing multi-source satellite and model-assimilated global weather data. We used a calibrated multi-source satellite data-driven water balance model for Lake Turkana that takes into account model routed runoff, lake/reservoir evapotranspiration, direct rain on lakes/reservoirs and releases from the dam to compute lake water levels. The model evaluates the impact of the Gibe III dam using three different approaches - a historical approach, a rainfall based approach, and a statistical approach to generate rainfall-runoff scenarios. All the approaches provided comparable and consistent results. Model results indicated that the hydrological impact of the Gibe III dam on Lake Turkana would vary with the magnitude and distribution of rainfall post-dam commencement. On average, the reservoir would take up to 8-10 months, after commencement, to reach a minimum operation level of 201 m depth of water. During the dam filling period, the lake level would drop up to 1-2 m (95% confidence) compared to the lake level modeled without the dam. The lake level variability caused by regulated inflows after the dam commissioning were found to be within the natural variability of the lake of 4.8 m. Moreover, modeling results indicated that the hydrological impact of the Gibe III dam would depend on the initial lake level at the time of dam commencement. Areas

  9. Analysis of spatio-temporal land cover changes for hydrological impact assessment within the Nyando River Basin of Kenya.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olang, Luke Omondi; Kundu, Peter; Bauer, Thomas; Fürst, Josef

    2011-08-01

    The spatio-temporal changes in the land cover states of the Nyando Basin were investigated for auxiliary hydrological impact assessment. The predominant land cover types whose conversions could influence the hydrological response of the region were selected. Six Landsat images for 1973, 1986, and 2000 were processed to discern the changes based on a methodology that employs a hybrid of supervised and unsupervised classification schemes. The accuracy of the classifications were assessed using reference datasets processed in a GIS with the help of ground-based information obtained through participatory mapping techniques. To assess the possible hydrological effect of the detected changes during storm events, a physically based lumped approach for infiltration loss estimation was employed within five selected sub-basins. The results obtained indicated that forests in the basin declined by 20% while agricultural fields expanded by 16% during the entire period of study. Apparent from the land cover conversion matrices was that the majority of the forest decline was a consequence of agricultural expansion. The model results revealed decreased infiltration amounts by between 6% and 15%. The headwater regions with the vast deforestation were noted to be more vulnerable to the land cover change effects. Despite the haphazard land use patterns and uncertainties related to poor data quality for environmental monitoring and assessment, the study exposed the vast degradation and hence the need for sustainable land use planning for enhanced catchment management purposes.

  10. Assessment of climate change impact on hydrological extremes in two source regions of the Nile River Basin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. T. Taye

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The potential impact of climate change was investigated on the hydrological extremes of Nyando River and Lake Tana catchments, which are located in two source regions of the Nile River basin. Climate change scenarios were developed for rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (ETo, considering 17 General Circulation Model (GCM simulations to better understand the range of possible future change. They were constructed by transferring the extracted climate change signals to the observed series using a frequency perturbation downscaling approach, which accounts for the changes in rainfall extremes. Projected changes under two future SRES emission scenarios A1B and B1 for the 2050s were considered. Two conceptual hydrological models were calibrated and used for the impact assessment. Their difference in simulating the flows under future climate scenarios was also investigated.

    The results reveal increasing mean runoff and extreme peak flows for Nyando catchment for the 2050s while unclear trend is observed for Lake Tana catchment for mean volumes and high/low flows. The hydrological models for Lake Tana catchment, however, performed better in simulating the hydrological regimes than for Nyando, which obviously also induces a difference in the reliability of the extreme future projections for both catchments. The unclear impact result for Lake Tana catchment implies that the GCM uncertainty is more important for explaining the unclear trend than the hydrological models uncertainty. Nevertheless, to have a better understanding of future impact, hydrological models need to be verified for their credibility of simulating extreme flows.

  11. Long-Term Forest Hydrologic Monitoring in Coastal Carolinas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devendra M. Amatya; Ge Sun; Carl C. Trettin; R. Wayne Skaggs

    2003-01-01

    Long-term hydrologic data are essential for understanding the hydrologic processes, as base line data for assessment of impacts and conservation of regional ecosystems, and for developing and testing eco-hydrological models. This study presents 6-year (1996-2001) of rainfall, water table and outflow data from a USDA Forest Service coastal experimental watershed on a...

  12. Assimilation of remote sensing observations into a continuous distributed hydrological model: impacts on the hydrologic cycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laiolo, Paola; Gabellani, Simone; Campo, Lorenzo; Cenci, Luca; Silvestro, Francesco; Delogu, Fabio; Boni, Giorgio; Rudari, Roberto

    2015-04-01

    The reliable estimation of hydrological variables (e.g. soil moisture, evapotranspiration, surface temperature) in space and time is of fundamental importance in operational hydrology to improve the forecast of the rainfall-runoff response of catchments and, consequently, flood predictions. Nowadays remote sensing can offer a chance to provide good space-time estimates of several hydrological variables and then improve hydrological model performances especially in environments with scarce in-situ data. This work investigates the impact of the assimilation of different remote sensing products on the hydrological cycle by using a continuous physically based distributed hydrological model. Three soil moisture products derived by ASCAT (Advanced SCATterometer) are used to update the model state variables. The satellite-derived products are assimilated into the hydrological model using different assimilation techniques: a simple nudging and the Ensemble Kalman Filter. Moreover two assimilation strategies are evaluated to assess the impact of assimilating the satellite products at model spatial resolution or at the satellite scale. The experiments are carried out for three Italian catchments on multi year period. The benefits on the model predictions of discharge, LST, evapotranspiration and soil moisture dynamics are tested and discussed.

  13. Assessing the hydrological impacts of agricultural changes upstream of the Tunisian World Heritage sea-connected Ichkeul Lake

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Aouissi

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The impact of changes in agricultural land use and practices as a controlling driver of hydrologic response and as a source of diffuse pollution, are studied in the Joumine River basin, discharging into the Ichkeul Lake, northern Tunisia, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. The lake is characterized by a very specific hydrological functioning based on a seasonal alternation of water levels and salinity through its link to the Mediterranean Sea. Three Landsat images, in situ surveys and SWAT modelling were used to simulate and assess streamflows and nitrate loads under retrospective land uses.

  14. assessment and monitoring of meteorological and hydrological ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    During the last century, Algeria experienced a rainfall deficit was recorded in 1944, then successive drought periods since 1975 to the present day in Northen and Eastern. The most recent has repercussions on water resources and on agriculture. In this paper, we focus on the meteorological and hydrological drought.

  15. Assessment of Wetland Hydrological Dynamics in a Modified Catchment Basin: Case of Lake Buninjon, Victoria, Australia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yihdego, Yohannes; Webb, John A

    2017-02-01

      The common method to estimate lake levels is the water balance equation, where water input and output result in lake storage and water level changes. However, all water balance components cannot always be quickly assessed, such as due to significant modification of the catchment area. A method that assesses general changes in lake level can be a useful tool in examining why lakes have different lake level variation patterns. Assessment of wetlands using the dynamics of the historical hydrological and hydrogeological data set can provide important insights into variations in wetland levels in different parts of the world. A case study from a saline landscape, Lake Buninjon, Australia, is presented. The aim of the present study was to determine how climate, river regime, and lake hydrological properties independently influence lake water levels and salinity, leaving the discrepancy, for the effect of the non-climatic/catchment modification in the past and the model shows that surface inflow is most sensitive variable. The method, together with the analysis and interpretation, might be of interest to wider community to assess its response to natural/anthropogenic stress and decision choices for its ecological, social, scientific value, and mitigation measures to safe guard the wetland biodiversity in a catchment basin.

  16. Isotope hydrology: Investigating groundwater contamination

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dubinchuk, V.; Froehlich, K.; Gonfiantini, R.

    1989-01-01

    Groundwater quality has worsened in many regions, with sometimes serious consequences. Decontaminating groundwater is an extremely slow process, and sometimes impossible, because of the generally long residence time of the water in most geological formations. Major causes of contamination are poor groundwater management (often dictated by immediate social needs) and the lack of regulations and control over the use and disposal of contaminants. These types of problems have prompted an increasing demand for investigations directed at gaining insight into the behaviour of contaminants in the hydrological cycle. Major objectives are to prevent pollution and degradation of groundwater resources, or, if contamination already has occurred, to identify its origin so that remedies can be proposed. Environmental isotopes have proved to be a powerful tool for groundwater pollution studies. The IAEA has had a co-ordinated research programme since 1987 on the application of nuclear techniques to determine the transport of contaminants in groundwater. An isotope hydrology project is being launched within the framework of the IAEA's regional co-operative programme in Latin America (known as ARCAL). Main objectives are the application of environmental isotopes to problems of groundwater assessment and contamination in Latin America. In 1989, another co-ordinated research programme is planned under which isotopic and other tracers will be used for the validation of mathematical models in groundwater transport studies

  17. Assessment of the potential forecasting skill of a global hydrological model in reproducing the occurrence of monthly flow extremes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Candogan Yossef

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available As an initial step in assessing the prospect of using global hydrological models (GHMs for hydrological forecasting, this study investigates the skill of the GHM PCR-GLOBWB in reproducing the occurrence of past extremes in monthly discharge on a global scale. Global terrestrial hydrology from 1958 until 2001 is simulated by forcing PCR-GLOBWB with daily meteorological data obtained by downscaling the CRU dataset to daily fields using the ERA-40 reanalysis. Simulated discharge values are compared with observed monthly streamflow records for a selection of 20 large river basins that represent all continents and a wide range of climatic zones.

    We assess model skill in three ways all of which contribute different information on the potential forecasting skill of a GHM. First, the general skill of the model in reproducing hydrographs is evaluated. Second, model skill in reproducing significantly higher and lower flows than the monthly normals is assessed in terms of skill scores used for forecasts of categorical events. Third, model skill in reproducing flood and drought events is assessed by constructing binary contingency tables for floods and droughts for each basin. The skill is then compared to that of a simple estimation of discharge from the water balance (PE.

    The results show that the model has skill in all three types of assessments. After bias correction the model skill in simulating hydrographs is improved considerably. For most basins it is higher than that of the climatology. The skill is highest in reproducing monthly anomalies. The model also has skill in reproducing floods and droughts, with a markedly higher skill in floods. The model skill far exceeds that of the water balance estimate. We conclude that the prospect for using PCR-GLOBWB for monthly and seasonal forecasting of the occurrence of hydrological extremes is positive. We argue that this conclusion applies equally to other similar GHMs and

  18. The hydrological functioning of a constructed fen wetland watershed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ketcheson, Scott J; Price, Jonathan S; Sutton, Owen; Sutherland, George; Kessel, Eric; Petrone, Richard M

    2017-12-15

    Mine reclamation requires the reconstruction of entire landforms and drainage systems. The hydrological regime of reclaimed landscapes will be a manifestation of the processes operating within the individual landforms that comprise it. Hydrology is the most important process regulating wetland function and development, via strong controls on chemical and biotic processes. Accordingly, this research addresses the growing and immediate need to understand the hydrological processes that operate within reconstructed landscapes following resource extraction. In this study, the function of a constructed fen watershed (the Nikanotee Fen watershed) is evaluated for the first two years following construction (2013-2014) and is assessed and discussed within the context of the construction-level design. The system design was capable of sustaining wet conditions within the Nikanotee Fen during the snow-free period in 2013 and 2014, with persistent ponded water in some areas. Evapotranspiration dominated the water fluxes from the system. These losses were partially offset by groundwater discharge from the upland aquifer, which demonstrated strong hydrologic connectivity with the fen in spite of most construction materials having lower than targeted saturated hydraulic conductivities. However, the variable surface infiltration rates and thick placement of a soil-capping layer constrained recharge to the upland aquifer, which remained below designed water contents in much of the upland. These findings indicate that it is possible to engineer the landscape to accommodate the hydrological functions of a fen peatland following surface oil sands extraction. Future research priorities should include understanding the storage and release of water within coarse-grained reclaimed landforms as well as evaluating the relative importance of external water sources and internal water conservation mechanisms for the viability of fen ecosystems over the longer-term. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B

  19. Uncertainties in assessing climate change impacts on the hydrology of Mediterranean basins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludwig, Ralf

    2013-04-01

    subsequent variety of management options and adaptation strategies. Therefore, the 4-year FP7-project CLIMB (Climate induced changes on the hydrology of Mediterranean basins, GA: 244151) includes a major focus on the assessment and quantification of uncertainties. First, CLIMB employs a rigorous climate change model analysis, auditing the Global and Regional Climate Model data available through the ENSEMBLES and PRUDENCE initiatives. The audits lead to select the best regional performers as compared to observed values during the climatic reference period (1971- 2000). Specific bias correction and downscaling procedures are applied to provide the driving inputs and meet the demands of the subsequent impact models, transferring a future climate signal (2041-2070) into hydrological quantities at the catchment or landscape scale. However, very limited quantitative knowledge is as yet available about the role of hydrological model complexity for climate change impact assessment, where predictive power becomes more and more important and raises the demand for process-based and spatially explicit model types. Thus, CLIMB uses hydrological model ensembles to analyze the performance of existing models and works to identify the appropriate level of model complexity, and thus to determine the data specifications required to provide robust results in a climate change context. The presentation focuses on the CLIMB multi-level strategy to uncertainty assessment and highlights latest findings in some of the seven CLIMB case studies. In particular, the presentation will demonstrate the current constraints of hydro-meteorological data availability and processing and searches for solutions that can eventually be provided by integrating hydro-meteorology and ICT research communities.

  20. Revisiting an interdisciplinary hydrological modelling project. A socio-hydrology (?) example from the early 2000s

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seidl, Roman; Barthel, Roland

    2016-04-01

    (see also, Hamilton, ElSawah, Guillaume, Jakeman, and Pierce 2015; Jakeman and Letcher 2003). Our contribution attempts to close a gap between previous concepts of integration of socio-economic aspects into hydrology (typically inspired by Integrated Water Resources Management) and the new socio-hydrology approach. We suppose that socio-hydrology could benefit from widening its scope and considering previous research at the boundaries between hydrology and social sciences. At the same time, concepts developed prior to socio-hydrology were seldom entirely successful. It might be beneficial to review these approaches developed earlier and those that are being developed in parallel from the perspective of socio-hydrology. References: Barthel, R., S. Janisch, N. Schwarz, A. Trifkovic, D. Nickel, C. Schulz, and W. Mauser. 2008. An integrated modelling framework for simulating regional-scale actor responses to global change in the water domain. Environmental Modelling & Software, 23: 1095-1121. Barthel, R., D. Nickel, A. Meleg, A. Trifkovic, and J. Braun. 2005. Linking the physical and the socio-economic compartments of an integrated water and land use management model on a river basin scale using an object-oriented water supply model. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, 30: 389-397. doi: 10.1016/j.pce.2005.06.006 Hamilton, S. H., S. ElSawah, J. H. A. Guillaume, A. J. Jakeman, and S. A. Pierce. 2015. Integrated assessment and modelling: Overview and synthesis ofsalient dimensions. Environmental Modelling and Software, 64: 215-229. doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.12.005 Jakeman, A. J., and R. A. Letcher. 2003. Integrated assessment and modelling: features, principles and examples for catchment management. Environmental Modelling & Software, 18: 491-501. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1364-8152(03)00024-0 Mauser, W., and M. Prasch. 2016. Regional Assessment of Global Change Impacts - The Project GLOWA-Danube: Springer International Publishing.

  1. Ensemble Analysis of Variational Assimilation of Hydrologic and Hydrometeorological Data into Distributed Hydrologic Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, H.; Seo, D.; Koren, V.

    2008-12-01

    A prototype 4DVAR (four-dimensional variational) data assimilator for gridded Sacramento soil-moisture accounting and kinematic-wave routing models in the Hydrology Laboratory's Research Distributed Hydrologic Model (HL-RDHM) has been developed. The prototype assimilates streamflow and in-situ soil moisture data and adjusts gridded precipitation and climatological potential evaporation data to reduce uncertainty in the model initial conditions for improved monitoring and prediction of streamflow and soil moisture at the outlet and interior locations within the catchment. Due to large degrees of freedom involved, data assimilation (DA) into distributed hydrologic models is complex. To understand and assess sensitivity of the performance of DA to uncertainties in the model initial conditions and in the data, two synthetic experiments have been carried out in an ensemble framework. Results from the synthetic experiments shed much light on the potential and limitations with DA into distributed models. For initial real-world assessment, the prototype DA has also been applied to the headwater basin at Eldon near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border. We present these results and describe the next steps.

  2. Large-scale hydrological simulations using the soil water assessment tool, protocol development, and application in the danube basin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pagliero, Liliana; Bouraoui, Fayçal; Willems, Patrick; Diels, Jan

    2014-01-01

    The Water Framework Directive of the European Union requires member states to achieve good ecological status of all water bodies. A harmonized pan-European assessment of water resources availability and quality, as affected by various management options, is necessary for a successful implementation of European environmental legislation. In this context, we developed a methodology to predict surface water flow at the pan-European scale using available datasets. Among the hydrological models available, the Soil Water Assessment Tool was selected because its characteristics make it suitable for large-scale applications with limited data requirements. This paper presents the results for the Danube pilot basin. The Danube Basin is one of the largest European watersheds, covering approximately 803,000 km and portions of 14 countries. The modeling data used included land use and management information, a detailed soil parameters map, and high-resolution climate data. The Danube Basin was divided into 4663 subwatersheds of an average size of 179 km. A modeling protocol is proposed to cope with the problems of hydrological regionalization from gauged to ungauged watersheds and overparameterization and identifiability, which are usually present during calibration. The protocol involves a cluster analysis for the determination of hydrological regions and multiobjective calibration using a combination of manual and automated calibration. The proposed protocol was successfully implemented, with the modeled discharges capturing well the overall hydrological behavior of the basin. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  3. TREHS (Temporary Rivers Ecological and Hydrological Status): new software for investigating the degree of hydrologic alteration of temporary streams.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gallart, Francesc; Llorens, Pilar; Cid, Núria; latron, Jérôme; Bonada, Núria; Prat, Narcís

    2017-04-01

    The evaluation of the hydrological alteration of a stream due to human activities is a first step to assess its overall quality and to design management strategies for its potential restoration. This task is currently made comparing impacted against unimpacted hydrographs, with the help of software tools, such as the IHA (Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration). Then, the environmental evaluation of the hydrological alteration is to be made in terms of its expectable menace for the original biological communities and/or its help for the spread of invasive species. However, when the regime of the target stream is not perennial, there are four main difficulties for implementing methods for assessing hydrological alteration: i) the main hydrological features relevant for biological communities in a temporary stream are not quantitative (discharges) but qualitative (temporal patterns of states such as flowing water, stagnant pools or lack of surface water), ii) stream flow records do not inform on the temporal occurrence of stagnant pools, which act as refugees for many species during the cessation of flow, iii) as most of the temporary streams are ungauged, the evaluation of their regime must be determined by using alternative methods such as remote sensing or citizen science, and iv) the biological quality assessment of the ecological status of a temporary stream must be conducted following a sampling schedule adapted to the flow regime and using adequate reference conditions. In order to overcome these challenges using an operational approach, the TREHS freely available software tool has been developed within the EU LIFE TRIVERS project (LIFE13 ENV/ES/000341). This software allows for the input of information coming from flow simulations obtained using any rainfall-runoff model (to set an unimpacted reference stream regime) and compares them with the information obtained from flow gauging records, interviews made to local citizens, instantaneous observations made by

  4. An Integrated Decision Support System with Hydrological Processes and Socio-economic Assessments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Yang; Disse, Markus; Yu, Ruide

    2017-04-01

    The debate over the effectiveness of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in practice has lasted for years. As the complexity and scope of IWRM increases, the difficulties of hydrological modeling is shifting from the model itself into the links with other cognate sciences, to understand the interactions among water, earth, ecosystem and humans. This work presents the design and development of a decision support system (DSS) that links the outputs of hydrological models with real-time decision making on social-economic assessments and land use changes. Discharge and glacier geometry changes were simulated with hydrological model WASA. Irrigation and ecological water were simulated by a new commercial software MIKE HYDRO. Groundwater was simulated by MODFLOW. All the outputs of theses hydrological models were integrated as inputs into the DSS in three types of links: regression equations, stationary data inputs, or dynamic data inputs into DSS as the models running parallel in the simulation periods. Within DSS, three types of logics were established: equations, conditional statements and fuzzy logics. The programming was realized in C++. The implementation of DSS takes place in the Tarim River Basin. With the mainstream of 1,321km and located in an arid area in northwest China, the Tarim River is China's longest inland river. The Tarim basin on the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert is an extremely arid region. In this region, agricultural water consumption and allocation management are crucial to address the conflicts among irrigation water users from upstream to downstream. Since 2011, the German Ministry of Science and Education BMBF established the Sino-German SuMaRiO project, for the sustainable management of river oases along the Tarim River. Project SuMaRiO focus on realizable management strategies, considering social, economic and ecological criteria. This will have positive effects for nearly 10 million inhabitants of different ethnic groups

  5. Quantifying the impact of model inaccuracy in climate change impact assessment studies using an agro-hydrological model

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Droogers, P.; Loon, van A.F.; Immerzeel, W.W.

    2008-01-01

    Numerical simulation models are frequently applied to assess the impact of climate change on hydrology and agriculture. A common hypothesis is that unavoidable model errors are reflected in the reference situation as well as in the climate change situation so that by comparing reference to scenario

  6. Methods to evvaluate normal rainfall for short-term wetland hydrology assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaclyn Sumner; Michael J. Vepraskas; Randall K. Kolka

    2009-01-01

    Identifying sites meeting wetland hydrology requirements is simple when long-term (>10 years) records are available. Because such data are rare, we hypothesized that a single-year of hydrology data could be used to reach the same conclusion as with long-term data, if the data were obtained during a period of normal or below normal rainfall. Long-term (40-45 years)...

  7. Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) Tool for hydrologic modeling and watershed assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Using basic, easily attainable GIS data, AGWA provides a simple, direct, and repeatable methodology for hydrologic model setup, execution, and visualization. AGWA experiences activity from over 170 countries. It l has been downloaded over 11,000 times.

  8. Fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing: A new tool for assessment and monitoring of hydrologic processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lane, John W.; Day-Lewis, Frederick D.; Johnson, Carole D.; Dawson, Cian B.; Nelms, David L.; Miller, Cheryl; Wheeler, Jerrod D.; Harvey, Charles F.; Karam, Hanan N.

    2008-01-01

    Fiber‐optic distributed temperature sensing (FO DTS) is an emerging technology for characterizing and monitoring a wide range of important earth processes. FO DTS utilizes laser light to measure temperature along the entire length of standard telecommunications optical fibers. The technology can measure temperature every meter over FO cables up to 30 kilometers (km) long. Commercially available systems can measure fiber temperature as often as 4 times per minute, with thermal precision ranging from 0.1 to 0.01 °C depending on measurement integration time. In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a project to demonstrate and evaluate DTS as a technology to support hydrologic studies. This paper demonstrates the potential of the technology to assess and monitor hydrologic processes through case‐study examples of FO DTS monitoring of stream‐aquifer interaction on the Shenandoah River near Locke's Mill, Virginia, and on Fish Creek, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and estuary‐aquifer interaction on Waquoit Bay, Falmouth, Massachusetts. The ability to continuously observe temperature over large spatial scales with high spatial and temporal resolution provides a new opportunity to observe and monitor a wide range of hydrologic processes with application to other disciplines including hazards, climate‐change, and ecosystem monitoring.

  9. An ensemble approach to assess hydrological models' contribution to uncertainties in the analysis of climate change impact on water resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velázquez, J. A.; Schmid, J.; Ricard, S.; Muerth, M. J.; Gauvin St-Denis, B.; Minville, M.; Chaumont, D.; Caya, D.; Ludwig, R.; Turcotte, R.

    2012-06-01

    Over the recent years, several research efforts investigated the impact of climate change on water resources for different regions of the world. The projection of future river flows is affected by different sources of uncertainty in the hydro-climatic modelling chain. One of the aims of the QBic3 project (Québec-Bavarian International Collaboration on Climate Change) is to assess the contribution to uncertainty of hydrological models by using an ensemble of hydrological models presenting a diversity of structural complexity (i.e. lumped, semi distributed and distributed models). The study investigates two humid, mid-latitude catchments with natural flow conditions; one located in Southern Québec (Canada) and one in Southern Bavaria (Germany). Daily flow is simulated with four different hydrological models, forced by outputs from regional climate models driven by a given number of GCMs' members over a reference (1971-2000) and a future (2041-2070) periods. The results show that the choice of the hydrological model does strongly affect the climate change response of selected hydrological indicators, especially those related to low flows. Indicators related to high flows seem less sensitive on the choice of the hydrological model. Therefore, the computationally less demanding models (usually simple, lumped and conceptual) give a significant level of trust for high and overall mean flows.

  10. Development of the Conceptual Models for Chemical Conditions and Hydrology Used in the 1996 Performance Assessment for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    LARSON, KURT W.

    2000-01-01

    The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a US Department of Energy (DOE) facility for the permanent disposal of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations specify that the DOE must demonstrate on a sound basis that the WIPP disposal system will effectively contain long-lived alpha-emitting radionuclides within its boundaries for 10,000 years following closure. In 1996, the DOE submitted the ''40 CFR Part 191 Compliance Certification Application for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant'' (CCA) to the EPA. The CCA proposed that the WIPP site complies with EPA's regulatory requirements. Contained within the CCA are descriptions of the scientific research conducted to characterize the properties of the WIPP site and the probabilistic performance assessment (PA) conducted to predict the containment properties of the WIPP disposal system. In May 1998, the EPA certified that the TRU waste disposal at the WIPP complies with its regulations. Waste disposal operations at WIPP commenced on March 28, 1999. The 1996 WIPP PA model of the disposal system included conceptual and mathematical representations of key hydrologic and geochemical processes. These key processes were identified over a 22-year period involving data collection, data interpretation, computer models, and sensitivity studies to evaluate the importance of uncertainty and of processes that were difficult to evaluate by other means. Key developments in the area of geochemistry were the evaluation of gas generation mechanisms in the repository; development of a model of chemical conditions in the repository and actinide concentrations in brine; selecting MgO backfill and demonstrating its effects experimentally; and determining the chemical retardation capability of the Culebra. Key developments in the area of hydrology were evacuating the potential for groundwater to dissolve the Salado Formation (the repository host formation), development of a regional model for

  11. Development of the conceptual models for chemical conditions and hydrology used in the 1996 performance assessment for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Larson, K.W.

    2000-01-01

    The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a US Department of Energy (DOE) facility for the permanent disposal of defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations specify that the DOE must demonstrate on a sound basis that the WIPP disposal system will effectively contain long-lived alpha-emitting radionuclides within its boundaries for 10,000 years following closure. In 1996, the DOE submitted the 40 CFR Part 191 Compliance Certification Application for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (CCA) to the EPA. The CCA proposed that the WIPP site complies with EPA's regulatory requirements. Contained within the CCA are descriptions of the scientific research conducted to characterize the properties of the WIPP site and the probabilistic performance assessment (PA) conducted to predict the containment properties of the WIPP disposal system. In May 1998, the EPA certified that the TRU waste disposal at the WIPP complies with its regulations. Waste disposal operations at WIPP commenced on 28 March 1999. The 1996 WIPP PA model of the disposal system included conceptual and mathematical representations of key hydrologic and geochemical processes. These key processes were identified over a 22-year period involving data collection, data interpretation, computer models, and sensitivity studies to evaluate the importance of uncertainty and of processes that were difficult to evaluate by other means. Key developments in the area of geochemistry were the evaluation of gas generation mechanisms in the repository; development of a model of chemical conditions in the repository and actinide concentrations in brine; selecting MgO backfill and demonstrating its effects experimentally; and, determining the chemical retardation capability of the Culebra. Key developments in the area of hydrology were evaluating the potential for groundwater to dissolve the Salado Formation (the repository host formation); development of a regional model for

  12. Changes and Relationships of Climatic and Hydrological Droughts in the Jialing River Basin, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Xiaofan; Zhao, Na; Sun, Huaiwei; Ye, Lei; Zhai, Jianqing

    2015-01-01

    The comprehensive assessment of climatic and hydrological droughts in terms of their temporal and spatial evolutions is very important for water resources management and social development in the basin scale. To study the spatial and temporal changes of climatic and hydrological droughts and the relationships between them, the SPEI and SDI are adopted to assess the changes and the correlations of climatic and hydrological droughts by selecting the Jialing River basin, China as the research area. The SPEI and SDI at different time scales are assessed both at the entire Jialing River basin and at the regional levels of the three sub basins. The results show that the SPEI and SDI are very suitable for assessing the changes and relationships of climatic and hydrological droughts in large basins. Based on the assessment, for the Jialing River basin, climatic and hydrological droughts have the increasing tendency during recent several decades, and the increasing trend of climatic droughts is significant or extremely significant in the western and northern basin, while hydrological drought has a less significant increasing trend. Additionally, climatic and hydrological droughts tend to increase in the next few years. The results also show that on short time scales, climatic droughts have one or two months lag impact on hydrological droughts in the north-west area of the basin, and have one month lag impact in south-east area of the basin. The assessment of climatic and hydrological droughts based on the SPEI and SDI could be very useful for water resources management and climate change adaptation at large basin scale.

  13. Changes and Relationships of Climatic and Hydrological Droughts in the Jialing River Basin, China.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaofan Zeng

    Full Text Available The comprehensive assessment of climatic and hydrological droughts in terms of their temporal and spatial evolutions is very important for water resources management and social development in the basin scale. To study the spatial and temporal changes of climatic and hydrological droughts and the relationships between them, the SPEI and SDI are adopted to assess the changes and the correlations of climatic and hydrological droughts by selecting the Jialing River basin, China as the research area. The SPEI and SDI at different time scales are assessed both at the entire Jialing River basin and at the regional levels of the three sub basins. The results show that the SPEI and SDI are very suitable for assessing the changes and relationships of climatic and hydrological droughts in large basins. Based on the assessment, for the Jialing River basin, climatic and hydrological droughts have the increasing tendency during recent several decades, and the increasing trend of climatic droughts is significant or extremely significant in the western and northern basin, while hydrological drought has a less significant increasing trend. Additionally, climatic and hydrological droughts tend to increase in the next few years. The results also show that on short time scales, climatic droughts have one or two months lag impact on hydrological droughts in the north-west area of the basin, and have one month lag impact in south-east area of the basin. The assessment of climatic and hydrological droughts based on the SPEI and SDI could be very useful for water resources management and climate change adaptation at large basin scale.

  14. Hydrological regulation drives regime shifts: evidence from paleolimnology and ecosystem modeling of a large shallow Chinese lake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kong, Xiangzhen; He, Qishuang; Yang, Bin; He, Wei; Xu, Fuliu; Janssen, Annette B G; Kuiper, Jan J; van Gerven, Luuk P A; Qin, Ning; Jiang, Yujiao; Liu, Wenxiu; Yang, Chen; Bai, Zelin; Zhang, Min; Kong, Fanxiang; Janse, Jan H; Mooij, Wolf M

    2017-02-01

    Quantitative evidence of sudden shifts in ecological structure and function in large shallow lakes is rare, even though they provide essential benefits to society. Such 'regime shifts' can be driven by human activities which degrade ecological stability including water level control (WLC) and nutrient loading. Interactions between WLC and nutrient loading on the long-term dynamics of shallow lake ecosystems are, however, often overlooked and largely underestimated, which has hampered the effectiveness of lake management. Here, we focus on a large shallow lake (Lake Chaohu) located in one of the most densely populated areas in China, the lower Yangtze River floodplain, which has undergone both WLC and increasing nutrient loading over the last several decades. We applied a novel methodology that combines consistent evidence from both paleolimnological records and ecosystem modeling to overcome the hurdle of data insufficiency and to unravel the drivers and underlying mechanisms in ecosystem dynamics. We identified the occurrence of two regime shifts: one in 1963, characterized by the abrupt disappearance of submerged vegetation, and another around 1980, with strong algal blooms being observed thereafter. Using model scenarios, we further disentangled the roles of WLC and nutrient loading, showing that the 1963 shift was predominantly triggered by WLC, whereas the shift ca. 1980 was attributed to aggravated nutrient loading. Our analysis also shows interactions between these two stressors. Compared to the dynamics driven by nutrient loading alone, WLC reduced the critical P loading and resulted in earlier disappearance of submerged vegetation and emergence of algal blooms by approximately 26 and 10 years, respectively. Overall, our study reveals the significant role of hydrological regulation in driving shallow lake ecosystem dynamics, and it highlights the urgency of using multi-objective management criteria that includes ecological sustainability perspectives when

  15. Linking Three Gorges Dam and downstream hydrological regimes along the Yangtze River, China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mei, X.; Dai, Z.; Van Gelder, P.H.A.J.M.; Gao, J.

    2015-01-01

    The magnitude of anthropogenic influence, especially dam regulation, on hydrological system is of scientific and practical value for large river management. As the largest dam in the world by far, Three Gorges Dam (TGD) is expected to be a strong evidence on dam impacts on downstream hydrological

  16. Vegetation Cover Dynamics and Resilience to Climatic and Hydrological Disturbances in Seasonal Floodplain: The Effects of Hydrological Connectivity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linlu Shi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Floodplain wetlands are valuable ecosystems for maintaining biodiversity, but are vulnerable to hydrological modification and climatic extremes. The floodplain wetlands in the middle Yangtze region are biodiversity hotspots, particularly important for wintering migratory waterbirds. In recent years, extremely low winter water level events frequently occurred in the middle Yangtze River. The hydrological droughts greatly impacted the development and distribution of the wet meadows, one of the most important ecological components in the floodplains, which is vital for the survival of many migratory waterbirds wintering in the Yangtze region. To effectively manage the wet meadows, it is critical to pinpoint the drivers for their deterioration. In this study, we assessed the effects of hydrological connectivity on the ecological stability of wet meadow in Poyang Lake for the period of 2000 to 2016. We used the time series of MODIS EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index as a proxy for productivity to infer the ecological stability of wet meadows in terms of resistance and resilience. Our results showed that (1 the wet meadows developed in freely connected lakes had significantly higher resilience; (2 wet meadows colonizing controlled lakes had higher resistance to water level anomalies; (3 there was no difference in the resistance to rainfall anomaly between the two types of lakes; (4 the wet meadow in freely connected lakes might approach a tipping point and a regime shift might be imminent. Our findings suggest that adaptive management at regional- (i.e., operation of Three Gorges Dam and site-scale (e.g., regulating sand mining are needed to safeguard the long-term ecological stability of the system, which in term has strong implications for local, regional and global biodiversity conservation.

  17. Linking freshwater tidal hydrology to carbon cycling in bottomland hardwood wetlands

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carl C. Trettin; Brooke J. Czwartacki; Craig J. Allan; Devendra M. Amatya

    2016-01-01

    Hydrology is recognized as one of the principal factors regulating soil biogeochemical processes in forested wetlands. However, the consequences of tidally mediated hydrology are seldom considered within forested wetlands that occur along tidal water bodies. These tidal water bodies may be either fresh or brackish, and the tidal streams function as a reservoir to...

  18. The European 2015 drought from a hydrological perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laaha, Gregor; Gauster, Tobias; Delus, Claire; Vidal, Jean-Philippe

    2016-04-01

    The year 2015 was hot and dry in many European countries. A timely assessment of its hydrological impacts constitutes a difficult task, because stream flow records are often not available within 2-3 years after recording. Moreover, monitoring is performed on a national or even provincial basis. There are still major barriers of data access, especially for eastern European countries. Wherever data are available, their compatibility poses a major challenge. In two companion papers we summarize a collaborative initiative of members of UNESCO's FRIEND-Water program to perform a timely Pan-European assessment of the 2015 drought. In this second part we analyse the hydrological perspective based on streamflow observations. We first describe the data access strategy and the assessment method. We than present the results consisting of a range of low flow indices calculated for about 800 gauges across Europe. We compare the characteristics of the 2015 drought with the average, long-term conditions, and with the specific conditions of the 2003 drought, which is often used as a worst-case benchmark to gauge future drought events. Overall, the hydrological 2015 drought is characterised by a much smaller spatial extend than the 2003 drought. Extreme streamflows are observed mainly in a band North of the Alps spanning from E-France to Poland. In terms of flow magnitude, Czech, E-Germany and N-Austria were most affected. In this region the low flows often had return periods of 100 years and more, indicating that the event was much more severe than the 2003 event. In terms of deficit volumes, the centre of the event was more oriented towards S-Germany. Based on a detailed assessment of the spatio-temporal characteristics at various scales, we are able to explain the different behaviour in these regions by diverging wetness preconditions in the catchments. This suggest that the sole knowledge of atmospheric indices is not sufficient to characterise hydrological drought events. We

  19. Steponas Kolupaila's contribution to hydrological science development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valiuškevičius, Gintaras

    2017-08-01

    Steponas Kolupaila (1892-1964) was an important figure in 20th century hydrology and one of the pioneers of scientific water gauging in Europe. His research on the reliability of hydrological data and measurement methods was particularly important and contributed to the development of empirical hydrological calculation methods. Kolupaila was one of the first who standardised water-gauging methods internationally. He created several original hydrological and hydraulic calculation methods (his discharge assessment method for winter period was particularly significant). His innate abilities and frequent travel made Kolupaila a universal specialist in various fields and an active public figure. He revealed his multilayered scientific and cultural experiences in his most famous book, Bibliography of Hydrometry. This book introduced the unique European hydrological-measurement and computation methods to the community of world hydrologists at that time and allowed the development and adaptation of these methods across the world.

  20. Hydrology Domain Cyberinfrastructures: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horsburgh, J. S.

    2015-12-01

    Anticipated changes to climate, human population, land use, and urban form will alter the hydrology and availability of water within the water systems on which the world's population relies. Understanding the effects of these changes will be paramount in sustainably managing water resources, as well as maintaining associated capacity to provide ecosystem services (e.g., regulating flooding, maintaining instream flow during dry periods, cycling nutrients, and maintaining water quality). It will require better information characterizing both natural and human mediated hydrologic systems and enhanced ability to generate, manage, store, analyze, and share growing volumes of observational data. Over the past several years, a number of hydrology domain cyberinfrastructures have emerged or are currently under development that are focused on providing integrated access to and analysis of data for cross-domain synthesis studies. These include the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) Hydrologic Information System (HIS), the Critical Zone Observatory Information System (CZOData), HyroShare, the BiG CZ software system, and others. These systems have focused on sharing, integrating, and analyzing hydrologic observations data. This presentation will describe commonalities and differences in the cyberinfrastructure approaches used by these projects and will highlight successes and lessons learned in addressing the challenges of big and complex data. It will also identify new challenges and opportunities for next generation cyberinfrastructure and a next generation of cyber-savvy scientists and engineers as developers and users.

  1. Assessment of morphological and hydrological parameters of Oyun ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study involves evaluation of basin area, slopes, shape of the basin as morphological parameters and analysis of flow frequencies for flood and low flows, developing unit hydrograph and analysis of rainfall intensity distribution in the study area as hydrological parameters. The morphological analysis of the basin yielded ...

  2. Quantifying soil burn severity for hydrologic modeling to assess post-fire effects on sediment delivery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dobre, Mariana; Brooks, Erin; Lew, Roger; Kolden, Crystal; Quinn, Dylan; Elliot, William; Robichaud, Pete

    2017-04-01

    Soil erosion is a secondary fire effect with great implications for many ecosystem resources. Depending on the burn severity, topography, and the weather immediately after the fire, soil erosion can impact municipal water supplies, degrade water quality, and reduce reservoirs' storage capacity. Scientists and managers use field and remotely sensed data to quickly assess post-fire burn severity in ecologically-sensitive areas. From these assessments, mitigation activities are implemented to minimize post-fire flood and soil erosion and to facilitate post-fire vegetation recovery. Alternatively, land managers can use fire behavior and spread models (e.g. FlamMap, FARSITE, FOFEM, or CONSUME) to identify sensitive areas a priori, and apply strategies such as fuel reduction treatments to proactively minimize the risk of wildfire spread and increased burn severity. There is a growing interest in linking fire behavior and spread models with hydrology-based soil erosion models to provide site-specific assessment of mitigation treatments on post-fire runoff and erosion. The challenge remains, however, that many burn severity mapping and modeling products quantify vegetation loss rather than measuring soil burn severity. Wildfire burn severity is spatially heterogeneous and depends on the pre-fire vegetation cover, fuel load, topography, and weather. Severities also differ depending on the variable of interest (e.g. soil, vegetation). In the United States, Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) maps, derived from Landsat satellite images, are used as an initial burn severity assessment. BARC maps are classified from either a Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) or differenced Normalized Burned Ratio (dNBR) scene into four classes (Unburned, Low, Moderate, and High severity). The development of soil burn severity maps requires further manual field validation efforts to transform the BARC maps into a product more applicable for post-fire soil rehabilitation activities

  3. Forest hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ge Sun; Devendra Amatya; Steve McNulty

    2016-01-01

    Forest hydrology studies the distribution, storage, movement, and quality of water and the hydrological processes in forest-dominated ecosystems. Forest hydrological science is regarded as the foundation of modern integrated water¬shed management. This chapter provides an overview of the history of forest hydrology and basic principles of this unique branch of...

  4. Tapping environmental history to recreate America's colonial hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pastore, Christopher L.; Green, Mark B.; Bain, Daniel J.; Muñoz-Hernandez, Andrea; Vorosmarty, Charles J.; Arrigo, Jennifer; Brandt, Sara; Duncan, Jonathan M.; Greco, Francesca; Kim, Hyojin; Kumar, Sanjiv; Lally, Michael; Parolari, Anthony J.; Pellerin, Brian A.; Salant, Nira; Schlosser, Adam; Zalzal, Kate

    2010-01-01

    Throughout American history water resources have played integral roles in shaping patterns of human settlement and networks of biological and economic exchange. In turn, humans have altered hydrologic systems to meet their needs. A paucity of climate and water discharge data for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, has left America's preindustrial hydrology largely unstudied. As a result, there have been few detailed, quantifiable, regional assessments of hydrologic change between the time of first European settlement and the dawn of industrial expansion.

  5. Developing a Hydrologic Assessment Tool for Designing Bioretention in a watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baek, Sangsoo; Ligaray, Mayzonee; Park, Jeong-Pyo; Kwon, Yongsung; Cho, Kyung Hwa

    2017-04-01

    Continuous urbanization has negatively impacted the ecological and hydrological environments at the global, regional, and local scales. This issue was addressed by developing Low Impact Development (LID) practices to deliver better hydrologic function and improve the environmental, economic, social and cultural outcomes. This study developed a modeling software to simulate and optimize bioretentions among LID in a given watershed. The model calculated a detailed soil infiltration process in bioretention with hydrological conditions and hydraulic facilities (e.g. riser and underdrain) and also generated an optimized plan using Flow Duration Curve (FDC). The optimization result from the simulation demonstrated that the location and size of bioretention, as well as the soil texture, are important elements for an efficient bioretention. We hope that the developed software in this study could be useful for establishing an appropriate scheme of LID installment

  6. Evaluating hydrological response to forecasted land-use change—scenario testing with the automated geospatial watershed assessment (AGWA) tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kepner, William G.; Semmens, Darius J.; Hernandez, Mariano; Goodrich, David C.

    2009-01-01

    Envisioning and evaluating future scenarios has emerged as a critical component of both science and social decision-making. The ability to assess, report, map, and forecast the life support functions of ecosystems is absolutely critical to our capacity to make informed decisions to maintain the sustainable nature of our ecosystem services now and into the future. During the past two decades, important advances in the integration of remote imagery, computer processing, and spatial-analysis technologies have been used to develop landscape information that can be integrated with hydrologic models to determine long-term change and make predictive inferences about the future. Two diverse case studies in northwest Oregon (Willamette River basin) and southeastern Arizona (San Pedro River) were examined in regard to future land use scenarios relative to their impact on surface water conditions (e.g., sediment yield and surface runoff) using hydrologic models associated with the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) tool. The base reference grid for land cover was modified in both study locations to reflect stakeholder preferences 20 to 60 yrs into the future, and the consequences of landscape change were evaluated relative to the selected future scenarios. The two studies provide examples of integrating hydrologic modeling with a scenario analysis framework to evaluate plausible future forecasts and to understand the potential impact of landscape change on ecosystem services.

  7. A framework for human-hydrologic system model development integrating hydrology and water management: application to the Cutzamala water system in Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wi, S.; Freeman, S.; Brown, C.

    2017-12-01

    This study presents a general approach to developing computational models of human-hydrologic systems where human modification of hydrologic surface processes are significant or dominant. A river basin system is represented by a network of human-hydrologic response units (HHRUs) identified based on locations where river regulations happen (e.g., reservoir operation and diversions). Natural and human processes in HHRUs are simulated in a holistic framework that integrates component models representing rainfall-runoff, river routing, reservoir operation, flow diversion and water use processes. We illustrate the approach in a case study of the Cutzamala water system (CWS) in Mexico, a complex inter-basin water transfer system supplying the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA). The human-hydrologic system model for CWS (CUTZSIM) is evaluated in terms of streamflow and reservoir storages measured across the CWS and to water supplied for MCMA. The CUTZSIM improves the representation of hydrology and river-operation interaction and, in so doing, advances evaluation of system-wide water management consequences under altered climatic and demand regimes. The integrated modeling framework enables evaluation and simulation of model errors throughout the river basin, including errors in representation of the human component processes. Heretofore, model error evaluation, predictive error intervals and the resultant improved understanding have been limited to hydrologic processes. The general framework represents an initial step towards fuller understanding and prediction of the many and varied processes that determine the hydrologic fluxes and state variables in real river basins.

  8. Virtual hydrology observatory: an immersive visualization of hydrology modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Simon; Cruz-Neira, Carolina; Habib, Emad; Gerndt, Andreas

    2009-02-01

    The Virtual Hydrology Observatory will provide students with the ability to observe the integrated hydrology simulation with an instructional interface by using a desktop based or immersive virtual reality setup. It is the goal of the virtual hydrology observatory application to facilitate the introduction of field experience and observational skills into hydrology courses through innovative virtual techniques that mimic activities during actual field visits. The simulation part of the application is developed from the integrated atmospheric forecast model: Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), and the hydrology model: Gridded Surface/Subsurface Hydrologic Analysis (GSSHA). Both the output from WRF and GSSHA models are then used to generate the final visualization components of the Virtual Hydrology Observatory. The various visualization data processing techniques provided by VTK are 2D Delaunay triangulation and data optimization. Once all the visualization components are generated, they are integrated into the simulation data using VRFlowVis and VR Juggler software toolkit. VR Juggler is used primarily to provide the Virtual Hydrology Observatory application with fully immersive and real time 3D interaction experience; while VRFlowVis provides the integration framework for the hydrologic simulation data, graphical objects and user interaction. A six-sided CAVETM like system is used to run the Virtual Hydrology Observatory to provide the students with a fully immersive experience.

  9. Large sample hydrology in NZ: Spatial organisation in process diagnostics

    Science.gov (United States)

    McMillan, H. K.; Woods, R. A.; Clark, M. P.

    2013-12-01

    A key question in hydrology is how to predict the dominant runoff generation processes in any given catchment. This knowledge is vital for a range of applications in forecasting hydrological response and related processes such as nutrient and sediment transport. A step towards this goal is to map dominant processes in locations where data is available. In this presentation, we use data from 900 flow gauging stations and 680 rain gauges in New Zealand, to assess hydrological processes. These catchments range in character from rolling pasture, to alluvial plains, to temperate rainforest, to volcanic areas. By taking advantage of so many flow regimes, we harness the benefits of large-sample and comparative hydrology to study patterns and spatial organisation in runoff processes, and their relationship to physical catchment characteristics. The approach we use to assess hydrological processes is based on the concept of diagnostic signatures. Diagnostic signatures in hydrology are targeted analyses of measured data which allow us to investigate specific aspects of catchment response. We apply signatures which target the water balance, the flood response and the recession behaviour. We explore the organisation, similarity and diversity in hydrological processes across the New Zealand landscape, and how these patterns change with scale. We discuss our findings in the context of the strong hydro-climatic gradients in New Zealand, and consider the implications for hydrological model building on a national scale.

  10. Interpolation of Missing Precipitation Data Using Kernel Estimations for Hydrologic Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyojin Lee

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Precipitation is the main factor that drives hydrologic modeling; therefore, missing precipitation data can cause malfunctions in hydrologic modeling. Although interpolation of missing precipitation data is recognized as an important research topic, only a few methods follow a regression approach. In this study, daily precipitation data were interpolated using five different kernel functions, namely, Epanechnikov, Quartic, Triweight, Tricube, and Cosine, to estimate missing precipitation data. This study also presents an assessment that compares estimation of missing precipitation data through Kth nearest neighborhood (KNN regression to the five different kernel estimations and their performance in simulating streamflow using the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT hydrologic model. The results show that the kernel approaches provide higher quality interpolation of precipitation data compared with the KNN regression approach, in terms of both statistical data assessment and hydrologic modeling performance.

  11. Evaluating Hydrologic Response of an Agricultural Watershed for Watershed Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Manoj Kumar Jha

    2011-01-01

    This paper describes the hydrological assessment of an agricultural watershed in the Midwestern United States through the use of a watershed scale hydrologic model. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to the Maquoketa River watershed, located in northeast Iowa, draining an agriculture intensive area of about 5,000 km2. The inputs to the model were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency’s geographic information/database system called Better Assessment Science...

  12. Habitat and hydrology: assessing biological resources of the Suwannee River Estuarine System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raabe, Ellen A.; Edwards, Randy E.; McIvor, Carole C.; Grubbs, Jack W.; Dennis, George D.

    2007-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a pilot integrated-science study during 2002 and 2003 to map, describe, and evaluate benthic and emergent habitats in the Suwannee River Estuary on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Categories of aquatic, emergent, and terrestrial habitats were determined from hyperspectral imagery and integrated with hydrologic data to identify estuarine fish habitats. Maps of intertidal and benthic habitat were derived from 12-band, 4-m resolution hyperspectral imagery acquired in September 2002. Hydrologic data were collected from tidal creeks during the winter of 2002-03 and the summer-fall of 2003. Fish were sampled from tidal creeks during March 2003 using rivulet nets, throw traps, and seine nets. Habitat characteristics, hydrologic data, and fish assemblages were compared for tidal creeks north and south of the Suwannee River. Tidal creeks north of the river had more shoreline edge and shallow habitat than creeks to the south. Tidal creeks south of the river were generally of lower salinity (fresher) and supported more freshwater marsh and submerged aquatic vegetation. The southern creeks tended to be deeper but less sinuous than the northern creeks. Water quality and inundation were evaluated with hydrologic monitoring in the creeks. In-situ gauges, recording pressure and temperature, documented a net discharge of brackish to saline groundwater into the tidal creeks with pronounced flow during low tide. Groundwater flow into the creeks was most prominent north of the river. Combined fish-sampling results showed an overall greater abundance of organisms and greater species richness in the southern creeks, nominally attributed a greater range in water quality. Fish samples were dominated by juvenile spot, grass shrimp, bay anchovy, and silverside. The short time frame for hydrologic monitoring and the one-time fish-sampling effort were insufficient for forming definitive conclusions. However, the combination of hyperspectral imagery and

  13. Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brutsaert, Wilfried

    2005-08-01

    Water in its different forms has always been a source of wonder, curiosity and practical concern for humans everywhere. Hydrology - An Introduction presents a coherent introduction to the fundamental principles of hydrology, based on the course that Wilfried Brutsaert has taught at Cornell University for the last thirty years. Hydrologic phenomena are dealt with at spatial and temporal scales at which they occur in nature. The physics and mathematics necessary to describe these phenomena are introduced and developed, and readers will require a working knowledge of calculus and basic fluid mechanics. The book will be invaluable as a textbook for entry-level courses in hydrology directed at advanced seniors and graduate students in physical science and engineering. In addition, the book will be more broadly of interest to professional scientists and engineers in hydrology, environmental science, meteorology, agronomy, geology, climatology, oceanology, glaciology and other earth sciences. Emphasis on fundamentals Clarification of the underlying physical processes Applications of fluid mechanics in the natural environment

  14. Assessment of dam construction impact on hydrological regime changes in lowland river – A case of study: the Stare Miasto reservoir located on the Powa River

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sojka Mariusz

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the presented research is analysis and assessment of the Stare Miasto reservoir impact on the hydrological regime changes of the Powa River. The reservoir was built in 2006 and is located in the central part of Poland. The total area of inundation in normal conditions is 90.68 ha and its capacity is 2.159 mln m3. Hydrological regime alteration of the Powa River is analysed on the basis of daily flows from the Posoka gauge station observed during period 1974–2014. Assessment of hydrological regime changes is carried out on the basis of Range of Variability Approach (RVA method. All calculations are made by means of Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA software version 7.1.0.10. The analysis shows that the Stare Miasto reservoir has a moderate impact on hydrological regime of the Powa River. Construction of the reservoir has positive effect on stability of minimal flows, which are important for protection of river ecosystems. The results obtained indicate that the Stare Miasto reservoir reduces a spring peak flow and enables to moderate control of floods.

  15. Conceptual, experimental and computational approaches to support performance assessment of hydrology and chemical transport at Yucca Mountain; Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Narasimhan, T.N.; Wang, J.S.Y. [Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States)

    1992-07-01

    The authors of this report have been participating in the Sandia National Laboratory`s hydrologic performance assessment of the Yucca Mountain, Nevada, since 1983. The scope of this work is restricted to the unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain and to technical questions about hydrology and chemical transport. The issues defined here are not to be confused with the elaborate hierarchy of issues that forms the framework of the US Department of Energy plans for characterizing the site (DOE, 1989). The overall task of hydrologic performance assessment involves issues related to hydrology, geochemistry, and energy transport in a highly heterogeneous natural geologic system which will be perturbed in a major way by the disposal activity. Therefore, a rational evaluation of the performance assessment issues must be based on an integrated appreciation of the aforesaid interacting processes. Accordingly, a hierarchical approach is taken in this report, proceeding from the statement of the broad features of the site that make it the site for intensive studies and the rationale for disposal strategy, through the statement of the fundamental questions that need to be answered, to the identification of the issues that need resolution. Having identified the questions and issues, the report then outlines the tasks to be undertaken to resolve the issues. The report consists essentially of two parts. The first part deals with the definition of issues summarized above. The second part summarizes the findings of the authors between 1983 and 1989 under the activities of the former Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) and the current YMP.

  16. Meta-analysis of field-saturated hydraulic conductivity recovery following wildland fire: Applications for hydrologic model parameterization and resilience assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ebel, Brian A.; Martin, Deborah

    2017-01-01

    Hydrologic recovery after wildfire is critical for restoring the ecosystem services of protecting of human lives and infrastructure from hazards and delivering water supply of sufficient quality and quantity. Recovery of soil-hydraulic properties, such as field-saturated hydraulic conductivity (Kfs), is a key factor for assessing the duration of watershed-scale flash flood and debris flow risks after wildfire. Despite the crucial role of Kfs in parameterizing numerical hydrologic models to predict the magnitude of postwildfire run-off and erosion, existing quantitative relations to predict Kfsrecovery with time since wildfire are lacking. Here, we conduct meta-analyses of 5 datasets from the literature that measure or estimate Kfs with time since wildfire for longer than 3-year duration. The meta-analyses focus on fitting 2 quantitative relations (linear and non-linear logistic) to explain trends in Kfs temporal recovery. The 2 relations adequately described temporal recovery except for 1 site where macropore flow dominated infiltration and Kfs recovery. This work also suggests that Kfs can have low hydrologic resistance (large postfire changes), and moderate to high hydrologic stability (recovery time relative to disturbance recurrence interval) and resilience (recovery of hydrologic function and provision of ecosystem services). Future Kfs relations could more explicitly incorporate processes such as soil-water repellency, ground cover and soil structure regeneration, macropore recovery, and vegetation regrowth.

  17. Evaluation of climate change impact on extreme hydrological event ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Changes in hydrological extremes will have implications on the design of future hydraulic structures, flood plain development, and water resource management. This study assesses the potential impact of climate change on extreme hydrological events in the Akaki River catchment area in and around Addis Ababa city.

  18. Statistical assessment and hydrological utility of the latest multi-satellite precipitation analysis IMERG in Ganjiang River basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Na; Tang, Guoqiang; Zhao, Ping; Hong, Yang; Gou, Yabin; Yang, Kai

    2017-01-01

    This study aims to statistically and hydrologically assess the hydrological utility of the latest Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals from Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) multi-satellite constellation over the mid-latitude Ganjiang River basin in China. The investigations are conducted at hourly and 0.1° resolutions throughout the rainy season from March 12 to September 30, 2014. Two high-quality quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) datasets, i.e., a gauge-corrected radar mosaic QPE product (RQPE) and a highly dense network of 1200 rain gauges, are used as the reference. For the implementation of the study, first, we compare IMERG product and RQPE with rain gauge-interpolated data, respectively. The results indicate that both remote sensing products can estimate precipitation fairly well over the basin, while RQPE significantly outperforms IMERG product in almost all the studied cases. The correlation coefficients of RQPE (CC = 0.98 and CC = 0.67) are much higher than those of IMERG product (CC = 0.80 and CC = 0.33) at basin and grid scales, respectively. Then, the hydrological assessment is conducted with the Coupled Routing and Excess Storage (CREST) model under multiple parameterization scenarios, in which the model is calibrated using the rain gauge-interpolated data, RQPE, and IMERG products respectively. During the calibration period (from March 12 to May 31), the simulated streamflow based on rain gauge-interpolated data shows the highest Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient efficiency (NSCE) value (0.92), closely followed by the RQPE (NSCE = 0.84), while IMERG product performs barely acceptable (NSCE = 0.56). During the validation period (from June 1 to September 30), the three rainfall datasets are used to force the CREST model based on all the three calibrated parameter sets (i.e., nine combinations in total). RQPE outperforms rain gauge-interpolated data and IMERG product in all validation scenarios, possibly due to its advantageous capability

  19. Hydrologic modeling of the Columbia Plateau basalts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dove, F.H.; Cole, C.R.; Bond, F.W.; Zimmerman, D.A.

    1982-09-01

    The Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation (ONWI) directed the Assessment of Effectiveness of Geologic Isolation Systems (AEGIS) Program to conduct a technology demonstration of current performance assessment techniques for the Department of Energy (DOE) as applied to a nuclear waste repository in the Columbia Plateau Basalts. Hypothetical repository coordinates were selected for an actual geographical setting on the Hanford Reservation in the state of Washington. Published hydrologic and geologic data used in the analyses were gathered in 1979 or earlier. The hydrologic simulation was divided into three major parts: (1) aquifer recharge calculations, (2) a regional hydrologic model, and (3) a local hydrologic model of the Pasco Basin. The presentation discusses the regional model. An estimate of the amount of water transmitted through the groundwater system was required to bound the transmissivity values and to estimate the transmissivity distributions for the deeper basalts. The multiple layer two-dimensional Variable Thickness Transient (VTT) code was selected as appropriate for the amount of data available and for the conditions existing in the regional systems. This model uses a finite difference formulation to represent the partial differential flow equation. The regional study area as defined for the VTT model was divided into 55 by 55 square pattern with each grid 5 kilometers on a side. The regional system was modeled as a held potential surface layer and two underlying basalt layers. The regional model established the boundary conditions for the hydrologic model the Pasco Basin

  20. Hydrology Project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    Research carried out in the 'Hydrology Project' of the Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura', Piracicaba, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, are described. Such research comprises: Amazon hydrology and Northeast hydrology. Techniques for the measurement of isotope ratios are used. (M.A.) [pt

  1. Radiotracer techniques in hydrological studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oladipo, M.O.A.; Funtua, I.I.

    2000-07-01

    The use of radioactive tracers particularly short-lived radioisotopes frequently offers advantages over conventional methods of analyses. Applications of nuclear techniques in the field of hydrology constitute important and sometimes unique tools for obtaining critical information needed for water resources management. Essentially, radiotracer techniques offer a safe, cost effective and powerful tool in the assessment, management and protection of water resources. The Centre for Energy Research and Training, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria of late has been offering consultancy services to some industries in the area of radiotracer technique. The first nuclear reactor in Nigeria, the MNSR, is expected to be commissioned in the Centre very soon. Many short-lived radioisotopes such as Cu-64, Ga-72, Br-82, Hg-197 etc which are very important in hydrological studies can be produced by the MNSR facility. This article reports on the basic principles of the technique and its roles in hydrology

  2. Isotope hydrology: applied discipline in earth sciences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Froehlich, K.; Rozanski, K.; Araguas Araguas, L.

    1998-01-01

    The discipline 'isotope hydrology' is being reviewed from the perspective of the Isotope Hydrology Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. The Section was created in the late fifties and is activities involved int the scientific progress of the discipline. The role of the IAEA in the development of isotope hydrology has always been of a dual nature: on one hand, the Section has been and still is heavily engaged in supporting and coordinating further development of isotope methodologies, on the other hand, it serves as an interface between the methodological development in research institutes and the applied work using proven techniques in field projects on water resources assessment and management. The paper provides a brief overview of applications of isotope-based methodologies in hydrology, with emphasis on new trends and challenges related to man's growing impact on the water cycle. This contribution is a tribute to the memory of the former Head of the Isotope Hydrology Section, Jean-Charles Fontes, to whom we owe so much. (authors)

  3. Assessment of hydrologic transport of radionuclides from the Gnome underground nuclear test site, New Mexico

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Earman, S.; Chapman, J.; Pohlmann, K.; Andricevic, R.

    1996-09-01

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is operating an environmental restoration program to characterize, remediate, and close non-Nevada Test Site locations that were used for nuclear testing. Evaluation of radionuclide transport by groundwater from these sites is an important part of the preliminary site risk analysis. These evaluations are undertaken to allow prioritization of the test areas in terms of risk, provide a quantitative basis for discussions with regulators and the public about future work at the sites, and provide a framework for assessing data needs to be filled by site characterization. The Gnome site in southeastern New Mexico was the location of an underground detonation of a 3.5-kiloton nuclear device in 1961, and a hydrologic tracer test using radionuclides in 1963. The tracer test involved the injection of tritium, 90 Sr, and 137 Cs directly into the Culebra Dolomite, a nine to ten-meter-thick aquifer located approximately 150 in below land surface. The Gnome nuclear test was carried out in the Salado Formation, a thick salt deposit located 200 in below the Culebra. Because salt behaves plastically, the cavity created by the explosion is expected to close, and although there is no evidence that migration has actually occurred, it is assumed that radionuclides from the cavity are released into the overlying Culebra Dolomite during this closure process. Transport calculations were performed using the solute flux method, with input based on the limited data available for the site. Model results suggest that radionuclides may be present in concentrations exceeding drinking water regulations outside the drilling exclusion boundary established by DOE. Calculated mean tritium concentrations peak at values exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standard of 20,000 pCi/L at distances of up to almost eight kilometers west of the nuclear test

  4. Afforestation, Subsequent Forest Fires and Provision of Hydrological Services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nunes, João Pedro; Naranjo Quintanilla, Paula; Santos, Juliana Marisa; Serpa, Dalila; Carvalho-Santos, Cláudia; Rocha, João; Keizer, Jan Jacob; Keesstra, Saskia Deborah

    2018-01-01

    Mediterranean landscapes have experienced extensive abandonment and reforestation in recent decades, which should have improved the provision of hydrological services such as flood mitigation, soil erosion protection and water quality regulation. However, these forests are fire-prone, and the

  5. Hydrological and Meteorological Role of Forests: Implications for the Regulation of Water and Energy Balances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salazar, J. F.; Villegas, J. C.; Bettin, D. M.; Molina, R.; Henao, J. J.; Rodríguez, E.; Rendón, A.; Hoyos, I.; Poveda, G.

    2016-12-01

    In last decades, there has been increasing debate about the hydrological and meteorological role of forests, particularly regarding its role in the regulation of the energy and water balances. Here we summarize results from an ongoing research program studying this problem. First, we introduce the notion of ecohydrological scaling to show the existence of two alternative states of regulated or unregulated streamflows in the main tributaries of the Amazon river basin. The transition between both states is associated with the loss of forest cover, with a potential critical threshold at around 40% forest loss in the Amazon. These results imply that large-scale forest loss can force the entire Amazon basin system beyond a critical threshold where its natural streamflow regulation is lost. More generally, our proposed framework provides insights for a physical interpretation of the scaling relations in river basins, as well as foundations and tools to develop early warnings of critical transitions in river basins. Second, we show that long-term rainfall-streamflow ratios converge to low values with low spatial variability in forested basins of the world, independent of location, climatic regime, basin size or forest type. We interpret this as evidence that high forest cover provides long-term regulation of the water balance. Third, we examine the linkage between the presence of tropical forests in South America and the long-term spatial distribution of continental precipitation, and found evidence suggesting that the Amazon forests enhance the atmospheric rivers flowing inland from the Atlantic ocean, particularly during the austral and boreal summers. The associated effects on precipitation may be highly relevant for water availability in river basins located downstream such atmospheric rivers, such as the La Plata and the Orinoco river basins. Finally, we explore the linkage between forest-induced temperature inversions and the vertical transport of atmospheric

  6. Spatially explicit scenario analysis for hydrologic services in an urbanizing agricultural watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, J.; Booth, E.; Carpenter, S. R.; Turner, M.

    2013-12-01

    The sustainability of hydrologic services (benefits to people generated by terrestrial ecosystem effects on freshwater) is challenged by changes in climate and land use. Despite the importance of hydrologic services, few studies have investigated how the provision of ecosystem services related to freshwater quantity and quality may vary in magnitude and spatial pattern for alternative future trajectories. Such analyses may provide useful information for sustaining freshwater resources in the face of a complex and uncertain future. We analyzed the supply of multiple hydrologic services from 2010 to 2070 across a large urbanizing agricultural watershed in the Upper Midwest of the United States, and asked the following: (i) What are the potential trajectories for the supply of hydrologic services under contrasting but plausible future scenarios? (ii) Where on the landscape is the delivery of hydrologic services most vulnerable to future changes? The Nested Watershed scenario represents extreme climate change (warmer temperatures and more frequent extreme events) and a concerted response from institutions, whereas in the Investment in Innovation scenario, climate change is less severe and technological innovations play a major role. Despite more extreme climate in the Nested Watershed scenario, all hydrologic services (i.e., freshwater supply, surface water quality, flood regulation) were maintained or enhanced (~30%) compared to the 2010 baseline, by strict government interventions that prioritized freshwater resources. Despite less extreme climate in the Investment in Innovation scenario and advances in green technology, only surface water quality and flood regulation were maintained or increased (~80%); freshwater supply declined by 25%, indicating a potential future tradeoff between water quality and quantity. Spatially, the locations of greatest vulnerability (i.e., decline) differed by service and among scenarios. In the Nested Watershed scenario, although

  7. Isotope hydrology: A historical overview of achievements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-01-01

    The IAEA's efforts in the water sector cover all aspects of the three main categories of isotope methodologies, such as the use of radioactive isotopes as tracers for site-specific investigations related to water movement; the use of sealed radioactive sources for in-situ measurement of hydrological field parameters; and the use of naturally occurring isotopic species for the assessment and study of water occurrence, genesis and flow pathways/dynamics at regional-scale hydrological systems

  8. Trend assessment: applications for hydrology and climate research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kallache, M.; Rust, H. W.; Kropp, J.

    2005-02-01

    The assessment of trends in climatology and hydrology still is a matter of debate. Capturing typical properties of time series, like trends, is highly relevant for the discussion of potential impacts of global warming or flood occurrences. It provides indicators for the separation of anthropogenic signals and natural forcing factors by distinguishing between deterministic trends and stochastic variability. In this contribution river run-off data from gauges in Southern Germany are analysed regarding their trend behaviour by combining a deterministic trend component and a stochastic model part in a semi-parametric approach. In this way the trade-off between trend and autocorrelation structure can be considered explicitly. A test for a significant trend is introduced via three steps: First, a stochastic fractional ARIMA model, which is able to reproduce short-term as well as long-term correlations, is fitted to the empirical data. In a second step, wavelet analysis is used to separate the variability of small and large time-scales assuming that the trend component is part of the latter. Finally, a comparison of the overall variability to that restricted to small scales results in a test for a trend. The extraction of the large-scale behaviour by wavelet analysis provides a clue concerning the shape of the trend.

  9. Assessing the cumulative impacts of geographically isolated wetlands on watershed hydrology using the SWAT model coupled with improved wetland modules.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, S; Yeo, I-Y; Lang, M W; Sadeghi, A M; McCarty, G W; Moglen, G E; Evenson, G R

    2018-06-07

    Despite recognizing the importance of wetlands in the Coastal Plain of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW) in terms of ecosystem services, our understanding of wetland functions has mostly been limited to individual wetlands and overall catchment-scale wetland functions have rarely been investigated. This study is aimed at assessing the cumulative impacts of wetlands on watershed hydrology for an agricultural watershed within the Coastal Plain of the CBW using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). We employed two improved wetland modules for enhanced representation of physical processes and spatial distribution of riparian wetlands (RWs) and geographically isolated wetlands (GIWs). This study focused on GIWs as their hydrological impacts on watershed hydrology are poorly understood and GIWs are poorly protected. Multiple wetland scenarios were prepared by removing all or portions of the baseline GIW condition indicated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory geospatial dataset. We further compared the impacts of GIWs and RWs on downstream flow (i.e., streamflow at the watershed outlet). Our simulation results showed that GIWs strongly influenced downstream flow by altering water transport mechanisms in upstream areas. Loss of all GIWs reduced both water routed to GIWs and water infiltrated into the soil through the bottom of GIWs, leading to an increase in surface runoff of 9% and a decrease in groundwater flow of 7% in upstream areas. These changes resulted in increased variability of downstream flow in response to extreme flow conditions. GIW loss also induced an increase in month to month variability of downstream flow and a decrease in the baseflow contribution to streamflow. Loss of all GIWs was shown to cause a greater fluctuation of downstream flow than loss of all RWs for this study site, due to a greater total water storage capacity of GIWs. Our findings indicate that GIWs play a significant role in controlling hydrological

  10. On the potentials of multiple climate variables in assessing the spatio-temporal characteristics of hydrological droughts over the Volta Basin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ndehedehe, Christopher E; Awange, Joseph L; Corner, Robert J; Kuhn, Michael; Okwuashi, Onuwa

    2016-07-01

    Multiple drought episodes over the Volta basin in recent reports may lead to food insecurity and loss of revenue. However, drought studies over the Volta basin are rather generalised and largely undocumented due to sparse ground observations and unsuitable framework to determine their space-time occurrence. In this study, we examined the utility of standardised indicators (standardised precipitation index (SPI), standardised runoff index (SRI), standardised soil moisture index (SSI), and multivariate standardised drought index (MSDI)) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) derived terrestrial water storage to assess hydrological drought characteristics over the basin. In order to determine the space-time patterns of hydrological drought in the basin, Independent Component Analysis (ICA), a higher order statistical technique was employed. The results show that SPI and SRI exhibit inconsistent behaviour in observed wet years presupposing a non-linear relationship that reflects the slow response of river discharge to precipitation especially after a previous extreme dry period. While the SPI and SSI show a linear relationship with a correlation of 0.63, the correlation between the MSDIs derived from combining precipitation/river discharge and precipitation/soil moisture indicates a significant value of 0.70 and shows an improved skill in hydrological drought monitoring over the Volta basin during the study period. The ICA-derived spatio-temporal hydrological drought patterns show Burkina Faso and the Lake Volta areas as predominantly drought zones. Further, the statistically significant negative correlations of pacific decadal oscillations (0.39 and 0.25) with temporal evolutions of drought in Burkina Faso and Ghana suggest the possible influence of low frequency large scale oscillations in the observed wet and dry regimes over the basin. Finally, our approach in drought assessment over the Volta basin contributes to a broad framework for hydrological

  11. A spatial assessment of stream-flow characteristics and hydrologic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2016-04-02

    Apr 2, 2016 ... the other site categories which did not significantly differ from each other. ... and detect altered hydrologic variables at different sites post dam construction. .... categories. Altered IHA Group 2 variables (magnitude and ..... catchment are dependent on the presence, position and distance from the dam.

  12. Bioassessment in nonperennial streams: Hydrologic stability influences assessment validity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazor, R. D.; Stein, E. D.; Schiff, K.; Ode, P.; Rehn, A.

    2011-12-01

    Nonperennial streams pose a challenge for bioassessment, as assessment tools developed in perennial streams may not work in these systems. For example, indices of biotic integrity (IBIs) developed in perennial streams may give improper indications of impairment in nonperennial streams, or may be unstable. We sampled benthic macroinvertebrates from 12 nonperennial streams in southern California. In addition, we deployed loggers to obtain continuous measures of flow. 3 sites were revisited over 2 years. For each site, we calculated several metrics, IBIs, and O/E scores to determine if assessments were consistent and valid throughout the summer. Hydrology varied widely among the streams, with several streams drying between sampling events. IBIs suggested good ecological health at the beginning of the study, but declined sharply at some sites. Multivariate ordination suggested that, despite differences among sites, changes in community structure were similar, with shifts from Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera to Coleoptera and more tolerant organisms. Site revisits revealed a surprising level of variability, as 2 of the 3 revisited sites had perennial or near-perennial flow in the second year of sampling. IBI scores were more consistent in streams with stable hydrographs than in those with strongly intermittent hydrographs. These results suggest that nonperennial streams can be monitored successfully, but they may require short index periods and distinct metrics from those used in perennial streams. In addition, better approaches to mapping nonperennial streams are required.

  13. Amplification of wildfire area burnt by hydrological drought in the humid tropics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taufik, Muh; Torfs, Paul J. J. F.; Uijlenhoet, Remko; Jones, Philip D.; Murdiyarso, Daniel; van Lanen, Henny A. J.

    2017-06-01

    Borneo's diverse ecosystems, which are typical humid tropical conditions, are deteriorating rapidly, as the area is experiencing recurrent large-scale wildfires, affecting atmospheric composition and influencing regional climate processes. Studies suggest that climate-driven drought regulates wildfires, but these overlook subsurface processes leading to hydrological drought, an important driver. Here, we show that models which include hydrological processes better predict area burnt than those solely based on climate data. We report that the Borneo landscape has experienced a substantial hydrological drying trend since the early twentieth century, leading to progressive tree mortality, more severe than in other tropical regions. This has caused massive wildfires in lowland Borneo during the past two decades, which we show are clustered in years with large areas of hydrological drought coinciding with strong El Niño events. Statistical modelling evidence shows amplifying wildfires and greater area burnt in response to El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strength, when hydrology is considered. These results highlight the importance of considering hydrological drought for wildfire prediction, and we recommend that hydrology should be considered in future studies of the impact of projected ENSO strength, including effects on tropical ecosystems, and biodiversity conservation.

  14. Impact of spatio-temporal scale of adjustment on variational assimilation of hydrologic and hydrometeorological data in operational distributed hydrologic models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, H.; Seo, D.; McKee, P.; Corby, R.

    2009-12-01

    One of the large challenges in data assimilation (DA) into distributed hydrologic models is to reduce the large degrees of freedom involved in the inverse problem to avoid overfitting. To assess the sensitivity of the performance of DA to the dimensionality of the inverse problem, we design and carry out real-world experiments in which the control vector in variational DA (VAR) is solved at different scales in space and time, e.g., lumped, semi-distributed, and fully-distributed in space, and hourly, 6 hourly, etc., in time. The size of the control vector is related to the degrees of freedom in the inverse problem. For the assessment, we use the prototype 4-dimenational variational data assimilator (4DVAR) that assimilates streamflow, precipitation and potential evaporation data into the NWS Hydrology Laboratory’s Research Distributed Hydrologic Model (HL-RDHM). In this talk, we present the initial results for a number of basins in Oklahoma and Texas.

  15. [Socio-hydrology: A review].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Jing-yi; Zhao, Wen-wu; Fang, Xue-ning

    2015-04-01

    Socio-hydrology is an interdiscipline of hydrology, nature, society and humanity. It mainly explores the two-way feedbacks of coupled human-water system and its dynamic mechanism of co-evolution, and makes efforts to solve the issues that human faces today such as sustainable utilization of water resources. Starting from the background, formation process, and fundamental concept of socio-hydrology, this paper summarized the features of socio-hydrology. The main research content of socio-hydrology was reduced to three aspects: The tradeoff in coupled human-water system, interests in water resources management and virtual water research in coupled human-water system. And its differences as well as relations with traditional hydrology, eco-hydrology and hydro-sociology were dwelled on. Finally, with hope to promote the development of socio-hydrology researches in China, the paper made prospects for the development of the subject from following aspects: Completing academic content and deepening quantitative research, focusing on scale studies of socio-hydrology, fusing socio-hydrology and eco-hydrology.

  16. A spatial assessment of stream-flow characteristics and hydrologic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The global hydrologic regime has been intensively altered through activities such as dam construction, water abstraction, and inter-basin transfers. This paper uses the Range of Variability Approach (RVA) and daily stream flow records from nine gauging stations to characterize stream-flow post dam construction in the ...

  17. Application of bivariate mapping for hydrological classification and analysis of temporal change and scale effects in Switzerland

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Speich, Matthias J.R.; Bernhard, Luzi; Teuling, Ryan; Zappa, Massimiliano

    2015-01-01

    Hydrological classification schemes are important tools for assessing the impacts of a changing climate on the hydrology of a region. In this paper, we present bivariate mapping as a simple means of classifying hydrological data for a quantitative and qualitative assessment of temporal change.

  18. Hydrological change: Towards a consistent approach to assess changes on both floods and droughts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quesada-Montano, Beatriz; Di Baldassarre, Giuliano; Rangecroft, Sally; Van Loon, Anne F.

    2018-01-01

    Several studies have found that the frequency, magnitude and spatio-temporal distribution of droughts and floods have significantly increased in many regions of the world. Yet, most of the methods used in detecting trends in hydrological extremes 1) focus on either floods or droughts, and/or 2) base their assessment on characteristics that, even though useful for trend identification, cannot be directly used in decision making, e.g. integrated water resources management and disaster risk reduction. In this paper, we first discuss the need for a consistent approach to assess changes on both floods and droughts, and then propose a method based on the theory of runs and threshold levels. Flood and drought changes were assessed in terms of frequency, length and surplus/deficit volumes. This paper also presents an example application using streamflow data from two hydrometric stations along the Po River basin (Italy), Piacenza and Pontelagoscuro, and then discuss opportunities and challenges of the proposed method.

  19. Techniques for assessing the effects of afforestation on catchment hydrology: the South African experience

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Dye, PJ

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available research into the effects of forest plantations on catchment hydrology. This paper provides a brief overview of some of the techniques employed by South African hydrological researchers to understand the link between afforestation and catchment water yields....

  20. Assessment of a conceptual hydrological model and artificial neural networks for daily outflows forecasting

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rezaeianzadeh, M.; Stein, A.; Tabari, H.; Abghari, H.; Jalalkamali, N.; Hosseinipour, E.Z.; Singh, V.P.

    2013-01-01

    Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are used by hydrologists and engineers to forecast flows at the outlet of a watershed. They are employed in particular where hydrological data are limited. Despite these developments, practitioners still prefer conventional hydrological models. This study applied

  1. Approaches to modelling hydrology and ecosystem interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silberstein, Richard P.

    2014-05-01

    As the pressures of industry, agriculture and mining on groundwater resources increase there is a burgeoning un-met need to be able to capture these multiple, direct and indirect stresses in a formal framework that will enable better assessment of impact scenarios. While there are many catchment hydrological models and there are some models that represent ecological states and change (e.g. FLAMES, Liedloff and Cook, 2007), these have not been linked in any deterministic or substantive way. Without such coupled eco-hydrological models quantitative assessments of impacts from water use intensification on water dependent ecosystems under changing climate are difficult, if not impossible. The concept would include facility for direct and indirect water related stresses that may develop around mining and well operations, climate stresses, such as rainfall and temperature, biological stresses, such as diseases and invasive species, and competition such as encroachment from other competing land uses. Indirect water impacts could be, for example, a change in groundwater conditions has an impact on stream flow regime, and hence aquatic ecosystems. This paper reviews previous work examining models combining ecology and hydrology with a view to developing a conceptual framework linking a biophysically defensable model that combines ecosystem function with hydrology. The objective is to develop a model capable of representing the cumulative impact of multiple stresses on water resources and associated ecosystem function.

  2. Assessment of the Impact of Climate Change on the Water Balances and Flooding Conditions of Peninsular Malaysia watersheds by a Coupled Numerical Climate Model - Watershed Hydrology Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ercan, A.; Kavvas, M. L.; Ishida, K.; Chen, Z. Q.; Amin, M. Z. M.; Shaaban, A. J.

    2017-12-01

    Impacts of climate change on the hydrologic processes under future climate change conditions were assessed over various watersheds of Peninsular Malaysia by means of a coupled regional climate and physically-based hydrology model that utilized an ensemble of future climate change projections. An ensemble of 15 different future climate realizations from coarse resolution global climate models' (GCMs) projections for the 21st century were dynamically downscaled to 6 km resolution over Peninsular Malaysia by a regional numerical climate model, which was then coupled with the watershed hydrology model WEHY through the atmospheric boundary layer over the selected watersheds of Peninsular Malaysia. Hydrologic simulations were carried out at hourly increments and at hillslope-scale in order to assess the impacts of climate change on the water balances and flooding conditions at the selected watersheds during the 21st century. The coupled regional climate and hydrology model was simulated for a duration of 90 years for each of the 15 realizations. It is demonstrated that the increase in mean monthly flows due to the impact of expected climate change during 2040-2100 is statistically significant at the selected watersheds. Furthermore, the flood frequency analyses for the selected watersheds indicate an overall increasing trend in the second half of the 21st century.

  3. Repurposing of open data through large scale hydrological modelling - hypeweb.smhi.se

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strömbäck, Lena; Andersson, Jafet; Donnelly, Chantal; Gustafsson, David; Isberg, Kristina; Pechlivanidis, Ilias; Strömqvist, Johan; Arheimer, Berit

    2015-04-01

    Hydrological modelling demands large amounts of spatial data, such as soil properties, land use, topography, lakes and reservoirs, ice and snow coverage, water management (e.g. irrigation patterns and regulations), meteorological data and observed water discharge in rivers. By using such data, the hydrological model will in turn provide new data that can be used for new purposes (i.e. re-purposing). This presentation will give an example of how readily available open data from public portals have been re-purposed by using the Hydrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE) model in a number of large-scale model applications covering numerous subbasins and rivers. HYPE is a dynamic, semi-distributed, process-based, and integrated catchment model. The model output is launched as new Open Data at the web site www.hypeweb.smhi.se to be used for (i) Climate change impact assessments on water resources and dynamics; (ii) The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) for characterization and development of measure programs to improve the ecological status of water bodies; (iii) Design variables for infrastructure constructions; (iv) Spatial water-resource mapping; (v) Operational forecasts (1-10 days and seasonal) on floods and droughts; (vi) Input to oceanographic models for operational forecasts and marine status assessments; (vii) Research. The following regional domains have been modelled so far with different resolutions (number of subbasins within brackets): Sweden (37 000), Europe (35 000), Arctic basin (30 000), La Plata River (6 000), Niger River (800), Middle-East North-Africa (31 000), and the Indian subcontinent (6 000). The Hype web site provides several interactive web applications for exploring results from the models. The user can explore an overview of various water variables for historical and future conditions. Moreover the user can explore and download historical time series of discharge for each basin and explore the performance of the model

  4. Analysis of Hydrological Sensitivity for Flood Risk Assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanjay Kumar Sharma

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In order for the Indian government to maximize Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM, the Brahmaputra River has played an important role in the undertaking of the Pilot Basin Study (PBS due to the Brahmaputra River’s annual regional flooding. The selected Kulsi River—a part of Brahmaputra sub-basin—experienced severe floods in 2007 and 2008. In this study, the Rainfall-Runoff-Inundation (RRI hydrological model was used to simulate the recent historical flood in order to understand and improve the integrated flood risk management plan. The ultimate objective was to evaluate the sensitivity of hydrologic simulation using different Digital Elevation Model (DEM resources, coupled with DEM smoothing techniques, with a particular focus on the comparison of river discharge and flood inundation extent. As a result, the sensitivity analysis showed that, among the input parameters, the RRI model is highly sensitive to Manning’s roughness coefficient values for flood plains, followed by the source of the DEM, and then soil depth. After optimizing its parameters, the simulated inundation extent showed that the smoothing filter was more influential than its simulated discharge at the outlet. Finally, the calibrated and validated RRI model simulations agreed well with the observed discharge and the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS-detected flood extents.

  5. Application of the ELOHA Framework to Regulated Rivers in the Upper Tennessee River Basin: A Case Study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McManamay, Ryan A [ORNL; Orth, Dr. Donald J [Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech); Dolloff, Dr. Charles A [USDA Forest Service, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Tech; Mathews, David C [Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

    2013-01-01

    In order for habitat restoration in regulated rivers to be effective at large scales, broadly applicable frameworks are needed that provide measurable objectives and contexts for management. The Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA) framework was created as a template to assess hydrologic alterations, develop relationships between altered streamflow and ecology, and establish environmental flow standards. We tested the utility of ELOHA in informing flow restoration applications for fish and riparian communities in regulated rivers in the Upper Tennessee River Basin (UTRB). We followed the steps of ELOHA to generate flow alteration-ecological response relationships and then determined whether those relationships could predict fish and riparian responses to flow restoration in the Cheoah River, a regulated system within the UTRB. Although ELOHA provided a robust template to construct hydrologic information and predict hydrology for ungaged locations, our results do not support the assertion that over-generalized univariate relationships between flow and ecology can produce results sufficient to guide management in regulated rivers. After constructing multivariate models, we successfully developed predictive relationships between flow alterations and fish/riparian responses. In accordance with model predictions, riparian encroachment displayed consistent decreases with increases in flow magnitude in the Cheoah River; however, fish richness did not increase as predicted four years post- restoration. Our results suggest that altered temperature and substrate and the current disturbance regime may have reduced opportunities for fish species colonization. Our case study highlights the need for interdisciplinary science in defining environmental flows for regulated rivers and the need for adaptive management approaches once flows are restored.

  6. Evaluation TRMM Rainfall Data In Hydrological Modeling For An Ungaged In Lhasa River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ji, H. J.; Liu, J.

    2017-12-01

    Evaluation TRMM Rainfall Data In Hydrological Modeling For An Ungaged In Lhasa River BasinHaijuan Ji1* Jintao Liu1,2 Shanshan Xu1___________________ 1College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, People's Republic of China 2State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, People's Republic of China ___________________ * Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-025-83786973; Fax: +86-025-83786606. E-mail address: Hhu201510@163.com (H.J. Ji). Abstract: The Tibetan Plateau plays an important role in regulating the regional hydrological processes due to its high elevations and being the headwaters of many major Asian river basins. If familiar with the distribution of hydrological characteristics, will help us improve the level of development and utilization the water resources. However, there exist glaciers and snow with few sites. It is significance for us to understand the glacier and snow hydrological process in order to recognize the evolution of water resources in the Tibetan. This manuscript takes Lhasa River as the study area, taking use of ground, remote sensing and assimilation data, taking advantage of high precision TRMM precipitation data and MODIS snow cover data, first, according to the data from ground station evaluation of TRMM data in the application of the accuracy of the Lhasa River, and based on MODIS data fusion of multi source microwave snow making cloudless snow products, which are used for discriminant and analysis glacier and snow regulation mechanism on day scale, add snow and glacier unit into xinanjing model, this model can simulate the study region's runoff evolution, parameter sensitivity even spatial variation of hydrological characteristics the next ten years on region grid scale. The results of hydrological model in Lhasa River can simulate the glacier and snow runoff variation in high cold region better, to enhance the predictive ability of the spring

  7. The progress of hydrology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chow, V T [University of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)

    1967-05-15

    This paper discusses mainly the challenge of hydrology, recent activities, events, and major problems in hydrology, and advances in hydrological techniques. New scientific knowledge and techniques developed in many modern scientific disciplines, and the recognition of the importance of hydrology in water-resources development enable and encourage the hydrologist to advance scientific hydrology. Many programmes to promote hydrology and to expand its attendant activities have been developed in recent years. Therefore, the activities in the United States of America, such as the Universities Council on Water Resources and the President's Water for Peace Programme, and the programmes in the International Hydrological Decade are mentioned. The most important advance in theoretical hydrology is the development of a new concept of dynamic sequential systems for the hydrological cycle, thus creating new fields of systems, parametric, and stochastic hydrology. Modern scientific instrumentation provide the hydrologist with better tools for solving his problems. The most important of these, such as electronic computers, remote sensing, and nuclear techniques are discussed. Today various major problems, both theoretical and practical, face the hydrologist. Theoretical problems concern the basic understanding of hydrological systems and the mathematical simulation and physical interpretation of hydrological phenomena. Major practical problems are numerous and diversified, but they are mostly related to the multiple-purpose development of water resources. Four central problematical subjects are discussed; namely, the effects of man on his environment, the dynamics of aqueous flow systems, hydrological transport mechanism, and groundwater hydrology. Also, the use of nuclear techniques in solving various hydrological problems is discussed. It is believed that the application of nuclear techniques would prove extremely valuable in helping solve problems, but their ultimate use in

  8. The progress of hydrology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chow, V.T.

    1967-01-01

    This paper discusses mainly the challenge of hydrology, recent activities, events, and major problems in hydrology, and advances in hydrological techniques. New scientific knowledge and techniques developed in many modern scientific disciplines, and the recognition of the importance of hydrology in water-resources development enable and encourage the hydrologist to advance scientific hydrology. Many programmes to promote hydrology and to expand its attendant activities have been developed in recent years. Therefore, the activities in the United States of America, such as the Universities Council on Water Resources and the President's Water for Peace Programme, and the programmes in the International Hydrological Decade are mentioned. The most important advance in theoretical hydrology is the development of a new concept of dynamic sequential systems for the hydrological cycle, thus creating new fields of systems, parametric, and stochastic hydrology. Modern scientific instrumentation provide the hydrologist with better tools for solving his problems. The most important of these, such as electronic computers, remote sensing, and nuclear techniques are discussed. Today various major problems, both theoretical and practical, face the hydrologist. Theoretical problems concern the basic understanding of hydrological systems and the mathematical simulation and physical interpretation of hydrological phenomena. Major practical problems are numerous and diversified, but they are mostly related to the multiple-purpose development of water resources. Four central problematical subjects are discussed; namely, the effects of man on his environment, the dynamics of aqueous flow systems, hydrological transport mechanism, and groundwater hydrology. Also, the use of nuclear techniques in solving various hydrological problems is discussed. It is believed that the application of nuclear techniques would prove extremely valuable in helping solve problems, but their ultimate use in

  9. Evaluation of uncertainty in capturing the spatial variability and magnitudes of extreme hydrological events for the uMngeni catchment, South Africa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kusangaya, Samuel; Warburton Toucher, Michele L.; van Garderen, Emma Archer

    2018-02-01

    Downscaled General Circulation Models (GCMs) output are used to forecast climate change and provide information used as input for hydrological modelling. Given that our understanding of climate change points towards an increasing frequency, timing and intensity of extreme hydrological events, there is therefore the need to assess the ability of downscaled GCMs to capture these extreme hydrological events. Extreme hydrological events play a significant role in regulating the structure and function of rivers and associated ecosystems. In this study, the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) method was adapted to assess the ability of simulated streamflow (using downscaled GCMs (dGCMs)) in capturing extreme river dynamics (high and low flows), as compared to streamflow simulated using historical climate data from 1960 to 2000. The ACRU hydrological model was used for simulating streamflow for the 13 water management units of the uMngeni Catchment, South Africa. Statistically downscaled climate models obtained from the Climate System Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town were used as input for the ACRU Model. Results indicated that, high flows and extreme high flows (one in ten year high flows/large flood events) were poorly represented both in terms of timing, frequency and magnitude. Simulated streamflow using dGCMs data also captures more low flows and extreme low flows (one in ten year lowest flows) than that captured in streamflow simulated using historical climate data. The overall conclusion was that although dGCMs output can reasonably be used to simulate overall streamflow, it performs poorly when simulating extreme high and low flows. Streamflow simulation from dGCMs must thus be used with caution in hydrological applications, particularly for design hydrology, as extreme high and low flows are still poorly represented. This, arguably calls for the further improvement of downscaling techniques in order to generate climate data more relevant and

  10. Hydrologic analysis for ecological risk assessment of watersheds with abandoned mine lands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gallagher, D.; Babendreier, J.; Cherry, D.

    1999-01-01

    As part of on-going study of acid mine drainage (AMD), a comprehensive ecological risk assessment was conducted in the Leading Creek Watershed in southeast Ohio. The watershed is influenced by agriculture and active and abandoned coal-mining operations. This work presents a broad overview of several quantitative measures of hydrology and hydraulic watershed properties available for in risk assessment and evaluates their relation to metrics of ecology. Data analysis included statistical comparisons of metrics of ecology, ecotoxicology, water quality, and physically based parameters describing land use, geomorphology, flow, velocity, and particle size. A multiple regression analysis indicated that abandoned mining operations dominated impacts upon aquatic ecology. It also indicated low flow velocity measurements and a ratio of maximum velocity to average velocity at low flow where helpful in describing variation in macroinvertebrate Total Taxa scores. Other key parameters also identified strong impact relationships with biodiversity trends and included pH, simple knowledge of any mining upstream, calculated % of the subshed covered by strip mines, and the measured depth of streambed sediments from site to site

  11. Integrating Hydrology, Ecology, and Biogeochemistry in Stormwater Management: the Vermont Experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bowden, W. B.

    2005-12-01

    Although Vermont has had a stormwater management program since the 1970's, support for the program languished during a period intense suburban development in several counties in the state, most notably Chittenden County next to Lake Champlain. Beginning in 2000, the state renewed efforts to address concerns that stormwater runoff from suburban developments had significantly degraded streams in the area and threatened the health of the Lake. The state employs an extensive, EPA-approved biomonitoring program (based on macroinvertebrates and fish) to assess the health of streams. However, it is difficult to translate these data into targets for stormwater management or to predict how and especially when they will change as a result of future management practices. The challenge of managing stormwater in this area is further compounded by a complete lack of historical hydrologic monitoring data. Ultimately a stakeholder-driven process developed that has lead to an innovative partnership among state agencies, resource managers, NGO's, the US-EPA and scientists. Through this partnership a unique consensus evolved that management for hydrologic targets by themselves would address most of the stakeholders' concerns. The new regulations that are emerging are based on two components. The first component relies on flow-duration curves (FDC's) derived from a simple, widely-used stormwater model (P-8) for which adequate input data are available. The model was calibrated for streams in other areas for which long-term hydrologic data were available and then used to generate `synthetic' FDC's for the stormwater impaired and a suite of `attainment' (developing, but currently un-impaired) watersheds in Vermont. Statistical (cluster) analyses of synthetic FDC's provide watershed-wide targets for hydrologic reduction. Sub-watershed mapping linked to further multivariate analysis of the flow data identify specific locations to implement best management practices (BMP's) that will

  12. Hydrology for a Changing World

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirsch, R. M.

    2017-12-01

    To support critical decisions related to water quantity, quality, and hazard mitigation, surface water hydrologists and water resources engineers have historically invoked the assumption that hydrologic systems are stationary; variables such as discharge or solute fluxes were assumed to have a mean, a variance, and other statistical properties that did not change over time. Today, the drivers of non-stationarity such as urbanization, groundwater depletion, engineered land-drainage systems, application of nutrients at the land surface, new farming technologies, and changes in greenhouse gas forcing of the global atmosphere have perturbed hydrologic systems enough so that this assumption must be challenged. Understanding of the non-stationarity in hydrologic systems is important for at least two major reasons: (1) Society needs insights on the hydrologic conditions of the future as a basis for planning, operating, and regulating water resources in the future. Water resources engineers cannot depend solely on records of the past to design and operate in the future. However, simply substituting model projections for historic records, without evaluation of the ability of those models to produce realistic projections, is not acceptable. (2) Non-stationarity provides a framework to identify emerging water resource issues and evaluate our society's success in achieving its environmental goals. The study of hydrologic change is our greatest challenge. We must learn how best to blend our knowledge of the past with our projections of the future. In this non-stationary world, observing systems and networks become even more critically important and our models must be tested using historical records to ensure that they produce useful projections of our future. In the words of Ralph Keeling, "The only way to figure out what is happening to our planet is to measure it, and this means tracking the changes decade after decade, and poring over the records." Walter Langbein knew the

  13. Assessing various options for rain water management in 2030 using prospective land use change scenarii and distributed hydrological modelling in the Yzeron experimental periurban catchment (ZABR/OTHU-OZCAR CZO observatory)

    OpenAIRE

    Braud, I.; Labbas, M.; Branger, F.

    2017-01-01

    Growing urbanization and related anthropogenic processes have a high potential to influence hydrological process dynamics. Periurban catchments, at the edge of large cities, are especially affected by fast anthropogenic modifications. Spatialized hydrological modeling tools, simulating the entire hydrological cycle and able to take into account the important heterogeneity of periurban watersheds can be used to assess the impact of storm water management practices and land cover change scenari...

  14. Self-Regulation through Portfolio Assessment in Writing Classrooms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mak, Pauline; Wong, Kevin M.

    2018-01-01

    Portfolio assessment (PA) is promulgated as a useful tool to promote learning through assessment. While the benefits of PA are well documented, there is a lack of empirical research on how students' self-regulation can be effectively fostered in writing classrooms, and how the use of PA can develop students' self-regulated capacities. This…

  15. Accessibility assessment of Houston's roadway network during Harvey through integration of observed flood impacts and hydrologic modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gidaris, I.; Gori, A.; Panakkal, P.; Padgett, J.; Bedient, P. B.

    2017-12-01

    The record-breaking rainfall produced over the Houston region by Hurricane Harvey resulted in catastrophic and unprecedented impacts on the region's infrastructure. Notably, Houston's transportation network was crippled, with almost every major highway flooded during the five-day event. Entire neighborhoods and subdivisions were inundated, rendering them completely inaccessible to rescue crews and emergency services. Harvey has tragically highlighted the vulnerability of major thoroughfares, as well as neighborhood roads, to severe inundation during extreme precipitation events. Furthermore, it has emphasized the need for detailed accessibility characterization of road networks under extreme event scenarios in order to determine which areas of the city are most vulnerable. This analysis assesses and tracks the accessibility of Houston's major highways during Harvey's evolution by utilizing road flood/closure data from the Texas DOT. In the absence of flooded/closure data for local roads, a hybrid approach is adopted that utilizes a physics-based hydrologic model to produce high-resolution inundation estimates for selected urban watersheds in the Houston area. In particular, hydrologic output in the form of inundation depths is used to estimate the operability of local roads. Ultimately, integration of hydrologic-based estimation of road conditions with observed data from DOT supports a network accessibility analysis of selected urban neighborhoods. This accessibility analysis can identify operable routes for emergency response (rescue crews, medical services, etc.) during the storm event.

  16. Hydrologic Alterations from Climate Change Inform Assessment of Ecological Risk to Pacific Salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cameron Wobus

    Full Text Available We developed an integrated hydrologic model of the upper Nushagak and Kvichak watersheds in the Bristol Bay region of southwestern Alaska, a region under substantial development pressure from large-scale copper mining. We incorporated climate change scenarios into this model to evaluate how hydrologic regimes and stream temperatures might change in a future climate, and to summarize indicators of hydrologic alteration that are relevant to salmon habitat ecology and life history. Model simulations project substantial changes in mean winter flow, peak flow dates, and water temperature by 2100. In particular, we find that annual hydrographs will no longer be dominated by a single spring thaw event, but will instead be characterized by numerous high flow events throughout the winter. Stream temperatures increase in all future scenarios, although these temperature increases are moderated relative to air temperatures by cool baseflow inputs during the summer months. Projected changes to flow and stream temperature could influence salmon through alterations in the suitability of spawning gravels, changes in the duration of incubation, increased growth during juvenile stages, and increased exposure to chronic and acute temperature stress. These climate-modulated changes represent a shifting baseline in salmon habitat quality and quantity in the future, and an important consideration to adequately assess the types and magnitude of risks associated with proposed large-scale mining in the region.

  17. Hydrologic modeling in a small mediterranean basin as a tool to assess the feasibility of a limno-reservoir.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molina-Navarro, Eugenio; Martínez-Pérez, Silvia; Sastre-Merlín, Antonio; Bienes-Allas, Ramón

    2014-01-01

    The SWAT model was applied to the Ompólveda River Basin (Guadalajara, central Spain) to assess the hydrological feasibility of the Pareja Limno-reservoir. A limno-reservoir is a water management infrastructure designed to counteract some negative impacts caused by large reservoirs under Mediterranean climate. Highly detailed inputs were selected to set up the model. Its performance was evaluated by graphical and statistical techniques and compared with the previous knowledge of the basin. An overall good performance was obtained during the calibration and validation periods (monthly and annual NSE values of 0.67 and 0.60, respectively, for calibration and 0.70 and 0.83, respectively, for validation). Total discharge was well simulated, and flow components prediction was acceptable. However, the model is not accurate at predicting evapotranspiration. Once evaluated, the model was used to simulate the water discharge into the Pareja Limno-reservoir during 2008 and 2009, establishing a water balance and assessing its hydrologic feasibility. The water balance predicted the absence of surplus during summer (2008 and 2009) and autumn (2009), matching up with the decrease of water level and demonstrating the usefulness of SWAT as a tool to evaluate the hydrologic feasibility of the Pareja Limno-reservoir. Very low discharges from the Ompólveda River after a sequence of normal and dry years are the main factors responsible of this phenomenon, whereas the effect of the wastewater flow redirection in the Pareja village is negligible. These results question the usefulness of the Pareja Limno-reservoir during summer, the most favorable season for recreational activities. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

  18. The European 2015 drought from a hydrological perspective

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    G. Laaha

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In 2015 large parts of Europe were affected by drought. In this paper, we analyze the hydrological footprint (dynamic development over space and time of the drought of 2015 in terms of both severity (magnitude and spatial extent and compare it to the extreme drought of 2003. Analyses are based on a range of low flow and hydrological drought indices derived for about 800 streamflow records across Europe, collected in a community effort based on a common protocol. We compare the hydrological footprints of both events with the meteorological footprints, in order to learn from similarities and differences of both perspectives and to draw conclusions for drought management. The region affected by hydrological drought in 2015 differed somewhat from the drought of 2003, with its center located more towards eastern Europe. In terms of low flow magnitude, a region surrounding the Czech Republic was the most affected, with summer low flows that exhibited return intervals of 100 years and more. In terms of deficit volumes, the geographical center of the event was in southern Germany, where the drought lasted a particularly long time. A detailed spatial and temporal assessment of the 2015 event showed that the particular behavior in these regions was partly a result of diverging wetness preconditions in the studied catchments. Extreme droughts emerged where preconditions were particularly dry. In regions with wet preconditions, low flow events developed later and tended to be less severe. For both the 2003 and 2015 events, the onset of the hydrological drought was well correlated with the lowest flow recorded during the event (low flow magnitude, pointing towards a potential for early warning of the severity of streamflow drought. Time series of monthly drought indices (both streamflow- and climate-based indices showed that meteorological and hydrological events developed differently in space and time, both in terms of extent and severity

  19. Empirical assessment of effects of urbanization on event flow hydrology in watersheds of Canada's Great Lakes-St Lawrence basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trudeau, M. P.; Richardson, Murray

    2016-10-01

    We conducted an empirical hydrological analysis of high-temporal resolution streamflow records for 27 watersheds within 11 river systems in the Greater Toronto Region of the Canadian Great Lakes basin. Our objectives were to model the event-scale flow response of watersheds to urbanization and to test for scale and threshold effects. Watershed areas ranged from 37.5 km2 to 806 km2 and urban percent land cover ranged from less than 0.1-87.6%. Flow records had a resolution of 15-min increments and were available over a 42-year period, allowing for detailed assessment of changes in event-scale flow response with increasing urban land use during the post-freshet period (May 26 to November 15). Empirical statistical models were developed for flow characteristics including total runoff, runoff coefficient, eightieth and ninety-fifth percentile rising limb event runoff and mean rising limb event acceleration. Changes in some of these runoff metrics began at very low urban land use (acceleration increased with increasing urban cover, thus causing 80th percentile runoff depths to be reached sooner. These results indicate the potential for compromised water balance when cumulative changes are considered at the watershed scale. No abrupt or threshold changes in hydrologic characteristics were identified along the urban land use gradient. A positive interaction of urban percent land use and watershed size indicated a scale effect on total runoff. Overall, the results document compromised hydrologic stability attributable to urbanization during a period with no detectable change in rainfall patterns. They also corroborate literature recommendations for spatially distributed low impact urban development techniques; measures would be needed throughout the urbanized area of a watershed to dampen event-scale hydrologic responses to urbanization. Additional research is warranted into event-scale hydrologic trends with urbanization in other regions, in particular rising limb event

  20. Assessment of safety regulation using an artificial society

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Furuta, Kazuo; Nagase, Masaya

    2005-01-01

    This study proposes using an artificial society to assess impacts of safety regulation on the society. The artificial society used in this study is a multi-agent system, which consists of many agents representing companies. The agents cannot survive unless they get profits by producing some products. Safety regulation functions as the business environment, which the agents will evolve to fit to. We modeled this process of survival and adaptation by the genetic algorithm. Using the proposed model, case simulations were performed to compare various regulation styles, and some interesting insights were obtained how regulation style influences behavior of the agents and then productivity and safety level of the industry. In conclusion, an effective method for assessment of safety regulation has been developed, and then several insights were shown in this study

  1. A comparative assessment of projected meteorological and hydrological droughts: Elucidating the role of temperature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmadalipour, Ali; Moradkhani, Hamid; Demirel, Mehmet C.

    2017-10-01

    The changing climate and the associated future increases in temperature are expected to have impacts on drought characteristics and hydrologic cycle. This paper investigates the projected changes in spatiotemporal characteristics of droughts and their future attributes over the Willamette River Basin (WRB) in the Pacific Northwest U.S. The analysis is performed using two subsets of downscaled CMIP5 global climate models (GCMs) each consisting of 10 models from two future scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) for 30 years of historical period (1970-1999) and 90 years of future projections (2010-2099). Hydrologic modeling is conducted using the Precipitation Runoff Modeling System (PRMS) as a robust distributed hydrologic model with lower computational cost compared to other models. Meteorological and hydrological droughts are studied using three drought indices (i.e. Standardized Precipitation Index, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, Standardized Streamflow Index). Results reveal that the intensity and duration of hydrological droughts are expected to increase over the WRB, albeit the annual precipitation is expected to increase. On the other hand, the intensity of meteorological droughts do not indicate an aggravation for most cases. We explore the changes of hydrometeolorogical variables over the basin in order to understand the causes for such differences and to discover the controlling factors of drought. Furthermore, the uncertainty of projections are quantified for model, scenario, and downscaling uncertainty.

  2. Evaluating Hydrologic Response of an Agricultural Watershed for Watershed Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manoj Kumar Jha

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the hydrological assessment of an agricultural watershed in the Midwestern United States through the use of a watershed scale hydrologic model. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT model was applied to the Maquoketa River watershed, located in northeast Iowa, draining an agriculture intensive area of about 5,000 km2. The inputs to the model were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency’s geographic information/database system called Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS. Meteorological input, including precipitation and temperature from six weather stations located in and around the watershed, and measured streamflow data at the watershed outlet, were used in the simulation. A sensitivity analysis was performed using an influence coefficient method to evaluate surface runoff and baseflow variations in response to changes in model input hydrologic parameters. The curve number, evaporation compensation factor, and soil available water capacity were found to be the most sensitive parameters among eight selected parameters. Model calibration, facilitated by the sensitivity analysis, was performed for the period 1988 through 1993, and validation was performed for 1982 through 1987. The model was found to explain at least 86% and 69% of the variability in the measured streamflow data for calibration and validation periods, respectively. This initial hydrologic assessment will facilitate future modeling applications using SWAT to the Maquoketa River watershed for various watershed analyses, including watershed assessment for water quality management, such as total maximum daily loads, impacts of land use and climate change, and impacts of alternate management practices.

  3. Palaeoflood hydrology in Europe: towards a better understanding of extreme floods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benito, G.; Thorndycraft, V. R.; Rico, M.; Sheffer, N.; Enzel, Y.

    2003-04-01

    Floods are the most common natural disasters in Europe and, in terms of economic damage, costs are increasing spectacularly with time. Flood risk assessment associated with extreme floods is difficult due to the scarcity of hydrological measurements, that rarely go beyond 1000 years, which is clearly not sufficient for flood management in urban and industrial areas. Besides the use of conventional hydrologic data, the pre-instrumental record can be completed from palaeoflood hydrology or from documentary flood information, or through the combined use of both these tools. Recent developments of palaeoflood hydrology in Europe provide (1) major improvements in flood risk assessment, and (2) a better understanding of long-term flood-climate relationships. Palaeoflood hydrology has been successfully applied in large, medium rivers as well as small ungauged mountain drainage basins. Long-term palaeoflood records from Spain and France show that recent extraordinary flooding (causing huge economic damages) are not the largest ones, but that similar or even greater floods occurred several times in the past. In addition, clusters of floods coinciding in time at several European rivers point out to climatic factors as responsible mechanisms, although in recent time flood magnitude can be magnified by increasing human activity.

  4. Hydrologic vulnerability of tribal reservation lands across the U.S.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, C., Jr.; Leibowitz, S. G.; Sawicz, K. A.; Comeleo, R. L.; Stratton, L. E.

    2017-12-01

    We apply the hydrologic landscapes (HL) concept to assess the hydrologic vulnerability to climate of the United States (U.S.) with special emphasis on tribal lands. The basic assumption of the HL approach is that catchments that share similar physical and climatic characteristics are expected to have similar hydrologic characteristics. We map climate vulnerability by integrating a retrospective analysis of historical climate and hydrology into the HL approach, comparing this baseline of variability with future projections of temperature, precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, snow accumulation, climatic moisture, surplus water, and seasonality of the water surplus. Projections that are not within two standard deviations of the historical decadal average contribute to the vulnerability index for each metric. This allows stakeholders and/or water resource managers to understand the potential impacts of future conditions. The resulting vulnerability maps show that temperature and potential evapotranspiration are consistently projected to have high vulnerability indices across the U.S. including all tribal reservations. Precipitation vulnerability is not as spatially-uniform as temperature. Most areas with snow are projected to experience significant changes in future snow accumulation. The seasonality vulnerability map shows that mountainous areas in the West are most prone to changes in seasonality. This paper illustrates how the HL approach can help assess climatic and hydrologic vulnerability for disadvantaged groups across the U.S. By combining the HL concept and climate vulnerability analyses, we provide an approach that can assist tribal resource managers to perform vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans, which is a major priority for the tribes nationwide.

  5. Integrated hydrologic and hydrodynamic modeling to assess water exchange in a data-scarce reservoir

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Binbin; Wang, Guoqiang; Wang, Zhonggen; Liu, Changming; Ma, Jianming

    2017-12-01

    Integrated hydrologic and hydrodynamic modeling is useful in evaluating hydrodynamic characteristics (e.g. water exchange processes) in data-scarce water bodies, however, most studies lack verification of the hydrologic model. Here, water exchange (represented by water age) was investigated through integrated hydrologic and hydrodynamic modeling of the Hongfeng Reservoir, a poorly gauged reservoir in southwest China. The performance of the hydrologic model and parameter replacement among sub-basins with hydrological similarity was verified by historical data. Results showed that hydrological similarity based on the hierarchical cluster analysis and topographic index probability density distribution was reliable with satisfactory performance of parameter replacement. The hydrodynamic model was verified using daily water levels and water temperatures from 2009 and 2010. The water exchange processes in the Hongfeng Reservoir are very complex with temporal, vertical, and spatial variations. The temporal water age was primarily controlled by the variable inflow and outflow, and the maximum and minimum ages for the site near the dam were 406.10 d (15th June) and 90.74 d (3rd August), respectively, in 2010. Distinct vertical differences in water age showed that surface flow, interflow, and underflow appeared alternately, depending on the season and water depth. The worst water exchange situation was found in the central areas of the North Lake with the highest water ages in the bottom on both 15th June and 3rd August, in 2010. Comparison of the spatial water ages revealed that the more favorable hydraulic conditions on 3rd August mainly improved the water exchange in the dam areas and most areas of the South Lake, but had little effect on the bottom layers of the other deepest areas in the South and North Lakes. The presented framework can be applied in other data-scarce waterbodies worldwide to provide better understanding of water exchange processes.

  6. Assessment of hydrological regimes for vegetation on riparian wetlands in Han River Basin, Korea

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaewon Kwak

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Hydrological regimes are regarded as one of the major determinants for wetland ecosystems, for they influence species composition, succession, productivity, and stability of vegetation communities. Since Korea launched the Four Major River Restoration Project in 2007, the water regimes of many of the riparian wetlands have changed, that is potentially affecting vegetation properties. For ecological conservation and management, it is important to connect hydrological characteristics and vegetation properties. The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of hydrological regimes on vegetation community, and develop a methodology that can connect them. Inundated exceedance probability (IEP and its district concept are suggested to gain insights into hydrological regimes on the Binae wetland that is rehabilitated by the Restoration Project in 2012 and belong to the riparian zone. Results of this study indicate that the areas with P = 0.08 or lower IEPs should have the disturbance for vegetation communities, or could be changed to a hydrophilic vegetation in the study area, and it should be considered in the restoration and rehabilitation project to conserve legally protected or endangered vegetation.

  7. High resolution weather data for urban hydrological modelling and impact assessment, ICT requirements and future challenges

    Science.gov (United States)

    ten Veldhuis, Marie-claire; van Riemsdijk, Birna

    2013-04-01

    Hydrological analysis of urban catchments requires high resolution rainfall and catchment information because of the small size of these catchments, high spatial variability of the urban fabric, fast runoff processes and related short response times. Rainfall information available from traditional radar and rain gauge networks does no not meet the relevant scales of urban hydrology. A new type of weather radars, based on X-band frequency and equipped with Doppler and dual polarimetry capabilities, promises to provide more accurate rainfall estimates at the spatial and temporal scales that are required for urban hydrological analysis. Recently, the RAINGAIN project was started to analyse the applicability of this new type of radars in the context of urban hydrological modelling. In this project, meteorologists and hydrologists work closely together in several stages of urban hydrological analysis: from the acquisition procedure of novel and high-end radar products to data acquisition and processing, rainfall data retrieval, hydrological event analysis and forecasting. The project comprises of four pilot locations with various characteristics of weather radar equipment, ground stations, urban hydrological systems, modelling approaches and requirements. Access to data processing and modelling software is handled in different ways in the pilots, depending on ownership and user context. Sharing of data and software among pilots and with the outside world is an ongoing topic of discussion. The availability of high resolution weather data augments requirements with respect to the resolution of hydrological models and input data. This has led to the development of fully distributed hydrological models, the implementation of which remains limited by the unavailability of hydrological input data. On the other hand, if models are to be used in flood forecasting, hydrological models need to be computationally efficient to enable fast responses to extreme event conditions. This

  8. Modeling Lake Turkana Hydrology: Evaluating the potential hydrological impact of Gibe III reservoir on the Lake Turkana water levels using multi-source satellite data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velpuri, N.; Senay, G. B.

    2012-12-01

    fluctuations in lake levels due to the dam were also identified. Under the near-normal rainfall scenario, the lake shoreline would not show much change; however, it would shrink 2 m and expand up to 2-3 m under the below- and the above-normal rainfall scenarios respectively. Because this study focused only on the direct hydrological impact of the Gibe III dam, further studies are required to assess (a) the impact of potential diversion of water for irrigation, and (b) the impact of regulated Omo River flows on the ecology and fisheries of Lake Turkana and the lower Omo basin. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of using existing multi-source global satellite data in a basic modelling framework to assess the potential hydrological impact of an upstream dam on a downstream lake, especially in data scarce locations. The results obtained from this study could also be used to evaluate alternate dam-filling scenarios and assess the potential impact of the dam on Lake Turkana under different operational strategies.

  9. Understanding and seasonal forecasting of hydrological drought in the Anthropocene

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. Yuan

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Hydrological drought is not only caused by natural hydroclimate variability but can also be directly altered by human interventions including reservoir operation, irrigation, groundwater exploitation, etc. Understanding and forecasting of hydrological drought in the Anthropocene are grand challenges due to complicated interactions among climate, hydrology and humans. In this paper, five decades (1961–2010 of naturalized and observed streamflow datasets are used to investigate hydrological drought characteristics in a heavily managed river basin, the Yellow River basin in north China. Human interventions decrease the correlation between hydrological and meteorological droughts, and make the hydrological drought respond to longer timescales of meteorological drought. Due to large water consumptions in the middle and lower reaches, there are 118–262 % increases in the hydrological drought frequency, up to 8-fold increases in the drought severity, 21–99 % increases in the drought duration and the drought onset is earlier. The non-stationarity due to anthropogenic climate change and human water use basically decreases the correlation between meteorological and hydrological droughts and reduces the effect of human interventions on hydrological drought frequency while increasing the effect on drought duration and severity. A set of 29-year (1982–2010 hindcasts from an established seasonal hydrological forecasting system are used to assess the forecast skill of hydrological drought. In the naturalized condition, the climate-model-based approach outperforms the climatology method in predicting the 2001 severe hydrological drought event. Based on the 29-year hindcasts, the former method has a Brier skill score of 11–26 % against the latter for the probabilistic hydrological drought forecasting. In the Anthropocene, the skill for both approaches increases due to the dominant influence of human interventions that have been implicitly

  10. Assessment of TRMM Products and Their Influence on Hydrologic Models within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milewski, A.; El Kadiri, R.; Durham, M. C.

    2013-12-01

    Satellite remote sensing datasets have been increasingly employed as an ancillary source of essential hydrologic measurements used for the modeling of hydrologic fluxes. Precipitation is one of the most important meteorological forcing parameter in hydrological investigations and land surface modeling, yet it is largely unknown or misused in water budgets and hydrologic models. The Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite products are widely being used by the scientific community due to the general spatial and temporal paucity of precipitation data in many parts of world and particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This research utilized a two-fold approach towards understanding the accuracy of satellite-based rainfall and its application in hydrologic models First, we evaluated the uncertainty, accuracy, and precision of various rainfall satellite products (i.e. TRMM 3B42 V6, TRMM 3B42 V7, TRMM 3B42 V7a and TRMM 3B42 RT) in comparison to in situ gauge data from more than 150 rain gauges in Morocco and across the MENA region. Our analyses extend over many parts of the MENA region in order to assess the effect that different climatic regimes and topographic characteristics have on each TRMM product. Secondly, we analyzed and compared the hydrologic fluxes produced from different modeling inputs for several watersheds within the MENA region. SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) hydrologic models have been developed for the Oum Er Rbia (Morocco), Asyuti (Egypt), and the Sakarya (Turkey) watersheds. SWAT models produced for each watershed include, one model for each of the four satellite TRMM product (STBM-V6, STBM-V7, STBM-V7a, and STBM-RT) and one model for rain gauge based model (RGBM). Findings indicate the best correlation between field-based and satellite-based rainfall measurements is the TRMM V7a (Pearson coefficient: 0.875) product, followed by TRMM V7 (Pearson coefficient: 0.84), then TRMM V6 (Pearson coefficient: 0

  11. Algal Bio-Indication in Assessment of Hydrological Impact on Ecosystem in Wetlands of “Slavyansky Resort”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Klymiuk Valentina

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Algal bio-indication is commonly used in water quality assessment but can also help in assessing the impact of hydrology on freshwater wetland ecosystems.We identified 350 species and infraspecific taxa of algae from nine taxonomic divisions (Cyanoprokaryota, Chrysophyta, Euglenophyta,Dinophyta,Xanthophyta,Cryptophyta,Bacillariophyta,Chlorophyta,Charophyta in 121 phytoplankton samples collected between 2007-2013 from seven lakes in the wetlands of the Regional Landscape Park “Slavyansky Resort”, Ukraine. The algal species richness and phytoplankton biomass decreased as water salinity increased. In turn the water salinity was influenced by the inflow of groundwater, karst fracture and by the alluvial water tributaries of a paleoriver that affects the formation processes of lake-spring sulphide mud from the resort, which is often used for therapeutic purposes.

  12. netherland hydrological modeling instrument

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoogewoud, J. C.; de Lange, W. J.; Veldhuizen, A.; Prinsen, G.

    2012-04-01

    Netherlands Hydrological Modeling Instrument A decision support system for water basin management. J.C. Hoogewoud , W.J. de Lange ,A. Veldhuizen , G. Prinsen , The Netherlands Hydrological modeling Instrument (NHI) is the center point of a framework of models, to coherently model the hydrological system and the multitude of functions it supports. Dutch hydrological institutes Deltares, Alterra, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, RWS Waterdienst, STOWA and Vewin are cooperating in enhancing the NHI for adequate decision support. The instrument is used by three different ministries involved in national water policy matters, for instance the WFD, drought management, manure policy and climate change issues. The basis of the modeling instrument is a state-of-the-art on-line coupling of the groundwater system (MODFLOW), the unsaturated zone (metaSWAP) and the surface water system (MOZART-DM). It brings together hydro(geo)logical processes from the column to the basin scale, ranging from 250x250m plots to the river Rhine and includes salt water flow. The NHI is validated with an eight year run (1998-2006) with dry and wet periods. For this run different parts of the hydrology have been compared with measurements. For instance, water demands in dry periods (e.g. for irrigation), discharges at outlets, groundwater levels and evaporation. A validation alone is not enough to get support from stakeholders. Involvement from stakeholders in the modeling process is needed. There fore to gain sufficient support and trust in the instrument on different (policy) levels a couple of actions have been taken: 1. a transparent evaluation of modeling-results has been set up 2. an extensive program is running to cooperate with regional waterboards and suppliers of drinking water in improving the NHI 3. sharing (hydrological) data via newly setup Modeling Database for local and national models 4. Enhancing the NHI with "local" information. The NHI is and has been used for many

  13. Numerical modeling of the agricultural-hydrologic system in Punjab, India

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nyblade, M.; Russo, T. A.; Zikatanov, L.; Zipp, K.

    2017-12-01

    The goal of food security for India's growing population is threatened by the decline in freshwater resources due to unsustainable water use for irrigation. The issue is acute in parts of Punjab, India, where small landholders produce a major quantity of India's food with declining groundwater resources. To further complicate this problem, other regions of the state are experiencing groundwater logging and salinization, and are reliant on canal systems for fresh water delivery. Due to the lack of water use records, groundwater consumption for this study is estimated with available data on crop yields, climate, and total canal water delivery. The hydrologic and agricultural systems are modeled using appropriate numerical methods and software. This is a state-wide hydrologic numerical model of Punjab that accounts for multiple aquifer layers, agricultural water demands, and interactions between the surface canal system and groundwater. To more accurately represent the drivers of agricultural production and therefore water use, we couple an economic crop optimization model with the hydrologic model. These tools will be used to assess and optimize crop choice scenarios based on farmer income, food production, and hydrologic system constraints. The results of these combined models can be used to further understand the hydrologic system response to government crop procurement policies and climate change, and to assess the effectiveness of possible water conservation solutions.

  14. A "total parameter estimation" method in the varification of distributed hydrological models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, M.; Qin, D.; Wang, H.

    2011-12-01

    Conventionally hydrological models are used for runoff or flood forecasting, hence the determination of model parameters are common estimated based on discharge measurements at the catchment outlets. With the advancement in hydrological sciences and computer technology, distributed hydrological models based on the physical mechanism such as SWAT, MIKESHE, and WEP, have gradually become the mainstream models in hydrology sciences. However, the assessments of distributed hydrological models and model parameter determination still rely on runoff and occasionally, groundwater level measurements. It is essential in many countries, including China, to understand the local and regional water cycle: not only do we need to simulate the runoff generation process and for flood forecasting in wet areas, we also need to grasp the water cycle pathways and consumption process of transformation in arid and semi-arid regions for the conservation and integrated water resources management. As distributed hydrological model can simulate physical processes within a catchment, we can get a more realistic representation of the actual water cycle within the simulation model. Runoff is the combined result of various hydrological processes, using runoff for parameter estimation alone is inherits problematic and difficult to assess the accuracy. In particular, in the arid areas, such as the Haihe River Basin in China, runoff accounted for only 17% of the rainfall, and very concentrated during the rainy season from June to August each year. During other months, many of the perennial rivers within the river basin dry up. Thus using single runoff simulation does not fully utilize the distributed hydrological model in arid and semi-arid regions. This paper proposed a "total parameter estimation" method to verify the distributed hydrological models within various water cycle processes, including runoff, evapotranspiration, groundwater, and soil water; and apply it to the Haihe river basin in

  15. Landfilling: Hydrology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kjeldsen, Peter; Beaven, R.

    2011-01-01

    Landfill hydrology deals with the presence and movement of water through a landfill. The main objective in landfill hydrology is usually to predict leachate generation, but the presence and movement of water in a landfill also affect the degradation of the waste, the leaching of pollutants...... and the geotechnical stability of the fill. Understanding landfill hydrology is thus important for many aspects of landfill, in particular siting, design and operation. The objective of this chapter is to give a basic understanding of the hydrology of landfills, and to present ways to estimate leachate quantities...... under specific circumstances. Initially a general water balance equation is defined for a typical landfill, and the different parts of the water balance are discussed. A separate section discusses water flow and the hydrogeology of landfilled wastes and considers the impact of water short...

  16. Advancing representation of hydrologic processes in the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) through integration of the TOPographic MODEL (TOPMODEL) features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, J.; Wu, Y.

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a study of the integration of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model and the TOPographic MODEL (TOPMODEL) features for enhancing the physical representation of hydrologic processes. In SWAT, four hydrologic processes, which are surface runoff, baseflow, groundwater re-evaporation and deep aquifer percolation, are modeled by using a group of empirical equations. The empirical equations usually constrain the simulation capability of relevant processes. To replace these equations and to model the influences of topography and water table variation on streamflow generation, the TOPMODEL features are integrated into SWAT, and a new model, the so-called SWAT-TOP, is developed. In the new model, the process of deep aquifer percolation is removed, the concept of groundwater re-evaporation is refined, and the processes of surface runoff and baseflow are remodeled. Consequently, three parameters in SWAT are discarded, and two new parameters to reflect the TOPMODEL features are introduced. SWAT-TOP and SWAT are applied to the East River basin in South China, and the results reveal that, compared with SWAT, the new model can provide a more reasonable simulation of the hydrologic processes of surface runoff, groundwater re-evaporation, and baseflow. This study evidences that an established hydrologic model can be further improved by integrating the features of another model, which is a possible way to enhance our understanding of the workings of catchments.

  17. Wetland Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    This chapter discusses the state of the science in wetland hydrology by touching upon the major hydraulic and hydrologic processes in these complex ecosystems, their measurement/estimation techniques, and modeling methods. It starts with the definition of wetlands, their benefit...

  18. The transferability of hydrological models under nonstationary climatic conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    C. Z. Li

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates issues involved in calibrating hydrological models against observed data when the aim of the modelling is to predict future runoff under different climatic conditions. To achieve this objective, we tested two hydrological models, DWBM and SIMHYD, using data from 30 unimpaired catchments in Australia which had at least 60 yr of daily precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (PET, and streamflow data. Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE, modified index of agreement (d1 and water balance error (WBE were used as performance criteria. We used a differential split-sample test to split up the data into 120 sub-periods and 4 different climatic sub-periods in order to assess how well the calibrated model could be transferred different periods. For each catchment, the models were calibrated for one sub-period and validated on the other three. Monte Carlo simulation was used to explore parameter stability compared to historic climatic variability. The chi-square test was used to measure the relationship between the distribution of the parameters and hydroclimatic variability. The results showed that the performance of the two hydrological models differed and depended on the model calibration. We found that if a hydrological model is set up to simulate runoff for a wet climate scenario then it should be calibrated on a wet segment of the historic record, and similarly a dry segment should be used for a dry climate scenario. The Monte Carlo simulation provides an effective and pragmatic approach to explore uncertainty and equifinality in hydrological model parameters. Some parameters of the hydrological models are shown to be significantly more sensitive to the choice of calibration periods. Our findings support the idea that when using conceptual hydrological models to assess future climate change impacts, a differential split-sample test and Monte Carlo simulation should be used to quantify uncertainties due to

  19. Hydrologic modelling and dendrochronology as tool of site-species adequation assessment in a changing climate context

    OpenAIRE

    Sohier, Catherine; Debruxelles, Jérôme; Brusten, Thomas; Bauwens, Alexandra; Claessens, Hugues; Degre, Aurore

    2010-01-01

    A hydrologic model is related to dendrochronological measurements performed in a 52 years old Spruce stand. The site is situated on a hillside with shallow and acid brown soil in the ecoregion of Ardenne (Wallonia, Southern Belgium). Hydrologic modelling The hydrologic simulation runs from 1971 to 2005 at daily time step. The model is based on an EPIC code, adapted to the site concerning soil reservoirs depth, characteristic water contents, root profile and water uptake. Weather data c...

  20. Eco-hydrologic model cascades: Simulating land use and climate change impacts on hydrology, hydraulics and habitats for fish and macroinvertebrates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guse, Björn; Kail, Jochem; Radinger, Johannes; Schröder, Maria; Kiesel, Jens; Hering, Daniel; Wolter, Christian; Fohrer, Nicola

    2015-11-15

    Climate and land use changes affect the hydro- and biosphere at different spatial scales. These changes alter hydrological processes at the catchment scale, which impact hydrodynamics and habitat conditions for biota at the river reach scale. In order to investigate the impact of large-scale changes on biota, a cascade of models at different scales is required. Using scenario simulations, the impact of climate and land use change can be compared along the model cascade. Such a cascade of consecutively coupled models was applied in this study. Discharge and water quality are predicted with a hydrological model at the catchment scale. The hydraulic flow conditions are predicted by hydrodynamic models. The habitat suitability under these hydraulic and water quality conditions is assessed based on habitat models for fish and macroinvertebrates. This modelling cascade was applied to predict and compare the impacts of climate- and land use changes at different scales to finally assess their effects on fish and macroinvertebrates. Model simulations revealed that magnitude and direction of change differed along the modelling cascade. Whilst the hydrological model predicted a relevant decrease of discharge due to climate change, the hydraulic conditions changed less. Generally, the habitat suitability for fish decreased but this was strongly species-specific and suitability even increased for some species. In contrast to climate change, the effect of land use change on discharge was negligible. However, land use change had a stronger impact on the modelled nitrate concentrations affecting the abundances of macroinvertebrates. The scenario simulations for the two organism groups illustrated that direction and intensity of changes in habitat suitability are highly species-dependent. Thus, a joined model analysis of different organism groups combined with the results of hydrological and hydrodynamic models is recommended to assess the impact of climate and land use changes on

  1. Evaluation of hydrologic equilibrium in a mountainous watershed: incorporating forest canopy spatial adjustment to soil biogeochemical processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackay, D. Scott

    Hydrologic equilibrium theory has been used to describe both short-term regulation of gas exchange and long-term adjustment of forest canopy density. However, by focusing on water and atmospheric conditions alone a hydrologic equilibrium may impose an oversimplification of the growth of forests adjusted to hydrology. In this study nitrogen is incorporated as a third regulation of catchment level forest dynamics and gas exchange. This was examined with an integrated distributed hydrology and forest growth model in a central Sierra Nevada watershed covered primarily by old-growth coniferous forest. Water and atmospheric conditions reasonably reproduced daily latent heat flux, and predicted the expected catenary trend of leaf area index (LAI). However, it was not until the model was provided a spatially detailed description of initial soil carbon and nitrogen pools that spatial patterns of LAI were generated. This latter problem was attributed to a lack of soil history or memory in the initialization of the simulations. Finally, by reducing stomatal sensitivity to vapor pressure deficit (VPD) the canopy density increased when water and nitrogen limitations were not present. The results support a three-control hydrologic equilibrium in the Sierra Nevada watershed. This has implications for modeling catchment level soil-vegetation-atmospheric interactions over interannual, decade, and century time-scales.

  2. Assessment of 3D hydrologic deformation using GRACE and GPS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, C. S.; Tregoning, P.; Fleming, K.; Burgette, R. J.; Featherstone, W. E.; Awange, J.; Kuhn, M.; Ramillien, G.

    2009-12-01

    Hydrological processes cause variations in gravitational potential and surface deformations, both of which are detectable with ever increasing precision using space geodetic techniques. By comparing the elastic deformation computed from continental water load estimates derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), with three-dimensional surface deformation derived from GPS observations, there is clear potential to better understand global to regional hydrological processes, in addition to acquiring further insight into the systematic error contributions affecting each space geodetic technique. In this study, we compare elastic deformation derived from water load estimates taken from the CNES, CSR, GFZ and JPL time variable GRACE fields. We compare these surface displacements with those derived at a global network of GPS sites that have been homogeneously reprocessed in the GAMIT/GLOBK suite. We extend our comparison to include a series of different GPS solutions, with each solution only subtly different based on the methodology used to down weight the height component in realizing site coordinates on the terrestrial reference frame. Each of the GPS solutions incorporate modeling of atmospheric loading and utilization of the VMF1 and a priori zenith hydrostatic delays derived via ray tracing through ECMWF meteorological fields. The agreement between GRACE and GPS derived deformations is not limited to the vertical component, with excellent agreement in the horizontal component across areas where large hydrologic signals occur over broad spatial scales (with correlation in horizontal components as high as 0.9). Agreement is also observed at smaller scales, including across Europe. These comparisons assist in understanding the magnitude of current error contributions within both space geodetic techniques. With the emergence of homogeneously reprocessed GPS time series spanning the GRACE mission, this technique offers one possible means of

  3. A fully integrated SWAT-MODFLOW hydrologic model

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and MODFLOW models are being used worldwide for managing surface and groundwater water resources. The SWAT models hydrological processes occurring at the surface including shallow aquifers, while MODFLOW simulate groundwater processes. However, neither SWAT ...

  4. Cancer risk assessments and environmental regulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scroggin, D.G.

    1990-01-01

    Governmental regulation of toxic substances, such as carcinogens and radiation, prompts both legal and scientific controversies. Industry, environmental activist groups, government regulators, and the general public are all concerned with the question of how environmental risk to public health is to be measured and what level of risk warrants government action under the environmental laws. Several recent events shed light on the fundamental scientific and legal problems inherent in such regulation, and these events may affect the direction of future developments. These events include implementation of generic Risk Assessment Guidelines by the US EPA, litigation challenging EPA's regulation of carcinogenic substances, new scientific understanding of the relative risks from human exposure to natural and man-made sources, and the continuing growth of toxic tort litigation in which victims of cancer seek large damages from industrial emitters of pollution

  5. ANALYSIS OF THE POSSIBILITY OF USING HYDROLOGICAL MODELS IN STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF LOCAL SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT PLANS

    OpenAIRE

    Mariusz Sojka; Sadżide Murat-Błażejewska; Rafał Wróżyński

    2014-01-01

    The paper presents the possibility of application of the hydrological model HEC-HMS in the development of a strategic environmental assessment of local spatial development plans on surface water. The practical possibility of using simulation models of catchment response to high intensity precipitation is shown on the example of the Różany Potok watercourse catchment which is subject to rapid urbanization process. The area of Różany Potok catchment is 8.1 km2 and a stream length is 5.57 km. In...

  6. Regulating urban surface runoff through nature-based solutions - An assessment at the micro-scale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zölch, Teresa; Henze, Lisa; Keilholz, Patrick; Pauleit, Stephan

    2017-08-01

    Urban development leads to changes of surface cover that disrupt the hydrological cycle in cities. In particular, impermeable surfaces and the removal of vegetation reduce the ability to intercept, store and infiltrate rainwater. Consequently, the volume of stormwater runoff and the risk of local flooding rises. This is further amplified by the anticipated effects of climate change leading to an increased frequency and intensity of heavy rain events. Hence, urban adaptation strategies are required to mitigate those impacts. A nature-based solution, more and more promoted in politics and academia, is urban green infrastructure as it contributes to the resilience of urban ecosystems by providing services to maintain or restore hydrological functions. However, this poses a challenge to urban planners in deciding upon effective adaptation measures as they often lack information on the performance of green infrastructure to moderate surface runoff. It remains unclear what type of green infrastructure (e.g. trees, green roofs), offers the highest potential to reduce discharge volumes and to what extent. Against this background, this study provides an approach to gather quantitative evidence on green infrastructure's regulation potential. We use a micro-scale scenario modelling approach of different variations of green cover under current and future climatic conditions. The scenarios are modelled with MIKE SHE, an integrated hydrological simulation tool, and applied to a high density residential area of perimeter blocks in Munich, Germany. The results reveal that both trees and green roofs increase water storage capacities and hence reduce surface runoff, although the main contribution of trees lies in increasing interception and evapotranspiration, whereas green roofs allow for more retention through water storage in their substrate. With increasing precipitation intensities as projected under climate change their regulating potential decreases due to limited water

  7. Assessing Climate Change Impact on Gilgel Abbay and Gumara Watershed Hydrology, the Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hailu Sheferaw Ayele

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Climate change and variability have significant influences on hydrological cycles and the availability of water in the Horn of Africa. Projections of six General Circulation Models (GCMs in association with high (A2 and low (B1 emission scenarios were adopted in this study from the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES for the period 2020 - 2039 to assess the impacts of climate changes on the Gilgel Abbay and Gumara watershed hydrology, the upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia. The GCMs selected were screened in accordance with baseline climate statistics of study areas. A weather generator was employed to generate daily temperature and precipitation to drive the General Water Loading Function (GWLF hydrological model for simulating runoffs. Projected changes in temperature differences and precipitation ratios relative to the baseline were analyzed to explain the variations in evapotranspiration and the influences on runoff. Despite the fact that the projected magnitude varies among GCMs, increasing runoff in both wet and dry seasons was observed for both watersheds, attributable mainly to the increase in precipitation projected by most GCMs. In contrast to the great increases in runoff, variations in evapotranspiration are less significant. The projected runoff in both watersheds implies increased potential for promoting agricultural irrigation in the dry season. Furthermore, it would allow greater inflow to Lake Tana, the largest contributor to the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Therefore, concerned local, state, and federal government organizations shall be prepared to harness opportunities from the projected increase in runoff.

  8. Hydrological Controls on Floodplain Forest Phenology Assessed using Remotely Sensed Vegetation Indices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemon, M. G.; Keim, R.

    2017-12-01

    Although specific controls are not well understood, the phenology of temperate forests is generally thought to be controlled by photoperiod and temperature, although recent research suggests that soil moisture may also be important. The phenological controls of forested wetlands have not been thoroughly studied, and may be more controlled by site hydrology than other forests. For this study, remotely sensed vegetation indices were used to investigate hydrological controls on start-of-season timing, growing season length, and end-of-season timing at five floodplains in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. A simple spring green-up model was used to determine the null spring start of season time for each site as a function of land surface temperature and photoperiod, or two remotely sensed indices: MODIS phenology data product and the MODIS Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function-Adjusted Reflectance (NBAR) product. Preliminary results indicate that topographically lower areas within the floodplain with higher flood frequency experience later start-of-season timing. In addition, start-of-season is delayed in wet years relative to predicted timing based solely on temperature and photoperiod. The consequences for these controls unclear, but results suggest hydrological controls on floodplain ecosystem structure and carbon budgets are likely at least partially expressed by variations in growing season length.

  9. Scale effect challenges in urban hydrology highlighted with a distributed hydrological model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ichiba, Abdellah; Gires, Auguste; Tchiguirinskaia, Ioulia; Schertzer, Daniel; Bompard, Philippe; Ten Veldhuis, Marie-Claire

    2018-01-01

    Hydrological models are extensively used in urban water management, development and evaluation of future scenarios and research activities. There is a growing interest in the development of fully distributed and grid-based models. However, some complex questions related to scale effects are not yet fully understood and still remain open issues in urban hydrology. In this paper we propose a two-step investigation framework to illustrate the extent of scale effects in urban hydrology. First, fractal tools are used to highlight the scale dependence observed within distributed data input into urban hydrological models. Then an intensive multi-scale modelling work is carried out to understand scale effects on hydrological model performance. Investigations are conducted using a fully distributed and physically based model, Multi-Hydro, developed at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech. The model is implemented at 17 spatial resolutions ranging from 100 to 5 m. Results clearly exhibit scale effect challenges in urban hydrology modelling. The applicability of fractal concepts highlights the scale dependence observed within distributed data. Patterns of geophysical data change when the size of the observation pixel changes. The multi-scale modelling investigation confirms scale effects on hydrological model performance. Results are analysed over three ranges of scales identified in the fractal analysis and confirmed through modelling. This work also discusses some remaining issues in urban hydrology modelling related to the availability of high-quality data at high resolutions, and model numerical instabilities as well as the computation time requirements. The main findings of this paper enable a replacement of traditional methods of model calibration by innovative methods of model resolution alteration based on the spatial data variability and scaling of flows in urban hydrology.

  10. Strengthening health professions regulation in Cambodia: a rapid assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clarke, David; Duke, Jan; Wuliji, Tana; Smith, Alyson; Phuong, Keat; San, Un

    2016-03-10

    This paper describes a rapid assessment of Cambodia's current system for regulating its health professions. The assessment forms part of a co-design process to set strategic priorities for strengthening health profession regulation to improve the quality and safety of health services. A health system approach for strengthening health professions' regulation is underway and aims to support the Government of Cambodia's plans for scaling up its health workforce, improving health services' safety and quality, and meeting its Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) obligations to facilitate trade in health care services. The assessment used a mixed methods approach including: A desktop review of key laws, plans, reports and other documents relating to the regulation of the health professions in Cambodia (medicine, dentistry, midwifery, nursing and pharmacy); Key informant interviews with stakeholders in Cambodia (The term "stakeholders" refers to government officials, people working on health professional regulation, people working for the various health worker training institutions and health workers at the national and provincial level); Surveys and questionnaires to assess Cambodian stakeholder knowledge of regulation; Self-assessments by members of the five Cambodian regulatory councils regarding key capacities and activities of high-performing regulatory bodies; and A rapid literature review to identify: The key functions of health professional regulation; The key issues affecting the Cambodian health sector (including relevant developments in the wider ASEAN region); and "Smart" health profession regulation practices of possible relevance to Cambodia. We found that the current regulatory system only partially meets Cambodia's needs. A number of key regulatory functions are being performed, but overall, the current system was not designed with Cambodia's specific needs in mind. The existing system is also overly complex, with considerable duplication and

  11. Technical review of large-scale hydrological models for implementation in operational flood forecasting schemes on continental level

    OpenAIRE

    KAUFFELD Anna; WETTERHALL F.; Pappenberger F.; SALAMON Peter; THIELEN DEL POZO Jutta

    2014-01-01

    The uncertainty in operational hydrological forecast systems driven with numerical weather predictions inputs are often assessed by quantifying the uncertainty from the inputs and not from the hydrological model itself. However, part of the uncertainty in modelled discharge stems from the hydrological model and some models may be more suitable than others for particular processes. A hydrological multi-model hydrological system can account for some of this uncertainty, but there exists a p...

  12. Impact of land-use and climatic changes on hydrology of the Himalayan Basin: A case study of the Kosi Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Keshav Prasad

    1997-10-01

    Land-use and climatic changes are of major concern in the Himalayan region because of their potential impacts on a predominantly agriculture-based economy and a regional hydrology dominated by strong seasonality. Such concerns are not limited to any particular basin but exist throughout the region including the downstream plain areas. As a representative basin of the Himalayas, we studied the Kosi basin (54,000 km2) located in the mountainous area of the central Himalayan region. We analyzed climatic and hydrologic information to assess the impacts of existing and potential future land-use and climatic changes over the basin. The assessment of anthropogenic inputs showed that the population grew at a compound growth rate of about one percent per annum over the basin during the last four decades. The comparison of land-use data based on the surveys made in the 1960s, and the surveys of 1978-79 did not reveal noticeable trends in land-use change. Analysis of meteorological and hydrological trends using parametric and nonparametric statistics for monthly data from 1947 to 1993 showed some increasing tendency for temperature and precipitation. Statistical tests of hydrological trends indicated an overall decrease of discharge along mainstem Kosi River and its major tributaries. The decreasing trends of streamflow were more significant during low-flow months. Statistical analysis of homogeneity showed that the climatological as well as the hydrological trends were more localized in nature lacking distinct basinwide significance. Statistical analysis of annual sediment time series, available for a single station on the Kosi River did not reveal a significant trend. We used water balance, statistical correlation, and distributed deterministic modeling approaches to analyze the hydrological sensitivity of the basin to possible land-use and climatic changes. The results indicated a stronger influence of basin characteristics compared to climatic characteristics on flow

  13. Assessment of geomorphological and hydrological changes produced by Pleistocene glaciations in a Patagonian basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scordo, Facundo; Seitz, Carina; Melo, Walter D.; Piccolo, M. Cintia; Perillo, Gerardo M. E.

    2018-04-01

    This work aims to assess how Pleistocene glaciations modeled the landscape in the upper Senguer River basin and its relationship to current watershed features (drainage surface and fluvial hydrological regime). During the Pleistocene six glacial lobes developed in the upper basin of the Senguer River localized east of the Andean range in southern Argentinean Patagonia between 43° 36' - 46° 27‧ S. To describe the topography and hydrology, map the geomorphology, and propose an evolution of the study area during the Pleistocene we employed multitemporal Landsat images, national geological sheets and a mosaic of the digital elevation model (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) along with fieldwork. The main conclusion is that until the Middle Pleistocene, the drainage divide of the Senguer River basin was located to the west of its current limits and its rivers drained the meltwater of the glaciers during interglacial periods. However, processes of drainage inversion and drainage surface reduction occurred in the headwater of most rivers of the basin during the Late Pleistocene. Those processes were favored by a relative shorter glacial extension during LGM and the dam effect produced by the moraines of the Post GPG I and III glaciations. Thus, since the Late Pleistocene, the headwaters of several rivers in the basin have been reduced, and the moraines corresponding to the Middle Pleistocene glaciations currently divide the watersheds that drain towards the Senguer River from those that flow west towards the Pacific Ocean.

  14. Assessing the relative importance of parameter and forcing uncertainty and their interactions in conceptual hydrological model simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mockler, E. M.; Chun, K. P.; Sapriza-Azuri, G.; Bruen, M.; Wheater, H. S.

    2016-11-01

    Predictions of river flow dynamics provide vital information for many aspects of water management including water resource planning, climate adaptation, and flood and drought assessments. Many of the subjective choices that modellers make including model and criteria selection can have a significant impact on the magnitude and distribution of the output uncertainty. Hydrological modellers are tasked with understanding and minimising the uncertainty surrounding streamflow predictions before communicating the overall uncertainty to decision makers. Parameter uncertainty in conceptual rainfall-runoff models has been widely investigated, and model structural uncertainty and forcing data have been receiving increasing attention. This study aimed to assess uncertainties in streamflow predictions due to forcing data and the identification of behavioural parameter sets in 31 Irish catchments. By combining stochastic rainfall ensembles and multiple parameter sets for three conceptual rainfall-runoff models, an analysis of variance model was used to decompose the total uncertainty in streamflow simulations into contributions from (i) forcing data, (ii) identification of model parameters and (iii) interactions between the two. The analysis illustrates that, for our subjective choices, hydrological model selection had a greater contribution to overall uncertainty, while performance criteria selection influenced the relative intra-annual uncertainties in streamflow predictions. Uncertainties in streamflow predictions due to the method of determining parameters were relatively lower for wetter catchments, and more evenly distributed throughout the year when the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency of logarithmic values of flow (lnNSE) was the evaluation criterion.

  15. Porosity Development in a Coastal Setting: A Reactive Transport Model to Assess the Influence of Heterogeneity of Hydrological, Geochemical and Lithological Conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maqueda, A.; Renard, P.; Cornaton, F. J.

    2014-12-01

    Coastal karst networks are formed by mineral dissolution, mainly calcite, in the freshwater-saltwater mixing zone. The problem has been approached first by studying the kinetics of calcite dissolution and then coupling ion-pairing software with flow and mass transport models. Porosity development models require high computational power. A workaround to reduce computational complexity is to assume the calcite dissolution reaction is relatively fast, thus equilibrium chemistry can be used to model it (Sanford & Konikow, 1989). Later developments allowed the full coupling of kinetics and transport in a model. However kinetics effects of calcite dissolution were found negligible under the single set of assumed hydrological and geochemical boundary conditions. A model is implemented with the coupling of FeFlow software as the flow & transport module and PHREEQC4FEFLOW (Wissmeier, 2013) ion-pairing module. The model is used to assess the influence of heterogeneities in hydrological, geochemical and lithological boundary conditions on porosity evolution. The hydrologic conditions present in the karst aquifer of Quintana Roo coast in Mexico are used as a guide for generating inputs for simulations.

  16. Proving the ecosystem value through hydrological modelling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dorner, W; Spachinger, K; Metzka, R; Porter, M

    2008-01-01

    Ecosystems provide valuable functions. Also natural floodplains and river structures offer different types of ecosystem functions such as habitat function, recreational area and natural detention. From an economic stand point the loss (or rehabilitation) of these natural systems and their provided natural services can be valued as a damage (or benefit). Consequently these natural goods and services must be economically valued in project assessments e.g. cost-benefit-analysis or cost comparison. Especially in smaller catchments and river systems exists significant evidence that natural flood detention reduces flood risk and contributes to flood protection. Several research projects evaluated the mitigating effect of land use, river training and the loss of natural flood plains on development, peak and volume of floods. The presented project analysis the hypothesis that ignoring natural detention and hydrological ecosystem services could result in economically inefficient solutions for flood protection and mitigation. In test areas, subcatchments of the Danube in Germany, a combination of hydrological and hydrodynamic models with economic evaluation techniques was applied. Different forms of land use, river structure and flood protection measures were assed and compared from a hydrological and economic point of view. A hydrodynamic model was used to simulate flows to assess the extent of flood affected areas and damages to buildings and infrastructure as well as to investigate the impacts of levees and river structure on a local scale. These model results provided the basis for an economic assessment. Different economic valuation techniques, such as flood damage functions, cost comparison method and substation-approach were used to compare the outcomes of different hydrological scenarios from an economic point of view and value the ecosystem service. The results give significant evidence that natural detention must be evaluated as part of flood mitigation projects

  17. Climate change impact on available water resources obtained using multiple global climate and hydrology models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Hagemann

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Climate change is expected to alter the hydrological cycle resulting in large-scale impacts on water availability. However, future climate change impact assessments are highly uncertain. For the first time, multiple global climate (three and hydrological models (eight were used to systematically assess the hydrological response to climate change and project the future state of global water resources. This multi-model ensemble allows us to investigate how the hydrology models contribute to the uncertainty in projected hydrological changes compared to the climate models. Due to their systematic biases, GCM outputs cannot be used directly in hydrological impact studies, so a statistical bias correction has been applied. The results show a large spread in projected changes in water resources within the climate–hydrology modelling chain for some regions. They clearly demonstrate that climate models are not the only source of uncertainty for hydrological change, and that the spread resulting from the choice of the hydrology model is larger than the spread originating from the climate models over many areas. But there are also areas showing a robust change signal, such as at high latitudes and in some midlatitude regions, where the models agree on the sign of projected hydrological changes, indicative of higher confidence in this ensemble mean signal. In many catchments an increase of available water resources is expected but there are some severe decreases in Central and Southern Europe, the Middle East, the Mississippi River basin, southern Africa, southern China and south-eastern Australia.

  18. The hydrological cycle and its influence on climate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chahine, M T [California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (USA). Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    1992-10-01

    The uncertainties in assessing the effects of global-scale perturbations to the climate system are due primarily to an inadequate understanding of the hydrological cycle - the cycling of water in the oceans, atmosphere and biosphere. Overcoming this problem necessitates new ways of regarding a field traditionally divided amongst several disciplines, as well as new instrumentation and methods of data collection. The author aims to provide an appraisal of current theoretical and observational understanding of the roles of the hydrological cycle in the climate system, and its intimate connection to the energy cycle. An attempt is made to show why the hydrological cycle has emerged as the central element in studies of climate change, and to anticipate the main advances expected in modelling observations in the coming decade, along with areas where improvements will still be required. 62 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab.

  19. Hydrologic information needs for evaluating waste disposal options

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Huff, D.D.

    1983-01-01

    Before waste disposal options can be assessed, an objective or set of criteria for evaluation must be established. For hydrologists, the objective is to ensure that ground water and surface water do not become contaminated beyond acceptable limits as a result of waste disposal operations. The focus here is on the information required to quantify hydrologic transport of potential contaminants from the disposal site. It is important to recognize that the composition of the waste, its physical and chemical form, and the intended disposal methods (e.g., surface spreading, incineration, shallow land burial, or interment in a deep geologic repository) must either be specified a priori or set forth as specific options for evaluation, because these factors influence the nature of the hydrologic data needs. The hydrologic information needs of major importance are given together with specific measurable variables to be determined.

  20. Modeling wetland plant community response to assess water-level regulation scenarios in the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hudon, Christiane; Wilcox, Douglas; Ingram, Joel

    2006-01-01

    The International Joint Commission has recently completed a five-year study (2000-2005) to review the operation of structures controlling the flows and levels of the Lake Ontario - St. Lawrence River system. In addition to addressing the multitude of stakeholder interests, the regulation plan review also considers environmental sustainability and integrity of wetlands and various ecosystem components. The present paper outlines the general approach, scientific methodology and applied management considerations of studies quantifying the relationships between hydrology and wetland plant assemblages (% occurrence, surface area) in Lake Ontario and the Upper and Lower St. Lawrence River. Although similar study designs were used across the study region, different methodologies were required that were specifically adapted to suit the important regional differences between the lake and river systems, range in water-level variations, and confounding factors (geomorphic types, exposure, sediment characteristics, downstream gradient of water quality, origin of water masses in the Lower River). Performance indicators (metrics), such as total area of wetland in meadow marsh vegetation type, that link wetland response to water levels will be used to assess the effects of different regulation plans under current and future (climate change) water-supply scenarios.

  1. Simulating hydrologic response to climate change scenarios in four selected watersheds of New Hampshire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bjerklie, David M.; Ayotte, Joseph D.; Cahillane, Matthew J.

    2015-01-01

    The State of New Hampshire has initiated a coordinated effort to proactively prepare for the effects of climate change on the natural and human resources of New Hampshire. An important aspect of this effort is to develop a vulnerability assessment of hydrologic response to climate change. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, is developing tools to predict how projected changes in temperature and precipitation will affect change in the hydrology of watersheds in the State. This study is a test case to assemble the information and create the tools to assess the hydrologic vulnerabilities in four specific watersheds.

  2. Possible Future Climate Change Impacts on the Hydrological Drought Events in the Weihe River Basin, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fei Yuan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative evaluation of future climate change impacts on hydrological drought characteristics is one of important measures for implementing sustainable water resources management and effective disaster mitigation in drought-prone regions under the changing environment. In this study, a modeling system for projecting the potential future climate change impacts on hydrological droughts in the Weihe River basin (WRB in North China is presented. This system consists of a large-scale hydrological model driven by climate outputs from three climate models (CMs for future streamflow projections, a probabilistic model for univariate drought assessment, and a copula-based bivariate model for joint drought frequency analysis under historical and future climates. With the observed historical climate data as the inputs, the Variable Infiltration Capacity hydrological model projects an overall runoff reduction in the WRB under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change A1B scenario. The univariate drought assessment found that although fewer hydrological drought events would occur under A1B scenario, drought duration and severity tend to increase remarkably. Moreover, the bivariate drought assessment reveals that future droughts in the same return period as the baseline droughts would become more serious. With these trends in the future, the hydrological drought situation in the WRB would be further deteriorated.

  3. Valuing hydrological alteration in Multi-Objective reservoir management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bizzi, S.; Pianosi, F.; Soncini-Sessa, R.

    2012-04-01

    Water management through dams and reservoirs is worldwide necessary to support key human-related activities ranging from hydropower production to water allocation for agricultural production, and flood risk mitigation. Advances in multi-objectives (MO) optimization techniques and ever growing computing power make it possible to design reservoir operating policies that represent Pareto-optimal tradeoffs between the multiple interests analysed. These progresses if on one hand are likely to enhance performances of commonly targeted objectives (such as hydropower production or water supply), on the other risk to strongly penalize all the interests not directly (i.e. mathematically) optimized within the MO algorithm. Alteration of hydrological regime, although is a well established cause of ecological degradation and its evaluation and rehabilitation are commonly required by recent legislation (as the Water Framework Directive in Europe), is rarely embedded as an objective in MO planning of optimal releases from reservoirs. Moreover, even when it is explicitly considered, the criteria adopted for its evaluation are doubted and not commonly trusted, undermining the possibility of real implementation of environmentally friendly policies. The main challenges in defining and assessing hydrological alterations are: how to define a reference state (referencing); how to define criteria upon which to build mathematical indicators of alteration (measuring); and finally how to aggregate the indicators in a single evaluation index that can be embedded in a MO optimization problem (valuing). This paper aims to address these issues by: i) discussing benefits and constrains of different approaches to referencing, measuring and valuing hydrological alteration; ii) testing two alternative indices of hydrological alteration in the context of MO problems, one based on the established framework of Indices of Hydrological Alteration (IHA, Richter et al., 1996), and a novel satisfying the

  4. Audit Risk Assessment in the Light of Current European Regulations

    OpenAIRE

    Ciprian-Costel Munteanu

    2015-01-01

    Recent European reforms on audit regulations have been motivated by efforts to increase audit quality, functioning and performance. We believe the adoption of Directive 2014/56 and Regulation 537/2014 strengthened the role of independent audit and risk committees, which will positively contribute towards audit quality. This paper aims to critically assess the status quo of audit risk assessment in current European standards and regulations, by conducting a theoretical analysis of different as...

  5. HYDROLOGIC MODEL UNCERTAINTY ASSOCIATED WITH SIMULATING FUTURE LAND-COVER/USE SCENARIOS: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS

    Science.gov (United States)

    GIS-based hydrologic modeling offers a convenient means of assessing the impacts associated with land-cover/use change for environmental planning efforts. Alternative future scenarios can be used as input to hydrologic models and compared with existing conditions to evaluate pot...

  6. Environmental radiation exposure: Regulation, monitoring, and assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, S.Y.; Yu, C.; Hong, K.J.

    1991-01-01

    Radioactive releases to the environment from nuclear facilities constitute a public health concern. Protecting the public from such releases can be achieved through the establishment and enforcement of regulatory standards. In the United States, numerous standards have been promulgated to regulate release control at nuclear facilities. Most recent standards are more restrictive than those in the past and require that radioactivity levels be as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). Environmental monitoring programs and radiological dose assessment are means of ensuring compliance with regulations. Environmental monitoring programs provide empirical information on releases, such as the concentrations of released radioactivity in environmental media, while radiological dose assessment provides the analytical means of quantifying dose exposures for demonstrating compliance

  7. A review of continent scale hydrological datasets available for Africa

    OpenAIRE

    Bonsor, H.C.

    2010-01-01

    As rainfall becomes less reliable with predicted climate change the ability to assess the spatial and seasonal variations in groundwater availability on a large-scale (catchment and continent) is becoming increasingly important (Bates, et al. 2007; MacDonald et al. 2009). The scarcity of observed hydrological data, or difficulty in obtaining such data, within Africa means remotely sensed (RS) datasets must often be used to drive large-scale hydrological models. The different ap...

  8. Climate change impact assessment on various components of the hydrological regime of the Malše river basin

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Němečková, Soňa; Slámová, Romana; Šípek, Václav

    2011-01-01

    Roč. 59, č. 2 (2011), s. 131-143 ISSN 0042-790X R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA300600901; GA MŽP(CZ) SP/1A6/151/07 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20600510 Keywords : climate change * hydrological modelling * hydrological cycle Subject RIV: DA - Hydrology ; Limnology Impact factor: 0.340, year: 2011

  9. Guidebook on nuclear techniques in hydrology. 1983 ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-01-01

    This guidebook serves as an introduction to the range of isotope techniques that are applicable in hydrology. The basic principles of each application are described followed by examples of case studies. This method of treatment should enable hydrologists to identify and assess the possible use of isotope techniques to their particular problems, although hydrologists having no prior experience in the use of isotope techniques will need to collaborate with isotope hydrologists. Isotope techniques may provide an independent approach for solving a hydrological problem. However, it should be realised that these techniques are only one of a number of tools now available to the hydrologist and their use in conjunction with other hydrological methods is likely to be most productive. Isotope hydrology may be considered under three headings: (1) the use of variations in the environmental isotopic composition of water; (2) the use of artificial radioactive tracers; (3) the use of radioisotope instruments. The following sections summarise the elements of radioactivity and interaction of radiation with matter considered necessary for an understanding of the use of isotope techniques in hydrology. Other sections in this introduction deal with the reasons for the variations in the environmental isotopic composition of water, the precautions in sampling of water, the use and choice of artificial radioactive tracers and precautions in their use, and the principles of tracer techniques

  10. Effect and relevance of the artificial drainage system when assessing the hydrologic impact of the imperviousness distribution within the watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thenoux, M.; Gironas, J. A.; Mejia, A.

    2013-12-01

    Cities and urban growth have relevant environmental and social impacts, which could eventually be enhanced or reduced during the urban planning process. From the point of view of hydrology, impermeability and natural soil compaction are one of the main problems that urbanization brings to watershed. Previous studies demonstrate and quantify the impacts of the distribution of imperviousness in a watershed, both on runoff volumes and flow, and the quality and integrity of streams and receiving bodies. Moreover, some studies have investigated the optimal distribution of imperviousness, based on simulating different scenarios of land use change and its effects on runoff, mostly at the outlet of the watershed. However, these studies typically do not address the impact of artificial drainage system associated with the imperviousness scenarios, despite it is known that storm sewer coverage affects the flow accumulation and generation of flow hydrographs. This study seeks to quantify the effects and relevance of the artificial system when it comes to assess the hydrological impacts of the spatial distribution of imperviousness and to determine the characteristics of this influence. For this purpose, an existing model to generate imperviousness distribution scenarios is coupled with a model developed to automatically generate artificial drainage networks. These models are applied to a natural watershed to generate a variety of imperviousness and storm sewer layout scenarios, which are evaluate with a morphoclimatic instantaneous unit hydrograph model. We first tested the ability of this approach to represent the joint effects of imperviousness (i.e. level and distribution) and storm sewer coverage. We then quantified the effects of these variables on the hydrological response, considering also different return period in order to take into account the variability of the precipitation regime. Overall, we show that the layout and spatial coverage of the storm sewer system

  11. Development of a Watershed-Scale Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment Model with the Asymptotic Curve Number Regression Equation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jichul Ryu

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available In this study, 52 asymptotic Curve Number (CN regression equations were developed for combinations of representative land covers and hydrologic soil groups. In addition, to overcome the limitations of the original Long-term Hydrologic Impact Assessment (L-THIA model when it is applied to larger watersheds, a watershed-scale L-THIA Asymptotic CN (ACN regression equation model (watershed-scale L-THIA ACN model was developed by integrating the asymptotic CN regressions and various modules for direct runoff/baseflow/channel routing. The watershed-scale L-THIA ACN model was applied to four watersheds in South Korea to evaluate the accuracy of its streamflow prediction. The coefficient of determination (R2 and Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE values for observed versus simulated streamflows over intervals of eight days were greater than 0.6 for all four of the watersheds. The watershed-scale L-THIA ACN model, including the asymptotic CN regression equation method, can simulate long-term streamflow sufficiently well with the ten parameters that have been added for the characterization of streamflow.

  12. Assessment and Reduction of Model Parametric Uncertainties: A Case Study with A Distributed Hydrological Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gan, Y.; Liang, X. Z.; Duan, Q.; Xu, J.; Zhao, P.; Hong, Y.

    2017-12-01

    The uncertainties associated with the parameters of a hydrological model need to be quantified and reduced for it to be useful for operational hydrological forecasting and decision support. An uncertainty quantification framework is presented to facilitate practical assessment and reduction of model parametric uncertainties. A case study, using the distributed hydrological model CREST for daily streamflow simulation during the period 2008-2010 over ten watershed, was used to demonstrate the performance of this new framework. Model behaviors across watersheds were analyzed by a two-stage stepwise sensitivity analysis procedure, using LH-OAT method for screening out insensitive parameters, followed by MARS-based Sobol' sensitivity indices for quantifying each parameter's contribution to the response variance due to its first-order and higher-order effects. Pareto optimal sets of the influential parameters were then found by the adaptive surrogate-based multi-objective optimization procedure, using MARS model for approximating the parameter-response relationship and SCE-UA algorithm for searching the optimal parameter sets of the adaptively updated surrogate model. The final optimal parameter sets were validated against the daily streamflow simulation of the same watersheds during the period 2011-2012. The stepwise sensitivity analysis procedure efficiently reduced the number of parameters that need to be calibrated from twelve to seven, which helps to limit the dimensionality of calibration problem and serves to enhance the efficiency of parameter calibration. The adaptive MARS-based multi-objective calibration exercise provided satisfactory solutions to the reproduction of the observed streamflow for all watersheds. The final optimal solutions showed significant improvement when compared to the default solutions, with about 65-90% reduction in 1-NSE and 60-95% reduction in |RB|. The validation exercise indicated a large improvement in model performance with about 40

  13. Recent breakthroughs and themes in hydrology, from climate to the water-food-energy nexus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montanari, A.

    2017-12-01

    The last decades marked a significant change in geosciences. Increasing communication, observations, computing capabilities and opportunities to make dissemination stimulated a rapid increase of the number of publications and scientific forums. On the one hand this development is undoubtedly positive. In fact, it provides more and more opportunities to young and experienced scientists to elaborate innovative ideas and to establish cooperation. On the other hand, the proliferation of information, communication and publications makes the identification of key ideas and contributions definitely more challenging. Notwithstanding the above development, Water Resources Research (WRR) provides an ideal perspective to elaborate a picture of recent breakthroughs in hydrology. In fact, despite the increasing number of submissions and the progress of time, WRR kept a rigorous attitude to assess manuscripts by evaluating their relevance to emerging environmental and societal challenges.To get a long term perspective of breakthroughs in hydrology, it is interesting to compare the two anniversary special sections published so far in WRR, namely, the 50th anniversary special section "Legacy and perspectives for the science of hydrology", and "Trends and Directions in Hydrology", that was edited by Steven Burges in 1986 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the journal. The above comparison highlights that the traditional break-up of hydrology into sub-disciplines, each focusing on separate components of the water cycle, has given way to a more interconnected, interdisciplinary research on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, and interactions between water, society, earth and biological systems.This talk will present a voyage through the WRR history to highlight recent advances and topical themes. An attempt to develop a vision for the future of WRR and hydrology will be presented. Water will become more and more the regulator of social dynamics, including economy, politics

  14. A strategy for assessing potential future changes in climate, hydrology, and vegetation in the Western United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Robert Stephen; Hostetler, Steven W.; Bartlein, Patrick J.; Anderson, Katherine H.

    1998-01-01

    Historical and geological data indicate that significant changes can occur in the Earth's climate on time scales ranging from years to millennia. In addition to natural climatic change, climatic changes may occur in the near future due to increased concentrations of carbon dioxide and other trace gases in the atmosphere that are the result of human activities. International research efforts using atmospheric general circulation models (AGCM's) to assess potential climatic conditions under atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of twice the pre-industrial level (a '2 X CO2' atmosphere) conclude that climate would warm on a global basis. However, it is difficult to assess how the projected warmer climatic conditions would be distributed on a regional scale and what the effects of such warming would be on the landscape, especially for temperate mountainous regions such as the Western United States. In this report, we present a strategy to assess the regional sensitivity to global climatic change. The strategy makes use of a hierarchy of models ranging from an AGCM, to a regional climate model, to landscape-scale process models of hydrology and vegetation. A 2 X CO2 global climate simulation conducted with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) GENESIS AGCM on a grid of approximately 4.5o of latitude by 7.5o of longitude was used to drive the NCAR regional climate model (RegCM) over the Western United States on a grid of 60 km by 60 km. The output from the RegCM is used directly (for hydrologic models) or interpolated onto a 15-km grid (for vegetation models) to quantify possible future environmental conditions on a spatial scale relevant to policy makers and land managers.

  15. From Site Data to Safety Assessment: Analysis of Present and Future Hydrological Conditions at a Coastal Site in Sweden

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berglund, Sten; Bosson, Emma; Sassner, Mona

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents an analysis of present and future hydrological conditions at the Forsmark site in Sweden, which has been proposed as the site for a geological repository for spent nuclear fuel. Forsmark is a coastal site that changes in response to shoreline displacement. In the considered time frame (until year 10 000 ad), the hydrological system will be affected by landscape succession associated with shoreline displacement and changes in vegetation, regolith stratigraphy, and climate. Based on extensive site investigations and modeling of present hydrological conditions, the effects of different processes on future site hydrology are quantified. As expected, shoreline displacement has a strong effect on local hydrology (e.g., groundwater flow) in areas that change from sea to land. The comparison between present and future land areas emphasizes the importance of climate variables relative to other factors for main hydrological features such as water balances

  16. Regional frameworks applied to hydrology: can landscape-based frameworks capture the hydrologic variability?

    Science.gov (United States)

    R. McManamay; D. Orth; C. Dolloff; E. Frimpong

    2011-01-01

    Regional frameworks have been used extensively in recent years to aid in broad-scale management. Widely used landscape-based regional frameworks, such as hydrologic landscape regions (HLRs) and physiographic provinces, may provide predictive tools of hydrologic variability. However, hydrologic-based regional frameworks, created using only streamflow data, are also...

  17. Can Low Frequency Measurements Be Good Enough? - A Statistical Assessment of Citizen Hydrology Streamflow Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davids, J. C.; Rutten, M.; Van De Giesen, N.

    2016-12-01

    Hydrologic data has traditionally been collected with permanent installations of sophisticated and relatively accurate but expensive monitoring equipment at limited numbers of sites. Consequently, the spatial coverage of the data is limited and costs are high. Achieving adequate maintenance of sophisticated monitoring equipment often exceeds local technical and resource capacity, and permanently deployed monitoring equipment is susceptible to vandalism, theft, and other hazards. Rather than using expensive, vulnerable installations at a few points, SmartPhones4Water (S4W), a form of Citizen Hydrology, leverages widely available mobile technology to gather hydrologic data at many sites in a manner that is repeatable and scalable. However, there is currently a limited understanding of the impact of decreased observational frequency on the accuracy of key streamflow statistics like minimum flow, maximum flow, and runoff. As a first step towards evaluating the tradeoffs between traditional continuous monitoring approaches and emerging Citizen Hydrology methods, we randomly selected 50 active U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow gauges in California. We used historical 15 minute flow data from 01/01/2008 through 12/31/2014 to develop minimum flow, maximum flow, and runoff values (7 year total) for each gauge. In order to mimic lower frequency Citizen Hydrology observations, we developed a bootstrap randomized subsampling with replacement procedure. We calculated the same statistics, along with their respective distributions, from 50 subsample iterations with four different subsampling intervals (i.e. daily, three day, weekly, and monthly). Based on our results we conclude that, depending on the types of questions being asked, and the watershed characteristics, Citizen Hydrology streamflow measurements can provide useful and accurate information. Depending on watershed characteristics, minimum flows were reasonably estimated with subsample intervals ranging from

  18. Impacts of climate and land-use changes on the hydrological dynamics in the upper Citarum River basin based on the J2000 hydrological model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magenika Julian, Miga; Fink, Manfred; Fischer, Christian; Krause, Peter; Flügel, Wolfgang-Albert

    2015-04-01

    Changes of land-use and climate will most likely result in changes of the hydrological dynamics in river basins. Such changes can be noticed in the upper Citarum River basin (UCB), Java Island, Indonesia. This basin covers 1821km2 and is located in a hilly area of the backcountry of Jakarta. Between 2005 and 2009, the basin's forest cover has been reduced by 5.0%, residential areas grew around 8.2% expanding around the existing residential areas, and 3.9% of shrubland was converted into agricultural areas. From 1985 through 2009, the mean annual air temperature increased by 0.01° C/year; whereas, precipitation slightly decreased by 6.8mm/year. The process-oriented hydrological model JAMS/J2000 was adapted and implemented to assess the impact of land-use change and climate variability on the hydrological dynamics of this basin, including consideration of the temporal and spatial distributions. For this assessment, three scenarios based on realistic events were investigated; these consisted of the following (i) land-use changes in 2005 versus 2009; (ii) temperature increase from 1984 to 2009, while keeping a precipitation constant from year 1984; and (iii) variability of precipitation from 1984 to 2009, while keeping temperature constant from year 1984. The model-input conditions of land-use, precipitation, and temperature changes where applied individually, holding the other factors constant. Model simulations were conducted for the UCB. The J2000 model for the UCB was calibrated and validated using a split-sample approach. For model calibration and validation, fairly good objective functions were achieved: i.e. Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies (E) by 0.79 and 0.76, log E of 0.89 and 0.84, coefficient of determination of 0.79 and 0.77, and a percent bias of -1.4% and -1.1%. From the model-simulation results, it was concluded that the land-use changes resulted in a slight increase in stream discharge (4.6%) and a decrease of evaporation of 3.7%. The analysis of the

  19. Bridging the Gap between NASA Hydrological Data and the Geospatial Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rui, Hualan; Teng, Bill; Vollmer, Bruce; Mocko, David M.; Beaudoing, Hiroko K.; Nigro, Joseph; Gary, Mark; Maidment, David; Hooper, Richard

    2011-01-01

    There is a vast and ever increasing amount of data on the Earth interconnected energy and hydrological systems, available from NASA remote sensing and modeling systems, and yet, one challenge persists: increasing the usefulness of these data for, and thus their use by, the geospatial communities. The Hydrology Data and Information Services Center (HDISC), part of the Goddard Earth Sciences DISC, has continually worked to better understand the hydrological data needs of the geospatial end users, to thus better able to bridge the gap between NASA data and the geospatial communities. This paper will cover some of the hydrological data sets available from HDISC, and the various tools and services developed for data searching, data subletting ; format conversion. online visualization and analysis; interoperable access; etc.; to facilitate the integration of NASA hydrological data by end users. The NASA Goddard data analysis and visualization system, Giovanni, is described. Two case examples of user-customized data services are given, involving the EPA BASINS (Better Assessment Science Integrating point & Non-point Sources) project and the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System, with the common requirement of on-the-fly retrieval of long duration time series for a geographical point

  20. The Effect of Modeling and Visualization Resources on Student Understanding of Physical Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marshall, Jilll A.; Castillo, Adam J.; Cardenas, M. Bayani

    2015-01-01

    We investigated the effect of modeling and visualization resources on upper-division, undergraduate and graduate students' performance on an open-ended assessment of their understanding of physical hydrology. The students were enrolled in one of five sections of a physical hydrology course. In two of the sections, students completed homework…

  1. The influence of riparian-hyporheic zone on the hydrological responses in an intermittent stream

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Butturini

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available Stream and riparian groundwater hydrology has been studied in a small intermittent stream draining a forested catchment for a system representative of a Mediterranean climate. The relationship between precipitation and stream runoff and the interactions between stream water and the surrounding riparian groundwater have been analysed under a wide spectrum of meteorological conditions. The hypothesis that the hydrological condition of the near-stream groundwater compartment can regulate the runoff generation during precipitation events was tested. Stream runoff is characterised by a summer dry period, and precipitation input explained only 25% of runoff variability over the study period (r2 =0.25, d.f.=51, p2=0.80, d.f.=34, p Keywords: riparian zone, groundwater hydrology, runoff, intermittent stream, Mediterranean climate

  2. Publishing and sharing of hydrologic models through WaterHUB

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merwade, V.; Ruddell, B. L.; Song, C.; Zhao, L.; Kim, J.; Assi, A.

    2011-12-01

    Most hydrologists use hydrologic models to simulate the hydrologic processes to understand hydrologic pathways and fluxes for research, decision making and engineering design. Once these tasks are complete including publication of results, the models generally are not published or made available to the public for further use and improvement. Although publication or sharing of models is not required for journal publications, sharing of models may open doors for new collaborations, and avoids duplication of efforts if other researchers are interested in simulating a particular watershed for which a model already exists. For researchers, who are interested in sharing models, there are limited avenues to publishing their models to the wider community. Towards filling this gap, a prototype cyberinfrastructure (CI), called WaterHUB, is developed for sharing hydrologic data and modeling tools in an interactive environment. To test the utility of WaterHUB for sharing hydrologic models, a system to publish and share SWAT (Soil Water Assessment Tool) is developed. Users can utilize WaterHUB to search and download existing SWAT models, and also upload new SWAT models. Metadata such as the name of the watershed, name of the person or agency who developed the model, simulation period, time step, and list of calibrated parameters also published with individual model.

  3. Processing and inversion of commercial helicopter time-domain electromagnetic data for environmental assessments and geologic and hydrologic mapping

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    J.E., Podgorski; Auken, Esben; Schamper, Cyril Noel Clarence

    2013-01-01

    Helicopter time-domain electromagnetic (HTEM) surveying has historically been used for mineral exploration, but over the past decade it has started to be used in environmental assessments and geologic and hydrologic mapping. Such surveying is a cost-effective means of rapidly acquiring densely......%-23%, and the artificial lineations were practically eliminated. Our processing and inversion strategy is entirely general, such that with minor system-specific modifications it could be applied to any HTEM data set, including those recorded many years ago. © 2013 Society of Exploration Geophysicists....

  4. Providing open hydrological data for decision making and research - hypeweb.smhi.se

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strömbäck, Lena; Andersson, Jafet; Donnelly, Chantal; Gustafsson, David; Isberg, Kristina; Pechlivanidis, Ilias; Strömqvist, Johan; Arheimer, Berit

    2015-04-01

    Following the EU open data strategy the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) is providing large parts of their databases openly available. These data are ranging from historical observations to climate predictions in various areas such as weather, oceanography and hydrology. In this presentation we will focus on the work on making hydrological data openly available. Hydrological modelling demands large amounts of spatial data, such as soil properties, land use, topography, lakes and reservoirs, ice and snow coverage, water management (e.g. irrigation patterns and regulations), meteorological data and observed water discharge in rivers. By using such data, the hydrological model will in turn provide new data that can be used for new purposes (i.e. re-purposing). In the presentation we will focus on how readily available open data from public portals have been re-purposed by using the Hydrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE) model in a number of large-scale model applications covering numerous subbasins and rivers. HYPE is a dynamic, semi-distributed, process-based, and integrated catchment model. So far, the following regional domains have been modelled with different resolutions (number of subbasins within brackets): Sweden (37 000), Europe (35 000), Arctic basin (30 000), La Plata River (6 000), Niger River (800), Middle-East North-Africa (31 000), and the Indian subcontinent (6 000). The model output is launched as new Open Data at the web site www.hypeweb.smhi.se. The web site provides several interactive applications for exploring results from the models. The user can explore an overview of various water variables for historical and future conditions. Moreover the user can explore and download historical time series of discharge for each basin and explore the performance of the model towards observed river flow. The available results can be used for many different purposes including; (i) Climate change impact assessments on water

  5. Assessment of Evolving TRMM-Based Real-Time Precipitation Estimation Methods and Their Impacts on Hydrologic Prediction in a High-Latitude Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yong, Bin; Hong, Yang; Ren, Li-Liang; Gourley, Jonathan; Huffman, George J.; Chen, Xi; Wang, Wen; Khan, Sadiq I.

    2013-01-01

    The real-time availability of satellite-derived precipitation estimates provides hydrologists an opportunity to improve current hydrologic prediction capability for medium to large river basins. Due to the availability of new satellite data and upgrades to the precipitation algorithms, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis real-time estimates (TMPA-RT) have been undergoing several important revisions over the past ten years. In this study, the changes of the relative accuracy and hydrologic potential of TMPA-RT estimates over its three major evolving periods were evaluated and inter-compared at daily, monthly and seasonal scales in the high-latitude Laohahe basin in China. Assessment results show that the performance of TMPA-RT in terms of precipitation estimation and streamflow simulation was significantly improved after 3 February 2005. Overestimation during winter months was noteworthy and consistent, which is suggested to be a consequence from interference of snow cover to the passive microwave retrievals. Rainfall estimated by the new version 6 of TMPA-RT starting from 1 October 2008 to present has higher correlations with independent gauge observations and tends to perform better in detecting rain compared to the prior periods, although it suffers larger mean error and relative bias. After a simple bias correction, this latest dataset of TMPA-RT exhibited the best capability in capturing hydrologic response among the three tested periods. In summary, this study demonstrated that there is an increasing potential in the use of TMPA-RT in hydrologic streamflow simulations over its three algorithm upgrade periods, but still with significant challenges during the winter snowing events.

  6. Audit Risk Assessment in the Light of Current European Regulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ciprian-Costel Munteanu

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Recent European reforms on audit regulations have been motivated by efforts to increase audit quality, functioning and performance. We believe the adoption of Directive 2014/56 and Regulation 537/2014 strengthened the role of independent audit and risk committees, which will positively contribute towards audit quality. This paper aims to critically assess the status quo of audit risk assessment in current European standards and regulations, by conducting a theoretical analysis of different aspects of audit risk. Our main objective is to stress the importance of detecting inherent and control risk, which lead to material misstatement at the assertion level. They need to be assessed so as to determine the nature, timing and extent of further audit procedures necessary to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence. These pieces of evidence enable the auditor to express an opinion on the financial statements at an acceptably low level of audit risk. Therefore, we point to the fact that researchers as well as practitioners and policymakers have to be careful when using audit tools and assessing risk levels, as their conclusions continuously shape the regulations.

  7. Hydrologic resources management program and underground test area operable unit fy 1997

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Smith, D. F., LLNL

    1998-05-01

    This report present the results of FY 1997 technical studies conducted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as part of the Hydrology and Radionuclide Migration Program (HRMP) and Underground Test Area Operable Unit (UGTA). The HRMP is sponsored by the US Department of Energy to assess the environmental (radiochemical and hydrologic) consequences of underground nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site.

  8. Assessing The Performance of Hydrological Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Knijff, Johan

    The performance of hydrological models is often characterized using the coefficient of efficiency, E. The sensitivity of E to extreme streamflow values, and the difficulty of deciding what value of E should be used as a threshold to identify 'good' models or model parameterizations, have proven to be serious shortcomings of this index. This paper reviews some alternative performance indices that have appeared in the litera- ture. Legates and McCabe (1999) suggested a more generalized form of E, E'(j,B). Here, j is a parameter that controls how much emphasis is put on extreme streamflow values, and B defines a benchmark or 'null hypothesis' against which the results of the model are tested. E'(j,B) was used to evaluate a large number of parameterizations of a conceptual rainfall-runoff model, using 6 different combinations of j and B. First, the effect of j and B is explained. Second, it is demonstrated how the index can be used to explicitly test hypotheses about the model and the data. This approach appears to be particularly attractive if the index is used as a likelihood measure within a GLUE-type analysis.

  9. Darwinian hydrology: can the methodology Charles Darwin pioneered help hydrologic science?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harman, C.; Troch, P. A.

    2013-05-01

    There have been repeated calls for a Darwinian approach to hydrologic science or for a synthesis of Darwinian and Newtonian approaches, to deepen understanding the hydrologic system in the larger landscape context, and so develop a better basis for predictions now and in an uncertain future. But what exactly makes a Darwinian approach to hydrology "Darwinian"? While there have now been a number of discussions of Darwinian approaches, many referencing Harte (2002), the term is potentially a source of confusion while its connections to Darwin remain allusive rather than explicit. Here we discuss the methods that Charles Darwin pioneered to understand a variety of complex systems in terms of their historical processes of change. We suggest that the Darwinian approach to hydrology follows his lead by focusing attention on the patterns of variation in populations, seeking hypotheses that explain these patterns in terms of the mechanisms and conditions that determine their historical development, using deduction and modeling to derive consequent hypotheses that follow from a proposed explanation, and critically testing these hypotheses against new observations. It is not sufficient to catalogue the patterns or predict them statistically. Nor is it sufficient for the explanations to amount to a "just-so" story not subject to critical analysis. Darwin's theories linked present-day variation to mechanisms that operated over history, and could be independently test and falsified by comparing new observations to the predictions of corollary hypotheses they generated. With a Darwinian framework in mind it is easy to see that a great deal of hydrologic research has already been done that contributes to a Darwinian hydrology - whether deliberately or not. The various heuristic methods that Darwin used to develop explanatory theories - extrapolating mechanisms, space for time substitution, and looking for signatures of history - have direct application in hydrologic science. Some

  10. Assessing Hydrologic Impacts of Future Land Cover Change Scenarios in the San Pedro River (U.S./Mexico)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long-term land-use and land cover change and their associated impacts pose critical challenges to sustaining vital hydrological ecosystem services for future generations. In this study, a methodology was developed to characterize hydrologic impacts from future urban growth throug...

  11. Implications of the methodological choices for hydrologic portrayals of climate change over the contiguous United States: Statistically downscaled forcing data and hydrologic models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mizukami, Naoki; Clark, Martyn P.; Gutmann, Ethan D.; Mendoza, Pablo A.; Newman, Andrew J.; Nijssen, Bart; Livneh, Ben; Hay, Lauren E.; Arnold, Jeffrey R.; Brekke, Levi D.

    2016-01-01

    Continental-domain assessments of climate change impacts on water resources typically rely on statistically downscaled climate model outputs to force hydrologic models at a finer spatial resolution. This study examines the effects of four statistical downscaling methods [bias-corrected constructed analog (BCCA), bias-corrected spatial disaggregation applied at daily (BCSDd) and monthly scales (BCSDm), and asynchronous regression (AR)] on retrospective hydrologic simulations using three hydrologic models with their default parameters (the Community Land Model, version 4.0; the Variable Infiltration Capacity model, version 4.1.2; and the Precipitation–Runoff Modeling System, version 3.0.4) over the contiguous United States (CONUS). Biases of hydrologic simulations forced by statistically downscaled climate data relative to the simulation with observation-based gridded data are presented. Each statistical downscaling method produces different meteorological portrayals including precipitation amount, wet-day frequency, and the energy input (i.e., shortwave radiation), and their interplay affects estimations of precipitation partitioning between evapotranspiration and runoff, extreme runoff, and hydrologic states (i.e., snow and soil moisture). The analyses show that BCCA underestimates annual precipitation by as much as −250 mm, leading to unreasonable hydrologic portrayals over the CONUS for all models. Although the other three statistical downscaling methods produce a comparable precipitation bias ranging from −10 to 8 mm across the CONUS, BCSDd severely overestimates the wet-day fraction by up to 0.25, leading to different precipitation partitioning compared to the simulations with other downscaled data. Overall, the choice of downscaling method contributes to less spread in runoff estimates (by a factor of 1.5–3) than the choice of hydrologic model with use of the default parameters if BCCA is excluded.

  12. Arid Zone Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arid zone hydrology encompasses a wide range of topics and hydro-meteorological and ecological characteristics. Although arid and semi-arid watersheds perform the same functions as those in humid environments, their hydrology and sediment transport characteristics cannot be readily predicted by inf...

  13. Evaluating the hydrological consistency of satellite based water cycle components

    KAUST Repository

    Lopez Valencia, Oliver Miguel

    2016-06-15

    Advances in multi-satellite based observations of the earth system have provided the capacity to retrieve information across a wide-range of land surface hydrological components and provided an opportunity to characterize terrestrial processes from a completely new perspective. Given the spatial advantage that space-based observations offer, several regional-to-global scale products have been developed, offering insights into the multi-scale behaviour and variability of hydrological states and fluxes. However, one of the key challenges in the use of satellite-based products is characterizing the degree to which they provide realistic and representative estimates of the underlying retrieval: that is, how accurate are the hydrological components derived from satellite observations? The challenge is intrinsically linked to issues of scale, since the availability of high-quality in-situ data is limited, and even where it does exist, is generally not commensurate to the resolution of the satellite observation. Basin-scale studies have shown considerable variability in achieving water budget closure with any degree of accuracy using satellite estimates of the water cycle. In order to assess the suitability of this type of approach for evaluating hydrological observations, it makes sense to first test it over environments with restricted hydrological inputs, before applying it to more hydrological complex basins. Here we explore the concept of hydrological consistency, i.e. the physical considerations that the water budget impose on the hydrologic fluxes and states to be temporally and spatially linked, to evaluate the reproduction of a set of large-scale evaporation (E) products by using a combination of satellite rainfall (P) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations of storage change, focusing on arid and semi-arid environments, where the hydrological flows can be more realistically described. Our results indicate no persistent hydrological

  14. A comparative appraisal of hydrological behavior of SRTM DEM at catchment level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Arabinda; Tiwari, K. N.

    2014-11-01

    The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data has emerged as a global elevation data in the past one decade because of its free availability, homogeneity and consistent accuracy compared to other global elevation dataset. The present study explores the consistency in hydrological behavior of the SRTM digital elevation model (DEM) with reference to easily available regional 20 m contour interpolated DEM (TOPO DEM). Analysis ranging from simple vertical accuracy assessment to hydrological simulation of the studied Maithon catchment, using empirical USLE model and semidistributed, physical SWAT model, were carried out. Moreover, terrain analysis involving hydrological indices was performed for comparative assessment of the SRTM DEM with respect to TOPO DEM. Results reveal that the vertical accuracy of SRTM DEM (±27.58 m) in the region is less than the specified standard (±16 m). Statistical analysis of hydrological indices such as topographic wetness index (TWI), stream power index (SPI), slope length factor (SLF) and geometry number (GN) shows a significant differences in hydrological properties of the two studied DEMs. Estimation of soil erosion potentials of the catchment and conservation priorities of microwatersheds of the catchment using SRTM DEM and TOPO DEM produce considerably different results. Prediction of soil erosion potential using SRTM DEM is far higher than that obtained using TOPO DEM. Similarly, conservation priorities determined using the two DEMs are found to be agreed for only 34% of microwatersheds of the catchment. ArcSWAT simulation reveals that runoff predictions are less sensitive to selection of the two DEMs as compared to sediment yield prediction. The results obtained in the present study are vital to hydrological analysis as it helps understanding the hydrological behavior of the DEM without being influenced by the model structural as well as parameter uncertainty. It also reemphasized that SRTM DEM can be a valuable dataset for

  15. Regional basalt hydrology of the Columbia Plateau in Washington

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tanaka, H.; Barrett, G.; Wildrick, L.

    1979-10-01

    This study is part of the Basalt Waste Isolation Project, operated for the US Department of Energy by Rockwell Hanford Operations. The overall purpose of the study is to assess locations within the Columbia River Basalt Group beneath the Hanford Site in south-central Washington suitable for a geologic repository for radioactive waste. This hydrologic study was made to describe the hydrologic characteristics of the basalt units of the Columbia Plateau. This was done by comprehensive data compilation, data interpretation and analysis. Data are presented in the form of maps and tables suitable as input information about the regional hydrology for possible future analysis by computer models. The report includes: an introduction; basic data; interpretation which covers stratigraphic trend surface, water levels, transmissivity and storage of aquifers, recharge, discharge, flow, subbasins, cross sections, references and appendix of record of wells

  16. Use of Isotopic Techniques for the Assessment of Hydrological Processes in Wetlands (Cienaga Colombia)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Betancur, T.; Santa, D.; Palacio, P.; Palacio, C.; Wills, B.; Hoyos, D. A. [Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin (Colombia)

    2013-07-15

    The Cienaga Colombia wetland is located in the Bajo Cauca Antioqueno region where the 'Man' river flows into the Cauca River. Hydrological processes on the Cienaga Colombia wetland are complex because of the interactive effects of both local and regional elements, associated with a typical tropical wet climatic regime. In this groundwater dependent wetland hydrological studies have been conducted, including hydrochemical analyses and isotope tracers, to describe and understand the interactions between groundwater and surface water, not only for the wetland itself but also for the entire catchment area. Rain samples (five year record) were used to obtain the LML: {delta}{sup 2}H = 8.03 {delta}{sup 18}O +9.9. The evaporation line is: {delta}{sup 2}H = 5.9 {delta}{sup 18}O - 7.3. According to the analyses, both groundwater and surface waters have the same isotopic signatures. Unsustainable land use practices along with current and predicted global environmental changes may cause negative impacts on the hydrological functioning of the region, affecting primarily, but not exclusively, evapotranspiration-recharge processes and the sustainability of the entire system. (author)

  17. Scaling Hydrologic Processes in Boreal Forest Stands: New Eco-hydrological Perspectives or Deja vu?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silins, U.; Lieffers, V. J.; Landhausser, S. M.; Mendoza, C. A.; Devito, K. J.; Petrone, R. M.; Gan, T. Y.

    2006-12-01

    The leaf area of forest canopies is both main attribute of stands controlling water balance through transpiration and interception, and "engine" driving stand growth, stand dynamics, and forest succession. While transpiration and interception dynamics are classic themes in forest hydrology, we present results from our eco-hydrological research on boreal trees to highlight how more recent eco-physiological insights into species specific controls over water use and leaf area such as hydraulic architecture, cavitation, sapwood-leaf area relationships, and root system controls over water uptake are providing new insights into integrated atmospheric-autecological controls over these hydrologic processes. These results are discussed in the context of newer eco-hydrological frameworks which may serve to aid in exploring how forest disturbance and subsequent trajectories of hydrologic recovery are likely to affect both forest growth dynamics and hydrology of forested landscapes in response to forest management, severe forest pest epidemics such as the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic in Western Canada, and climate change.

  18. On the Concept of Hydrologic Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellison, D.

    2017-12-01

    Forests provide a number of important water-related ecosystem services including water purification and flood mitigation. We illustrate that the forest role in precipitation recycling and the regulation of the hydrologic cycle must also be clearly recognized as an ecosystem service. Deforestation leads to more local runoff and reduced precipitation. However, the importance of afforestation in contributing to the flow of atmospheric moisture and thus promoting precipitation recycling is underappreciated. Since much of the evapotranspiration from forests falls again as precipitation, the terrestrial, forest-based production of atmospheric moisture has important consequences, both for local and downwind precipitation and water availability. We emphasize the importance of inter-basin connectivity: what happens in one basin cannot be separated from what happens in others. This spatial interconnectedness is poorly reflected in the study of land-atmosphere interactions and the contribution of forests to the hydrologic regime. Focusing on the supply-side characteristics of rainfall, we define and develop the concept of hydrologic space and apply the concept to the derivation of the catchment basin water balance. Conventional approaches to the c-basin water balance typically fail to consider the import and export of atmospheric moisture as a principal determinant of locally and regionally available water supply. Land use modification has important implications for the availability of atmospheric moisture, the production of precipitation, the re-export of available moisture and the availability of runoff: the total amount of water available for productive and consumptive purposes. These consequences are not adequately recognized in most policy efforts at multiple scales and levels of governance.

  19. Using self-assessment to develop metacognition and self-regulated learners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siegesmund, Amy

    2017-06-15

    Student success is too often challenged by a lack of metacognition and ability to self-regulate learning. This commentary argues that the use of self-assessment to increase student metacognition positively impacts student learning and self-regulation. In addition, several strategies for incorporating self-assessment will be presented. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  20. Characteristics and Impact of Imperviousness From a GIS-based Hydrological Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moglen, G. E.; Kim, S.

    2005-12-01

    With the concern that imperviousness can be differently quantified depending on data sources and methods, this study assessed imperviousness estimates using two different data sources: land use and land cover. Year 2000 land use developed by the Maryland Department of Planning was utilized to estimate imperviousness by assigning imperviousness coefficients to unique land use categories. These estimates were compared with imperviousness estimates based on satellite-derived land cover from the 2001 National Land Cover Dataset. Our study developed the relationships between these two estimates in the form of regression equations to convert imperviousness derived from one data source to the other. The regression equations are considered reliable, based on goodness-of-fit measures. Furthermore, this study examined how quantitatively different imperviousness estimates affect the prediction of hydrological response both in the flow regime and in the thermal regime. We assessed the relationships between indicators of hydrological response and imperviousness-descriptors. As indicators of flow variability, coefficient of variance, lag-one autocorrelation, and mean daily flow change were calculated based on measured mean daily stream flow from the water year 1997 to 2003. For thermal variability, indicators such as percent-days of surge, degree-day, and mean daily temperature difference were calculated base on measured stream temperature over several basins in Maryland. To describe imperviousness through the hydrological process, GIS-based spatially distributed hydrological models were developed based on a water-balance method and the SCS-CN method. Imperviousness estimates from land use and land cover were used as predictors in these models to examine the effect of imperviousness using different data sources on the prediction of hydrological response. Indicators of hydrological response were also regressed on aggregate imperviousness. This allowed for identifying if

  1. Geomorphic status of regulated rivers in the Iberian Peninsula.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lobera, G; Besné, P; Vericat, D; López-Tarazón, J A; Tena, A; Aristi, I; Díez, J R; Ibisate, A; Larrañaga, A; Elosegi, A; Batalla, R J

    2015-03-01

    River regulation by dams modifies flow regimes, interrupts the transfer of sediment through channel networks, and alters downstream bed dynamics, altogether affecting channel form and processes. So far, most studies on the geomorphic impacts of dams are restricted to single rivers, or even single river stretches. In this paper we analyse the geomorphic status of 74 river sites distributed across four large basins in the Iberian Peninsula (i.e. 47 sites located downstream of dams). For this purpose, we combine field data with hydrological data available from water agencies, and analyse historical (1970) and current aerial photographs. In particular, we have developed a Geomorphic Status (GS) index that allows us to assess the physical structure of a given channel reach and its change through time. The GS encompasses a determination of changes in sedimentary units, sediment availability, bar stability and channel flow capacity. Sites are statistically grouped in four clusters based on contrasted physical and climate characteristics. Results emphasise that regulation changes river's flow regime with a generalized reduction of the magnitude and frequency of floods (thus flow competence). This, in addition to the decrease downstream sediment supply, results in the loss of active bars as they are encroached by vegetation, to the point that only reaches with little or no regulation maintain exposed sedimentary deposits. The GS of regulated river reaches is negatively correlated with magnitude of the impoundment (regulation). Heavily impacted reaches present channel stabilization and, in contrast to the hydrological response, the distance and number of tributaries do not reverse the geomorphic impact of the dams. Stabilization limits river dynamics and may contribute to the environmental degradation of the fluvial ecosystem. Overall, results describe the degree of geomorphological alteration experienced by representative Iberian rivers mostly because of regulation

  2. Multiple Changes in the Hydrologic Regime of the Yangtze River and the Possible Impact of Reservoirs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feng Huang

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper investigates hydrologic changes in the Yangtze River using long-term daily stream flow records (1955–2013 collected from four flow gauging stations located from the upper to the lower reaches of the river. The hydrologic regime is quantified using the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration, which statistically characterize hydrologic variation within each year. Scanning t-test is applied to analyze multiple changes in the hydrologic regime at different time scales. Then, coherency analysis is applied to identify common changes among different hydrologic indicators and across different reaches of the Yangtze River. The results point to various change patterns in the five components of hydrologic regime, including the magnitude of monthly water conditions, magnitude and duration of annual extreme water conditions, timing of annual extreme water conditions, frequency and duration of high and low pulses, and rate and frequency of water condition changes. The 32 hydrologic indicators feature multiple temporal-scale changes. Spatial variations can be observed in the hydrologic changes of the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the river. Common changes in different reaches consist of hydrologic indicators including the monthly flow in October and the low-flow indicators. The monthly flow in October is dominated by decreasing trends, while the monthly flows between January and March, the annual minimum 1/3/7/30/90-day flows, and the base flow index are characterized by increasing trends. Low pulse duration and total days of low pulses feature downward trends. The coherency analysis reveals significant relationships between the monthly flow in October and the low-flow indicators, indicating that reservoir regulation is an important factor behind the hydrologic changes.

  3. Developing a Three Processes Framework to Analyze Hydrologic Performance of Urban Stormwater Management in a Watershed Scale

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyu, H.; Ni, G.; Sun, T.

    2016-12-01

    Urban stormwater management contributes to recover water cycle to a nearly natural situation. It is a challenge for analyzing the hydrologic performance in a watershed scale, since the measures are various of sorts and scales and work in different processes. A three processes framework is developed to simplify the urban hydrologic process on the surface and evaluate the urban stormwater management. The three processes include source utilization, transfer regulation and terminal detention, by which the stormwater is controlled in order or discharged. Methods for analyzing performance are based on the water controlled proportions by each process, which are calculated using USEPA Stormwater Management Model. A case study form Beijing is used to illustrate how the performance varies under a set of designed events of different return periods. This framework provides a method to assess urban stormwater management as a whole system considering the interaction between measures, and to examine if there is any weak process of an urban watershed to be improved. The results help to make better solutions of urban water crisis.

  4. Hydro-economic assessment of hydrological forecasting systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boucher, M.-A.; Tremblay, D.; Delorme, L.; Perreault, L.; Anctil, F.

    2012-01-01

    SummaryAn increasing number of publications show that ensemble hydrological forecasts exhibit good performance when compared to observed streamflow. Many studies also conclude that ensemble forecasts lead to a better performance than deterministic ones. This investigation takes one step further by not only comparing ensemble and deterministic forecasts to observed values, but by employing the forecasts in a stochastic decision-making assistance tool for hydroelectricity production, during a flood event on the Gatineau River in Canada. This allows the comparison between different types of forecasts according to their value in terms of energy, spillage and storage in a reservoir. The motivation for this is to adopt the point of view of an end-user, here a hydroelectricity production society. We show that ensemble forecasts exhibit excellent performances when compared to observations and are also satisfying when involved in operation management for electricity production. Further improvement in terms of productivity can be reached through the use of a simple post-processing method.

  5. Isotope hydrology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drost, W.

    1978-01-01

    The International Symposium on Isotope Hydrology was jointly organized by the IAEA and UNESCO, in co-operation with the National Committee of the Federal Republic of Germany for the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and the Gesellschaft fuer Strahlen- und Umweltforschung mbH (GSF). Upon the invitation of the Federal Republic of Germany the Symposium was held from 19-23 June 1978 in Neuherberg on the GSF campus. The Symposium was officially opened by Mr. S. Eklund, Director General of the IAEA. The symposium - the fifth meeting held on isotope hydrology - was attended by over 160 participants from 44 countries and four international organizations and by about 30 observers from the Federal Republic of Germany. Due to the absence of scientists from the USSR five papers were cancelled and therefore only 46 papers of the original programme were presented in ten sessions

  6. Predicting Geomorphic and Hydrologic Risks after Wildfire Using Harmonic and Stochastic Analyses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikesell, J.; Kinoshita, A. M.; Florsheim, J. L.; Chin, A.; Nourbakhshbeidokhti, S.

    2017-12-01

    Wildfire is a landscape-scale disturbance that often alters hydrological processes and sediment flux during subsequent storms. Vegetation loss from wildfires induce changes to sediment supply such as channel erosion and sedimentation and streamflow magnitude or flooding. These changes enhance downstream hazards, threatening human populations and physical aquatic habitat over various time scales. Using Williams Canyon, a basin burned by the Waldo Canyon Fire (2012) as a case study, we utilize deterministic and statistical modeling methods (Fourier series and first order Markov chain) to assess pre- and post-fire geomorphic and hydrologic characteristics, including of precipitation, enhanced vegetation index (EVI, a satellite-based proxy of vegetation biomass), streamflow, and sediment flux. Local precipitation, terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning, and satellite-based products are used for these time series analyses. We present a framework to assess variability of periodic and nonperiodic climatic and multivariate trends to inform development of a post-wildfire risk assessment methodology. To establish the extent to which a wildfire affects hydrologic and geomorphic patterns, a Fourier series was used to fit pre- and post-fire geomorphic and hydrologic characteristics to yearly temporal cycles and subcycles of 6, 4, 3, and 2.4 months. These cycles were analyzed using least-squares estimates of the harmonic coefficients or amplitudes of each sub-cycle's contribution to fit the overall behavior of a Fourier series. The stochastic variances of these characteristics were analyzed by composing first-order Markov models and probabilistic analysis through direct likelihood estimates. Preliminary results highlight an increased dependence of monthly post-fire hydrologic characteristics on 12 and 6-month temporal cycles. This statistical and probabilistic analysis provides a basis to determine the impact of wildfires on the temporal dependence of

  7. An imminent human resource crisis in ground water hydrology?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephens, Daniel B

    2009-01-01

    Anecdotal evidence, mostly from the United States, suggests that it has become increasingly difficult to find well-trained, entry-level ground water hydrologists to fill open positions in consulting firms and regulatory agencies. The future prospects for filling positions that require training in ground water hydrology are assessed by considering three factors: the market, the numbers of qualified students entering colleges and universities, and the aging of the existing workforce. The environmental and water resources consulting industry has seen continuous albeit variable growth, and demand for environmental scientists and hydrologists is expected to increase significantly. Conversely, students' interest and their enrollment in hydrology and water resources programs have waned in recent years, and the interests of students within these departments have shifted away from ground water hydrology in some schools. This decrease in the numbers of U.S. students graduating in hydrology or emphasizing ground water hydrology is coinciding with the aging of and pending retirement of ground water scientists and engineers in the baby boomer generation. We need to both trigger the imagination of students at the elementary school level so that they later want to apply science and math and communicate the career opportunities in ground water hydrology to those high school and college graduates who have acquired the appropriate technical background. Because the success of a consulting firm, research organization, or regulatory agency is derived from the skills and judgment of the employees, human resources will be an increasingly more critical strategic issue for many years.

  8. Flood Risk and Flood hazard maps - Visualisation of hydrological risks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spachinger, Karl; Dorner, Wolfgang; Metzka, Rudolf; Serrhini, Kamal; Fuchs, Sven

    2008-01-01

    Hydrological models are an important basis of flood forecasting and early warning systems. They provide significant data on hydrological risks. In combination with other modelling techniques, such as hydrodynamic models, they can be used to assess the extent and impact of hydrological events. The new European Flood Directive forces all member states to evaluate flood risk on a catchment scale, to compile maps of flood hazard and flood risk for prone areas, and to inform on a local level about these risks. Flood hazard and flood risk maps are important tools to communicate flood risk to different target groups. They provide compiled information to relevant public bodies such as water management authorities, municipalities, or civil protection agencies, but also to the broader public. For almost each section of a river basin, run-off and water levels can be defined based on the likelihood of annual recurrence, using a combination of hydrological and hydrodynamic models, supplemented by an analysis of historical records and mappings. In combination with data related to the vulnerability of a region risk maps can be derived. The project RISKCATCH addressed these issues of hydrological risk and vulnerability assessment focusing on the flood risk management process. Flood hazard maps and flood risk maps were compiled for Austrian and German test sites taking into account existing national and international guidelines. These maps were evaluated by eye-tracking using experimental graphic semiology. Sets of small-scale as well as large-scale risk maps were presented to test persons in order to (1) study reading behaviour as well as understanding and (2) deduce the most attractive components that are essential for target-oriented risk communication. A cognitive survey asking for negative and positive aspects and complexity of each single map complemented the experimental graphic semiology. The results indicate how risk maps can be improved to fit the needs of different user

  9. Spatially Distributed Assimilation of Remotely Sensed Leaf Area Index and Potential Evapotranspiration for Hydrologic Modeling in Wetland Landscapes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rajib, A.; Evenson, G. R.; Golden, H. E.; Lane, C.

    2017-12-01

    Evapotranspiration (ET), a highly dynamic flux in wetland landscapes, regulates the accuracy of surface/sub-surface runoff simulation in a hydrologic model. Accordingly, considerable uncertainty in simulating ET-related processes remains, including our limited ability to incorporate realistic ground conditions, particularly those involved with complex land-atmosphere feedbacks, vegetation growth, and energy balances. Uncertainty persists despite using high resolution topography and/or detailed land use data. Thus, a good hydrologic model can produce right answers for wrong reasons. In this study, we develop an efficient approach for multi-variable assimilation of remotely sensed earth observations (EOs) into a hydrologic model and apply it in the 1700 km2 Pipestem Creek watershed in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA. Our goal is to employ EOs, specifically Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Potential Evapotranspiration (PET), as surrogates for the aforementioned processes without overruling the model's built-in physical/semi-empirical process conceptualizations. To do this, we modified the source code of an already-improved version of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for wetland hydrology (Evenson et al. 2016 HP 30(22):4168) to directly assimilate remotely-sensed LAI and PET (obtained from the 500 m and 1 km Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) gridded products, respectively) into each model Hydrologic Response Unit (HRU). Two configurations of the model, one with and one without EO assimilation, are calibrated against streamflow observations at the watershed outlet. Spatio-temporal changes in the HRU-level water balance, based on calibrated outputs, are evaluated using MODIS Actual Evapotranspiration (AET) as a reference. It is expected that the model configuration having remotely sensed LAI and PET, will simulate more realistic land-atmosphere feedbacks, vegetation growth and energy balance. As a result, this will decrease simulated

  10. Identifying dominant controls on hydrologic parameter transfer from gauged to ungauged catchments: a comparative hydrology approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, R.; Archfield, S.A.; Wagener, T.

    2014-01-01

    Daily streamflow information is critical for solving various hydrologic problems, though observations of continuous streamflow for model calibration are available at only a small fraction of the world’s rivers. One approach to estimate daily streamflow at an ungauged location is to transfer rainfall–runoff model parameters calibrated at a gauged (donor) catchment to an ungauged (receiver) catchment of interest. Central to this approach is the selection of a hydrologically similar donor. No single metric or set of metrics of hydrologic similarity have been demonstrated to consistently select a suitable donor catchment. We design an experiment to diagnose the dominant controls on successful hydrologic model parameter transfer. We calibrate a lumped rainfall–runoff model to 83 stream gauges across the United States. All locations are USGS reference gauges with minimal human influence. Parameter sets from the calibrated models are then transferred to each of the other catchments and the performance of the transferred parameters is assessed. This transfer experiment is carried out both at the scale of the entire US and then for six geographic regions. We use classification and regression tree (CART) analysis to determine the relationship between catchment similarity and performance of transferred parameters. Similarity is defined using physical/climatic catchment characteristics, as well as streamflow response characteristics (signatures such as baseflow index and runoff ratio). Across the entire US, successful parameter transfer is governed by similarity in elevation and climate, and high similarity in streamflow signatures. Controls vary for different geographic regions though. Geology followed by drainage, topography and climate constitute the dominant similarity metrics in forested eastern mountains and plateaus, whereas agricultural land use relates most strongly with successful parameter transfer in the humid plains.

  11. Communicating uncertainty in hydrological forecasts: mission impossible?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramos, Maria-Helena; Mathevet, Thibault; Thielen, Jutta; Pappenberger, Florian

    2010-05-01

    Cascading uncertainty in meteo-hydrological modelling chains for forecasting and integrated flood risk assessment is an essential step to improve the quality of hydrological forecasts. Although the best methodology to quantify the total predictive uncertainty in hydrology is still debated, there is a common agreement that one must avoid uncertainty misrepresentation and miscommunication, as well as misinterpretation of information by users. Several recent studies point out that uncertainty, when properly explained and defined, is no longer unwelcome among emergence response organizations, users of flood risk information and the general public. However, efficient communication of uncertain hydro-meteorological forecasts is far from being a resolved issue. This study focuses on the interpretation and communication of uncertain hydrological forecasts based on (uncertain) meteorological forecasts and (uncertain) rainfall-runoff modelling approaches to decision-makers such as operational hydrologists and water managers in charge of flood warning and scenario-based reservoir operation. An overview of the typical flow of uncertainties and risk-based decisions in hydrological forecasting systems is presented. The challenges related to the extraction of meaningful information from probabilistic forecasts and the test of its usefulness in assisting operational flood forecasting are illustrated with the help of two case-studies: 1) a study on the use and communication of probabilistic flood forecasting within the European Flood Alert System; 2) a case-study on the use of probabilistic forecasts by operational forecasters from the hydroelectricity company EDF in France. These examples show that attention must be paid to initiatives that promote or reinforce the active participation of expert forecasters in the forecasting chain. The practice of face-to-face forecast briefings, focusing on sharing how forecasters interpret, describe and perceive the model output forecasted

  12. Hands-On Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathews, Catherine E.; Monroe, Louise Nelson

    2004-01-01

    A professional school and university collaboration enables elementary students and their teachers to explore hydrology concepts and realize the beneficial functions of wetlands. Hands-on experiences involve young students in determining water quality at field sites after laying the groundwork with activities related to the hydrologic cycle,…

  13. Impact assessment and mitigation in existing lake regulation projects in the Oulujoki river system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaatra, K.; Marttunen, M.

    1993-01-01

    The objective of the project was to determine how regulation practices and shore zone maintenance and improvement should be developed in order to give more attention to recreational requirements and factors affecting the aquatic environment. The proposals must not, however, cause flooding damage or significant energy economy losses. The effects of four alternative regulation practices on hydrology flooding damage, recreational utilization, the aquatic, environment, fisheries and the hydropower production were compared in lakes Oulujaervi, Kiantajaervi, Vuokkijaervi, Ontojaervi and Sotkamonjaervi. An extensive sub-study was made on the maintenance and improvement of the shore zones of the regulated lakes. Ways of reducing excessive vegetation were studied in Lake Oulujaervi, and experiments testing the feasibility of various plants in protecting and landscaping the littoral zone were conducted in Lake Ontojaervi. Enquiries in to the perceptions of and the needs for mitigating harmful impacts, as experienced by the people living within the area affected by the river development projects, were also included in the analysis. The alternative regulation practices for Lake Oulujaervi were compared using the decision analysis interview method, in which the data acquired through the environmental impact analysis of effects were combined with the values of the local people and interest groups. The impact of alternative regulation practices was also weighed from the viewpoint of sustainability in various scales. Recommendations were made for regulation patterns and maintenance and improvement programmes for individual lakes

  14. Coupled hydrologic and hydraulic modeling of Upper Niger River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleischmann, Ayan; Siqueira, Vinícius; Paris, Adrien; Collischonn, Walter; Paiva, Rodrigo; Gossett, Marielle; Pontes, Paulo; Calmant, Stephane; Biancamaria, Sylvain; Crétaux, Jean-François; Tanimoune, Bachir

    2017-04-01

    The Upper Niger Basin is located in Western Africa, flowing from Guinea Highlands towards the Sahel region. In this area lies the seasonally inundated Niger Inland Delta, which supports important environmental services such as habitats for wildlife, climate and flood regulation, as well as large fishery and agricultural areas. In this study, we present the application of MGB-IPH large scale hydrologic and hydrodynamic model for the Upper Niger Basin, totaling c.a. 650,000 km2 and set up until the city of Niamey in Niger. The model couples hydrological vertical balance and runoff generation with hydrodynamic flood wave propagation, by allowing infiltration from floodplains into soil column as well as representing backwater effects and floodplain storage throughout flat areas such as the Inland Delta. The model is forced with TRMM 3B42 daily precipitation and Climate Research Unit (CRU) climatology for the period 2000-2010, and was calibrated against in-situ discharge gauges and validated with in-situ water level, remotely sensed estimations of flooded areas (classification of MODIS imagery) and satellite altimetry (JASON-2 mission). Model results show good predictions for calibrated daily discharge and validated water level and altimetry at stations both upstream and downstream of the delta (Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency>0.7 for all stations), as well as for flooded areas within the delta region (ENS=0.5; r2=0.8), allowing a good representation of flooding dynamics basinwide and simulation of flooding behavior of both perennial (e.g., Niger main stem) and ephemeral rivers (e.g., Niger Red Flood tributaries in Sahel). Coupling between hydrology and hydrodynamic processes indicates an important feedback between floodplain and soil water storage that allows high evapotranspiration rates even after the flood passage around the inner delta area. Also, representation of water retention in floodplain channels and distributaries in the inner delta (e.g., Diaka river

  15. Linking Hydrology and Biogeochemistry to assess the impact of Lateral Nutrient Fluxes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rebel, K.T.; Osch, F. van; McGuire, K.J.; Rastetter, E.B.; Wassen, M.J.

    2010-01-01

    Until recently, it has been challenging to couple hydrological and biogeochemical processes at the watershed scale. We have coupled two models, WTB and MEL, to simulate lateral water and nutrient fluxes and their influence on ecosystem functioning. WTB is a spatially explicit water balance model.

  16. Evaluating the impact of hydrological uncertainty in assessing the impact of climate change on water resources of the Ebro River Basin (Spain)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zambrano-Bigiarini, Mauricio; Bellin, Alberto; Majone, Bruno; Bovolo, C. Isabella; Blenkinsop, Stephen; Fowler, Hayley J.

    2010-05-01

    Quantification of the impacts of climate change on water resources depends on the emission scenario, climate model, downscaling technique and impact model used to drive the impact study. Uncertainties in projections of climate models and those involved in the quantification of its hydrological response limit the understanding of future impacts and complicate the assessment of mitigation policies. This work analyses the effects of climate change on water resources of the Ebro River Basin (NE Spain), considering the combined effect of uncertainty characterizing both the driving Regional Climate Model (RCM) and hydrological parameterization. In addition, we considered the relative importance of these two contributions. Hydrological simulations in a few test catchments within the basin were performed by using the SWAT model, a widely used hydrological model often applied to large-scale watersheds. After a preliminary sensitivity analysis with Latin Hypercube One-factor-At-a-Time (LH-OAT), the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) methodology was used for selecting hydrological parameter sets that best reproduced the observed streamflow during the control period from 1961 to 1991, in terms of percentage of measured data bracketed by the 95% prediction uncertainty (95PPU), and the ratio between the average thickness of the 95PPU band and the standard deviation of the measured data. Following validation, the same parameter sets were used to simulate the effects of climate change on future streamflows. A simple bias-correction methodology was used for downscaling daily time series of precipitation and mean temperature from an ensemble of 6 RCM time-slice experiments. These were obtained from the PRUDENCE project for a control period (1961-1990) and for a future time period (2071-2100) using the medium-high SRES A2 emissions scenario. The bias-corrected future RCM scenarios were then used to drive the hydrological simulations during the future period

  17. Techniques for assessing water resource potentials in the developing countries: with emphasis on streamflow, erosion and sediment transport, water movement in unsaturated soils, ground water, and remote sensing in hydrologic applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, George C.

    1971-01-01

    Hydrologic instrumentation and methodology for assessing water-resource potentials have originated largely in the developed countries of the temperature zone. The developing countries lie largely in the tropic zone, which contains the full gamut of the earth's climatic environments, including most of those of the temperate zone. For this reason, most hydrologic techniques have world-wide applicability. Techniques for assessing water-resource potentials for the high priority goals of economic growth are well established in the developing countries--but much more are well established in the developing countries--but much more so in some than in other. Conventional techniques for measurement and evaluation of basic hydrologic parameters are now well-understood in the developing countries and are generally adequate for their current needs and those of the immediate future. Institutional and economic constraints, however, inhibit growth of sustained programs of hydrologic data collection and application of the data to problems in engineering technology. Computer-based technology, including processing of hydrologic data and mathematical modelling of hydrologic parameters i also well-begun in many developing countries and has much wider potential application. In some developing counties, however, there is a tendency to look on the computer as a panacea for deficiencies in basic hydrologic data collection programs. This fallacy must be discouraged, as the computer is a tool and not a "magic box." There is no real substitute for sound programs of basic data collection. Nuclear and isotopic techniques are being used increasingly in the developed countries in the measurement and evaluation of virtually all hydrologic parameter in which conventional techniques have been used traditionally. Even in the developed countries, however, many hydrologists are not using nuclear techniques, simply because they lack knowledge of the principles involved and of the potential benefits

  18. The role of soil weathering and hydrology in regulating chemical fluxes from catchments (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maher, K.; Chamberlain, C. P.

    2010-12-01

    Catchment-scale chemical fluxes have been linked to a number of different parameters that describe the conditions at the Earth’s surface, including runoff, temperature, rock type, vegetation, and the rate of tectonic uplift. However, many of the relationships relating chemical denudation to surface processes and conditions, while based on established theoretical principles, are largely empirical and derived solely from modern observations. Thus, an enhanced mechanistic basis for linking global solute fluxes to both surface processes and climate may improve our confidence in extrapolating modern solute fluxes to past and future conditions. One approach is to link observations from detailed soil-based studies with catchment-scale properties. For example, a number of recent studies of chemical weathering at the soil-profile scale have reinforced the importance of hydrologic processes in controlling chemical weathering rates. An analysis of data from granitic soils shows that weathering rates decrease with increasing fluid residence times and decreasing flow rates—over moderate fluid residence times, from 5 days to 10 years, transport-controlled weathering explains the orders of magnitude variation in weathering rates to a better extent than soil age. However, the importance of transport-controlled weathering is difficult to discern at the catchment scale because of the range of flow rates and fluid residence times captured by a single discharge or solute flux measurement. To assess the importance of transport-controlled weathering on catchment scale chemical fluxes, we present a model that links the chemical flux to the extent of reaction between the soil waters and the solids, or the fluid residence time. Different approaches for describing the distribution of fluid residence times within a catchment are then compared with the observed Si fluxes for a limited number of catchments. This model predicts high solute fluxes in regions with high run-off, relief, and

  19. HESS Opinions "The art of hydrology"

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Savenije, H.H.G.

    2008-01-01

    Hydrological modelling is the same as developing and encoding a hydrological theory. A hydrological model is not a tool but a hypothesis. The whole discussion about the inadequacy of hydrological models we have witnessed of late, is related to the wrong concept of what a model is. Good models don't

  20. Geospatial technology applications in forest hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    S.S. Panda; E. Masson; S. Sen; H.W. Kim; Devendra Amatya

    2016-01-01

    Two separate disciplines, hydrology and forestry, together constitute forest hydrology. It is obvious that forestry and forest hydrology disciplines are spatial entities. Forestry is the science that seeks to understand the nature of forests throygh their life cycle and interactions with the surrounding environment. Forest hydrology includes forest soil water, streams...

  1. Soil structural quality assessment for soil protection regulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johannes, Alice; Boivin, Pascal

    2017-04-01

    Soil quality assessment is rapidly developing worldwide, though mostly focused on the monitoring of arable land and soil fertility. Soil protection regulations assess soil quality differently, focusing on priority pollutants and threshold values. The soil physical properties are weakly considered, due to lack of consensus and experimental difficulties faced with characterization. Non-disputable, easy to perform and inexpensive methods should be available for environmental regulation to be applied, which is unfortunately not the case. As a consequence, quantitative soil physical protection regulation is not applied, and inexpensive soil physical quality indicators for arable soil management are not available. Overcoming these limitations was the objective of a research project funded by the Swiss federal office for environment (FOEN). The main results and the perspectives of application are given in this presentation. A first step of the research was to characterize soils in a good structural state (reference soils) under different land use. The structural quality was assessed with field expertise and Visual Evaluation of the Soil Structure (VESS), and the physical properties were assessed with Shrinkage analysis. The relationships between the physical properties and the soil constituents were linear and highly determined. They represent the reference properties of the corresponding soils. In a second step, the properties of physically degraded soils were analysed and compared to the reference properties. This allowed defining the most discriminant parameters departing the different structure qualities and their threshold limits. Equivalent properties corresponding to these parameters but inexpensive and easy to determine were defined and tested. More than 90% of the samples were correctly classed with this method, which meets, therefore, the requirements for practical application in regulation. Moreover, result-oriented agri-environmental schemes for soil quality

  2. Ensemble catchment hydrological modelling for climate change impact analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vansteenkiste, Thomas; Ntegeka, Victor; Willems, Patrick

    2014-05-01

    , more than in high flow conditions. Hence, the mechanism of the slow flow component simulation requires further attention. It is concluded that a multi-model ensemble approach where different plausible model structures are applied, is extremely useful. It improves the reliability of climate change impact results and allows decision making to be based on uncertainty assessment that includes model structure related uncertainties. References: Ntegeka, V., Baguis, P., Roulin, E., Willems, P., 2014. Developing tailored climate change scenarios for hydrological impact assessments. Journal of Hydrology, 508C, 307-321 Vansteenkiste, Th., Tavakoli, M., Ntegeka, V., Willems, P., De Smedt, F., Batelaan, O., 2013. Climate change impact on river flows and catchment hydrology: a comparison of two spatially distributed models. Hydrological Processes, 27(25), 3649-3662. Vansteenkiste, Th., Tavakoli, M., Ntegeka, V., Van Steenbergen, N., De Smedt, F., Batelaan, O., Pereira, F., Willems, P., 2014. Intercomparison of five lumped and distributed models for catchment runoff and extreme flow simulation. Journal of Hydrology, in press. Vansteenkiste, Th., Tavakoli, M., Ntegeka, V., De Smedt, F., Batelaan, O., Pereira, F., Willems, P., 2014. Intercomparison of climate scenario impact predictions by a lumped and distributed model ensemble. Journal of Hydrology, in revision.

  3. Hydrological droughts in the 21st century, hotspots and uncertainties from a global multimodel ensemble experiment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Prudhomme, C.; Giuntoli, L.; Robinson, E.L.; Clark, D.B.; Arnell, N.W.; Dankers, R.; Fekete, B.M.; Franssen, W.H.P.

    2014-01-01

    Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are expected to modify the global water cycle with significant consequences for terrestrial hydrology. We assess the impact of climate change on hydrological droughts in a multimodel experiment including seven global impact models

  4. Wetland Hydrology | Science Inventory | US EPA

    Science.gov (United States)

    This chapter discusses the state of the science in wetland hydrology by touching upon the major hydraulic and hydrologic processes in these complex ecosystems, their measurement/estimation techniques, and modeling methods. It starts with the definition of wetlands, their benefits and types, and explains the role and importance of hydrology on wetland functioning. The chapter continues with the description of wetland hydrologic terms and related estimation and modeling techniques. The chapter provides a quick but valuable information regarding hydraulics of surface and subsurface flow, groundwater seepage/discharge, and modeling groundwater/surface water interactions in wetlands. Because of the aggregated effects of the wetlands at larger scales and their ecosystem services, wetland hydrology at the watershed scale is also discussed in which we elaborate on the proficiencies of some of the well-known watershed models in modeling wetland hydrology. This chapter can serve as a useful reference for eco-hydrologists, wetland researchers and decision makers as well as watershed hydrology modelers. In this chapter, the importance of hydrology for wetlands and their functional role are discussed. Wetland hydrologic terms and the major components of water budget in wetlands and how they can be estimated/modeled are also presented. Although this chapter does not provide a comprehensive coverage of wetland hydrology, it provides a quick understanding of the basic co

  5. Hydrologic Regulation of Plant Rooting Depth and Vice Versa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan, Y.; Miguez-Macho, G.

    2017-12-01

    How deep plant roots go and why may hold the answer to several questions regarding the co-evolution of terrestrial life and its environment. In this talk we explore how plant rooting depth responds to the hydrologic plumbing system in the soil/regolith/bedrocks, and vice versa. Through analyzing 2200 root observations of >1000 species along biotic (life form, genus) and abiotic (precipitation, soil, drainage) gradients, we found strong sensitivities of rooting depth to local soil water profiles determined by precipitation infiltration depth from the top (reflecting climate and soil), and groundwater table depth from below (reflecting topography-driven land drainage). In well-drained uplands, rooting depth follows infiltration depth; in waterlogged lowlands, roots stay shallow avoiding oxygen stress below the water table; in between, high productivity and drought can send roots many meters down to groundwater capillary fringe. We explore the global significance of this framework using an inverse model, and the implications to the coevolution of deep roots and the CZ in the Early-Mid Devonian when plants colonized the upland environments.

  6. Advanced inflow forecasting for a hydropower plant in an Alpine hydropower regulated catchment - coupling of operational and hydrological forecasts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilg, Anna-Maria; Schöber, Johannes; Huttenlau, Matthias; Messner, Jakob; Achleitner, Stefan

    2017-04-01

    Hydropower is a renewable energy source which can help to stabilize fluctuations in the volatile energy market. Especially pumped-storage infrastructures in the European Alps play an important role within the European energy grid system. Today, the runoff of rivers in the Alps is often influenced by cascades of hydropower infrastructures where the operational procedures are triggered by energy market demands, water deliveries and flood control aspects rather than by hydro-meteorological variables. An example for such a highly hydropower regulated river is the catchment of the river Inn in the Eastern European Alps, originating in the Engadin (Switzerland). A new hydropower plant is going to be built as transboundary project at the boarder of Switzerland and Austria using the water of the Inn River. For the operation, a runoff forecast to the plant is required. The challenge in this case is that a high proportion of runoff is turbine water from an upstream situated hydropower cascade. The newly developed physically based hydrological forecasting system is mainly capable to cover natural hydrological runoff processes caused by storms and snow melt but can model only a small degree of human impact. These discontinuous parts of the runoff downstream of the pumped storage are described by means of an additional statistical model which has been developed. The main goal of the statistical model is to forecast the turbine water up to five days in advance. The lead time of the data driven model exceeds the lead time of the used energy production forecast. Additionally, the amount of turbine water is linked to the need of electricity production and the electricity price. It has been shown that especially the parameters day-ahead prognosis of the energy production and turbine inflow of the previous week are good predictors and are therefore used as input parameters for the model. As the data is restricted due to technical conditions, so-called Tobit models have been used to

  7. HYDROLOGY, CALHOUN COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  8. HYDROLOGY, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  9. HYDROLOGY, DOUGLAS COUNTY, MINNESOTA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  10. HYDROLOGY, NESHOBA COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  11. HYDROLOGY, LEFLORE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  12. HYDROLOGY, NEWTON COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  13. Weber County Hydrology Report

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  14. HYDROLOGY, LEAKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  15. HYDROLOGY, CHISAGO COUNTY, MN

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  16. HYDROLOGY, HOUSTON COUNTY, ALABAMA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating ALood discharges for a ALood Insurance...

  17. HYDROLOGY, WAYNE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  18. Hydrology, OCONEE COUNTY, SC

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  19. HYDROLOGY, SUNFLOWER COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  20. HYDROLOGY, CALHOUN COUNTY, MICHIGAN

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  1. HYDROLOGY, OSCEOLA COUNTY, FL

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  2. HYDROLOGY, STEARNS COUNTY, MN

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  3. HYDROLOGY, TIPPAH COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  4. HYDROLOGY, Lawrence County, ARKANSAS

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a Flood Insurance...

  5. HYDROLOGY, Allegheny County, PA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a Flood Insurance...

  6. HYDROLOGY, SIMPSON COUNTY, MS

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  7. HYDROLOGY, CLAIBORNE COUNTY, MS

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  8. HYDROLOGY, LAFAYETTE COUNTY, MS

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  9. HYDROLOGY, Yazoo COUNTY, MS

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  10. HYDROLOGY, GILCHRIST COUNTY, FL

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  11. HYDROLOGY, GLADES COUNTY, FLORIDA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a Flood Insurance...

  12. HYDROLOGY, LEE COUNTY, TEXAS

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a Flood Insurance...

  13. HYDROLOGY, GREENE County, ARKANSAS

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a Flood Insurance...

  14. Scenario-Based Impact Assessment of Land Use/Cover and Climate Changes on Watershed Hydrology in Heihe River Basin of Northwest China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feng Wu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This study evaluated hydrological impacts of potential climate and land use changes in Heihe River Basin of Northwest China. The future climate data for the simulation with Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT were prepared using a dynamical downscaling method. The future land uses were simulated with the Dynamic Land Use System (DLS model by establishing Multinomial Logistic Regression (MNL model for six land use types. In 2006–2030, land uses in the basin will experience a significant change with a prominent increase in urban areas, a moderate increase in grassland, and a great decrease in unused land. Besides, the simulation results showed that in comparison to those during 1981–2005 the temperature and precipitation during 2006–2030 will change by +0.8°C and +10.8%, respectively. The land use change and climate change will jointly make the water yield change by +8.5%, while they will separately make the water yield change by −1.8% and +9.8%, respectively. The predicted large increase in future precipitation and the corresponding decrease in unused land will have substantial impacts on the watershed hydrology, especially on the surface runoff and streamflow. Therefore, to mitigate negative hydrological impacts and utilize positive impacts, both land use and climate changes should be considered in water resource planning for the Heihe River Basin.

  15. The International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tejada-Guibert, J.

    2007-12-01

    UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP) is the only intergovernmental scientific program of the UN system on freshwater having a global scope. Since its inception in 1975, IHP has been at the forefront of international cooperation on water research and management, bringing together scientists, engineers, policy- makers, managers, and stakeholders. Currently there are over 160 National Committees for the IHP, including the US. During six successive phases, IHP has evolved into a transdisciplinary, action-oriented and policy- relevant program with a strong scientific core responding to the needs of the Member States. This presentation will address the concepts underpinning the strategic plan of the seventh phase of IHP (2008-2013) and the proposed lines of action. Adaptation to the impacts of global changes on river basins and aquifer systems is a theme central to this phase. Global changes associated with climate, demographic factors and modifications in land use, among other factors, can have significant impacts on the hydrological cycle and on water resources. Due to the global character of such changes, its potential interaction with the hydrological cycle, and the transboundary nature of many river basins and aquifers, international cooperation is essential to improve our understanding and to efficiently address the challenges posed to water resources. During IHP-VII, particularly stressed and/or vulnerable areas (i.e. arid and semi-arid regions, the Polar regions, glaciated mountainous, urban areas and coastal regions) will be assessed, with the aim of supporting the development of mitigation and adaptation strategies by Member States and policies based on institutional synergies to diminish stresses on water resources. Strengthening water governance for sustainability is another thematic concentration, emphasizing the need of society to be able to respond adequately to the critical freshwater challenges. Lessons learned from the cross

  16. Curricula and Syllabi in Hydrology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris (France).

    This collection of papers is intended to provide a means for the exchange of information on hydrological techniques and for the coordination of research and data collection. The objectives and trends in hydrological education are presented. The International Hydrological Decade (IHD) Working Group on Education recommends a series of topics that…

  17. Student-Centered Modules to Support Active Learning in Hydrology: Development Experiences and Users' Perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarboton, D. G.; Habib, E. H.; Deshotel, M.; Merck, M. F.; Lall, U.; Farnham, D. J.

    2016-12-01

    Traditional approaches to undergraduate hydrology and water resource education are textbook based, adopt unit processes and rely on idealized examples of specific applications, rather than examining the contextual relations in the processes and the dynamics connecting climate and ecosystems. The overarching goal of this project is to address the needed paradigm shift in undergraduate education of engineering hydrology and water resources education to reflect parallel advances in hydrologic research and technology, mainly in the areas of new observational settings, data and modeling resources and web-based technologies. This study presents efforts to develop a set of learning modules that are case-based, data and simulation driven and delivered via a web user interface. The modules are based on real-world case studies from three regional hydrologic settings: Coastal Louisiana, Utah Rocky Mountains and Florida Everglades. These three systems provide unique learning opportunities on topics such as: regional-scale budget analysis, hydrologic effects of human and natural changes, flashflood protection, climate-hydrology teleconnections and water resource management scenarios. The technical design and contents of the modules aim to support students' ability for transforming their learning outcomes and skills to hydrologic systems other than those used by the specific activity. To promote active learning, the modules take students through a set of highly engaging learning activities that are based on analysis of hydrologic data and model simulations. The modules include user support in the form of feedback and self-assessment mechanisms that are integrated within the online modules. Module effectiveness is assessed through an improvement-focused evaluation model using a mixed-method research approach guiding collection and analysis of evaluation data. Both qualitative and quantitative data are collected through student learning data, product analysis, and staff interviews

  18. PATHS groundwater hydrologic model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nelson, R.W.; Schur, J.A.

    1980-04-01

    A preliminary evaluation capability for two-dimensional groundwater pollution problems was developed as part of the Transport Modeling Task for the Waste Isolation Safety Assessment Program (WISAP). Our approach was to use the data limitations as a guide in setting the level of modeling detail. PATHS Groundwater Hydrologic Model is the first level (simplest) idealized hybrid analytical/numerical model for two-dimensional, saturated groundwater flow and single component transport; homogeneous geology. This document consists of the description of the PATHS groundwater hydrologic model. The preliminary evaluation capability prepared for WISAP, including the enhancements that were made because of the authors' experience using the earlier capability is described. Appendixes A through D supplement the report as follows: complete derivations of the background equations are provided in Appendix A. Appendix B is a comprehensive set of instructions for users of PATHS. It is written for users who have little or no experience with computers. Appendix C is for the programmer. It contains information on how input parameters are passed between programs in the system. It also contains program listings and test case listing. Appendix D is a definition of terms.

  19. Assessing sequential data assimilation techniques for integrating GRACE data into a hydrological model

    KAUST Repository

    Khaki, M.; Hoteit, Ibrahim; Kuhn, M.; Awange, J.; Forootan, E.; van Dijk, A.; Schumacher, M.; Pattiaratchi, C.

    2017-01-01

    The time-variable terrestrial water storage (TWS) products from the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) have been increasingly used in recent years to improve the simulation of hydrological models by applying data assimilation techniques

  20. Assessing Preschool Teachers' Practices to Promote Self-Regulated Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adagideli, Fahretdin Hasan; Saraç, Seda; Ader, Engin

    2015-01-01

    Recent research reveals that in preschool years, through pedagogical interventions, preschool teachers can and should promote self-regulated learning. The main aim of this study is to develop a self-report instrument to assess preschool teachers' practices to promote self-regulated learning. A pool of 50 items was recruited through literature…

  1. Initial hydrological modelling to assess impacts of different land uses on process hydrology in a small-scale semi-arid catchment in the Western Cape Province, South Africa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Steudel, T

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available in those areas. GIS DATA ? highly precise GPS field measurements and contour line information for digital elevation model (DEM) generation and watershed derivation ? different raster layers (spatial resolution = 7.6 m) containing plot specific...2000 is capable of representing the hydrological conditions within such a small- scale catchment (Fig. 5, Fig 6) OUTLOOK ? J2000 can be used for a detailed analysis of the individual hydrological components affected by land use change ? further...

  2. Assessing Hydrologic Impacts of Future Land Cover Change Scenarios in the South Platte River Basin (CO, WY, & NE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long‐term land‐use and land cover change and their associated impacts pose critical challenges to sustaining vital hydrological ecosystem services for future generations. In this study, a methodology was developed on the San Pedro River Basin to characterize hydrologi...

  3. On the influence of cell size in physically-based distributed hydrological modelling to assess extreme values in water resource planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Egüen

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper studies the influence of changing spatial resolution on the implementation of distributed hydrological modelling for water resource planning in Mediterranean areas. Different cell sizes were used to investigate variations in the basin hydrologic response given by the model WiMMed, developed in Andalusia (Spain, in a selected watershed. The model was calibrated on a monthly basis from the available daily flow data at the reservoir that closes the watershed, for three different cell sizes, 30, 100, and 500 m, and the effects of this change on the hydrological response of the basin were analysed by means of the comparison of the hydrological variables at different time scales for a 3-yr-period, and the effective values for the calibration parameters obtained for each spatial resolution. The variation in the distribution of the input parameters due to using different spatial resolutions resulted in a change in the obtained hydrological networks and significant differences in other hydrological variables, both in mean basin-scale and values distributed in the cell level. Differences in the magnitude of annual and global runoff, together with other hydrological components of the water balance, became apparent. This study demonstrated the importance of choosing the appropriate spatial scale in the implementation of a distributed hydrological model to reach a balance between the quality of results and the computational cost; thus, 30 and 100-m could be chosen for water resource management, without significant decrease in the accuracy of the simulation, but the 500-m cell size resulted in significant overestimation of runoff and consequently, could involve uncertain decisions based on the expected availability of rainfall excess for storage in the reservoirs. Particular values of the effective calibration parameters are also provided for this hydrological model and the study area.

  4. Open hydrological data at hypeweb.smhi.se

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arheimer, Berit; Strömbäck, Lena; Andersson, Jafet; Donnelly, Chantal; Gustafsson, David; Pechlivianidis, Ilias; Strömqvist, Johan

    2016-04-01

    Following the EU open data strategy the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) is providing large parts of the databases openly available. These data are ranging from historical observations to climate predictions in various areas such as weather, oceanography and hydrology. For the Water Service called Hypeweb (www.hypeweb.smhi.se), we provide data for water management. So far, the data has been used in: (i) Climate change impact assessments on water resources and dynamics; (ii) The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) for characterization and development of measure programs to improve the ecological status of water bodies; (iii) Design variables for infrastructure constructions; (iv) Spatial water-resource mapping; (v) Operational forecasts (1-10 days and seasonal) on floods and droughts; (vi) Input to oceanographic models for operational forecasts and marine status assessments; and (vii) Research. The data of Hypeweb is based on other open data sources that has been merged and re-purposed by using the Hydrological Predictions for the Environment (HYPE) model in world-wide applications with high resolution. HYPE is a dynamic, semi-distributed, process-based, and integrated catchment model. So far, the following regional domains have been modelled with different resolutions (number of subbasins within brackets): Sweden (37 000), Europe (35 000), Arctic basin (30 000), La Plata River (6 000), Niger River (800), Middle-East North-Africa (31 000), and the Indian subcontinent (6 000). The web site provides several interactive applications for exploring results from the models. The user can explore an overview of various water variables for historical and future conditions. Moreover the user can explore and download historical time series of discharge for each basin and explore the performance of the model towards observed river flow. The presentation will give an overview of the functionality of the web site and the available hydrological

  5. Hydrologic Services Course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (DOC), Rockville, MD. National Weather Service.

    A course to develop an understanding of the scope of water resource activities, of the need for forecasting, of the National Weather Service's role in hydrology, and of the proper procedures to follow in fulfilling this role is presented. The course is one of self-help, guided by correspondence. Nine lessons are included: (1) Hydrology in the…

  6. On the effects of adaptive reservoir operating rules in hydrological physically-based models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giudici, Federico; Anghileri, Daniela; Castelletti, Andrea; Burlando, Paolo

    2017-04-01

    Recent years have seen a significant increase of the human influence on the natural systems both at the global and local scale. Accurately modeling the human component and its interaction with the natural environment is key to characterize the real system dynamics and anticipate future potential changes to the hydrological regimes. Modern distributed, physically-based hydrological models are able to describe hydrological processes with high level of detail and high spatiotemporal resolution. Yet, they lack in sophistication for the behavior component and human decisions are usually described by very simplistic rules, which might underperform in reproducing the catchment dynamics. In the case of water reservoir operators, these simplistic rules usually consist of target-level rule curves, which represent the average historical level trajectory. Whilst these rules can reasonably reproduce the average seasonal water volume shifts due to the reservoirs' operation, they cannot properly represent peculiar conditions, which influence the actual reservoirs' operation, e.g., variations in energy price or water demand, dry or wet meteorological conditions. Moreover, target-level rule curves are not suitable to explore the water system response to climate and socio economic changing contexts, because they assume a business-as-usual operation. In this work, we quantitatively assess how the inclusion of adaptive reservoirs' operating rules into physically-based hydrological models contribute to the proper representation of the hydrological regime at the catchment scale. In particular, we contrast target-level rule curves and detailed optimization-based behavioral models. We, first, perform the comparison on past observational records, showing that target-level rule curves underperform in representing the hydrological regime over multiple time scales (e.g., weekly, seasonal, inter-annual). Then, we compare how future hydrological changes are affected by the two modeling

  7. Using Modeling Tools to Better Understand Permafrost Hydrology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clément Fabre

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Modification of the hydrological cycle and, subsequently, of other global cycles is expected in Arctic watersheds owing to global change. Future climate scenarios imply widespread permafrost degradation caused by an increase in air temperature, and the expected effect on permafrost hydrology is immense. This study aims at analyzing, and quantifying the daily water transfer in the largest Arctic river system, the Yenisei River in central Siberia, Russia, partially underlain by permafrost. The semi-distributed SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool hydrological model has been calibrated and validated at a daily time step in historical discharge simulations for the 2003–2014 period. The model parameters have been adjusted to embrace the hydrological features of permafrost. SWAT is shown capable to estimate water fluxes at a daily time step, especially during unfrozen periods, once are considered specific climatic and soils conditions adapted to a permafrost watershed. The model simulates average annual contribution to runoff of 263 millimeters per year (mm yr−1 distributed as 152 mm yr−1 (58% of surface runoff, 103 mm yr−1 (39% of lateral flow and 8 mm yr−1 (3% of return flow from the aquifer. These results are integrated on a reduced basin area downstream from large dams and are closer to observations than previous modeling exercises.

  8. Critical Hydrologic and Atmospheric Measurements in Complex Alpine Regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parlange, M. B.; Bou-Zeid, E.; Barrenetxea, G.; Krichane, M.; Ingelrest, F.; Couach, O.; Luyet, V.; Vetterli, M.; Lehning, M.; Duffy, C.; Tobin, C.; Selker, J.; Kumar, M.

    2007-12-01

    The Alps are often referred to as the « Water Towers of Europe » and as such play an essential role in European water resources. The impact of climatic change is expected to be particularly pronounced in the Alps and the lack of detailed hydrologic field observations is problematic for predictions of hydrologic and hazard assessment. Advances in information technology and communications provide important possibilities to improve the situation with relatively few measurements. We will present sensorscope technology (arrays of wireless weather stations including soil moisture, pressure, and temperature) that has now been deployed at the Le Genepi and Grand St. Bernard pass. In addition, a Distributed Temperature Sensor array on the stream beds has been deployed and stream discharge monitored. The high spatial resolution data collected in these previously "ungaged" regions are used in conjunction with new generation hydrologic models. The framework as to what is possible today with sensor arrays and modeling in extreme mountain environments is discussed.

  9. RESPONSE OF LANDUSE CHANGE ON HYDROLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WAY BETUNG WATERSHED - LAMPUNG

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zaenal Mubarok

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Change in landuse caused by a population increase from 114,973 people in 2007 to 134,792 people in 2012 (14.70% increased has influenced the hydrological characteristics of Way Betung watershed. The Soil and Water Assesment Tools (SWAT hydrological model could predict the hydrological characteristics influenced by the change in landuse. The aims of this study were: 1 to assess the impact of landuse change on hydrological characteristics; and, 2 to recommend the best landuse of Way Betung Watershed.The SWAT model was applied to simulate the change of landuse in Way Betung watershed. The effects of landuse change on the hydrological characteristics of Way Betung Watershed in 2001, 2006, and 2010 showed  the water yield of 874.66, 1047.70, and 774.04 mm respectively. The coefficient of surface runoff (C for those three years were 0.16, 0.31, and 0.23, whereas the coeficient of river regime were 30.65, 66.25, and 53.57 respectively. The application of agrotechnology on agricultural land and in line with the functions of forest area (scenario 4 gave the best response towards hydrological characteristics in the form of 709.69 mm of water yield with C being 0.14, whereas the coeficient of river regime value was 3.66. 

  10. Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharp, John M.

    1977-01-01

    Lists many recent research projects in hydrology, including flow in fractured media, improvements in remote-sensing techniques, effects of urbanization on water resources, and developments in drainage basins. (MLH)

  11. Hydrological impacts of land use change in three diverse South African catchments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warburton, Michele L.; Schulze, Roland E.; Jewitt, Graham P. W.

    2012-01-01

    , it was shown that the location of specific land uses within a catchment has a role in the response of the streamflow of the catchment to that land use change. From the Mgeni catchment, the significant role of the water engineered system on catchment streamflow was evident. Hydrological models have drawbacks associated with them due to inherent uncertainties. However, in this study the ACRU model proved to be a useful tool to assess the impacts of land use change on the hydrological response as impacts from the local scale to catchment scale could be assessed as well as the progression of impacts of land use changes as the streamflow cascades downstream through the catchment.

  12. Regional hydrological impacts of climate change: implications for water management in India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Mondal

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Climate change is most likely to introduce an additional stress to already stressed water systems in developing countries. Climate change is inherently linked with the hydrological cycle and is expected to cause significant alterations in regional water resources systems necessitating measures for adaptation and mitigation. Increasing temperatures, for example, are likely to change precipitation patterns resulting in alterations of regional water availability, evapotranspirative water demand of crops and vegetation, extremes of floods and droughts, and water quality. A comprehensive assessment of regional hydrological impacts of climate change is thus necessary. Global climate model simulations provide future projections of the climate system taking into consideration changes in external forcings, such as atmospheric carbon-dioxide and aerosols, especially those resulting from anthropogenic emissions. However, such simulations are typically run at a coarse scale, and are not equipped to reproduce regional hydrological processes. This paper summarizes recent research on the assessment of climate change impacts on regional hydrology, addressing the scale and physical processes mismatch issues. Particular attention is given to changes in water availability, irrigation demands and water quality. This paper also includes description of the methodologies developed to address uncertainties in the projections resulting from incomplete knowledge about future evolution of the human-induced emissions and from using multiple climate models. Approaches for investigating possible causes of historically observed changes in regional hydrological variables are also discussed. Illustrations of all the above-mentioned methods are provided for Indian regions with a view to specifically aiding water management in India.

  13. Assessment of ecologically relevant hydrological change in China due to water use and reservoirs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Zhang

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available As China's economy booms, increasing water use has significantly affected hydro-geomorphic processes and thus the ecology of surface waters. A large variety of hydrological changes arising from human activities such as reservoir construction and management, water abstraction, water diversion and agricultural land expansion have been sustained throughout China. Using the global scale hydrological and water use model WaterGAP, natural and anthropogenically altered flow conditions are calculated, taking into account flow alterations due to human water consumption and 580 large reservoirs. The impacts resulting from water consumption and reservoirs have been analyzed separately. A modified "Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration" approach is used to describe the human pressures on aquatic ecosystems due to anthropogenic alterations in river flow regimes. The changes in long-term average river discharge, average monthly mean discharge and coefficients of variation of monthly river discharges under natural and impacted conditions are compared and analyzed. The indicators show very significant alterations of natural river flow regimes in a large part of northern China and only minor alterations in most of southern China. The detected large alterations in long-term average river discharge, the seasonality of flows and the inter-annual variability in the northern half of China are very likely to have caused significant ecological impacts.

  14. An analysis of historic and projected climate scenarios in the Western United States using hydrologic landscape classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    : Identifying areas of similar hydrology within the United States and its regions (hydrologic landscapes - HLs) is an active area of research. HLs are being used to construct spatially distributed assessments of variability in streamflow and climatic response in Oregon, Alaska, a...

  15. Quantifying the efficiency of river regulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Rödel

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Dam-affected hydrologic time series give rise to uncertainties when they are used for calibrating large-scale hydrologic models or for analysing runoff records. It is therefore necessary to identify and to quantify the impact of impoundments on runoff time series. Two different approaches were employed. The first, classic approach compares the volume of the dams that are located upstream from a station with the annual discharge. The catchment areas of the stations are calculated and then related to geo-referenced dam attributes. The paper introduces a data set of geo-referenced dams linked with 677 gauging stations in Europe. Second, the intensity of the impoundment impact on runoff times series can be quantified more exactly and directly when long-term runoff records are available. Dams cause a change in the variability of flow regimes. This effect can be measured using the model of linear single storage. The dam-caused storage change ΔS can be assessed through the volume of the emptying process between two flow regimes. As an example, the storage change ΔS is calculated for regulated long-term series of the Luleälven in northern Sweden.

  16. Linking hydrologic, physical and chemical habitat environments for the potential assessment of fish community rehabilitation in a developing city

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, C. S.; Yang, S. T.; Liu, C. M.; Dou, T. W.; Yang, Z. L.; Yang, Z. Y.; Liu, X. L.; Xiang, H.; Nie, S. Y.; Zhang, J. L.; Mitrovic, S. M.; Yu, Q.; Lim, R. P.

    2015-04-01

    Aquatic ecological rehabilitation is increasingly attracting considerable public and research attention. An effective method that requires less data and expertise would help in the assessment of rehabilitation potential and in the monitoring of rehabilitation activities as complicated theories and excessive data requirements on assemblage information make many current assessment models expensive and limit their wide use. This paper presents an assessment model for restoration potential which successfully links hydrologic, physical and chemical habitat factors to fish assemblage attributes drawn from monitoring datasets on hydrology, water quality and fish assemblages at a total of 144 sites, where 5084 fish were sampled and tested. In this model three newly developed sub-models, integrated habitat index (IHSI), integrated ecological niche breadth (INB) and integrated ecological niche overlap (INO), are established to study spatial heterogeneity of the restoration potential of fish assemblages based on gradient methods of habitat suitability index and ecological niche models. To reduce uncertainties in the model, as many fish species as possible, including important native fish, were selected as dominant species with monitoring occurring over several seasons to comprehensively select key habitat factors. Furthermore, a detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) was employed prior to a canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) of the data to avoid the "arc effect" in the selection of key habitat factors. Application of the model to data collected at Jinan City, China proved effective reveals that three lower potential regions that should be targeted in future aquatic ecosystem rehabilitation programs. They were well validated by the distribution of two habitat parameters: river width and transparency. River width positively influenced and transparency negatively influenced fish assemblages. The model can be applied for monitoring the effects of fish assemblage restoration

  17. Optimizing Multireservoir System Operating Policies Using Exogenous Hydrologic Variables

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pina, Jasson; Tilmant, Amaury; Côté, Pascal

    2017-11-01

    Stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) is one of the few available algorithms to optimize the operating policies of large-scale hydropower systems. This paper presents a variant, called SDDPX, in which exogenous hydrologic variables, such as snow water equivalent and/or sea surface temperature, are included in the state space vector together with the traditional (endogenous) variables, i.e., past inflows. A reoptimization procedure is also proposed in which SDDPX-derived benefit-to-go functions are employed within a simulation carried out over the historical record of both the endogenous and exogenous hydrologic variables. In SDDPX, release policies are now a function of storages, past inflows, and relevant exogenous variables that potentially capture more complex hydrological processes than those found in traditional SDDP formulations. To illustrate the potential gain associated with the use of exogenous variables when operating a multireservoir system, the 3,137 MW hydropower system of Rio Tinto (RT) located in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean River Basin in Quebec (Canada) is used as a case study. The performance of the system is assessed for various combinations of hydrologic state variables, ranging from the simple lag-one autoregressive model to more complex formulations involving past inflows, snow water equivalent, and winter precipitation.

  18. Exploring drivers of wetland hydrologic fluxes across parameters and space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, C. N.; Cheng, F. Y.; Mclaughlin, D. L.; Basu, N. B.; Lang, M.; Alexander, L. C.

    2017-12-01

    Depressional wetlands provide diverse ecosystem services, ranging from critical habitat to the regulation of landscape hydrology. The latter is of particular interest, because while hydrologic connectivity between depressional wetlands and downstream waters has been a focus of both scientific research and policy, it remains difficult to quantify the mode, magnitude, and timing of this connectivity at varying spatial and temporary scales. To do so requires robust empirical and modeling tools that accurately represent surface and subsurface flowpaths between depressional wetlands and other landscape elements. Here, we utilize a parsimonious wetland hydrology model to explore drivers of wetland water fluxes in different archetypal wetland-rich landscapes. We validated the model using instrumented sites from regions that span North America: Prairie Pothole Region (south-central Canada), Delmarva Peninsula (Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain), and Big Cypress Swamp (southern Florida). Then, using several national scale datasets (e.g., National Wetlands Inventory, USFWS; National Hydrography Dataset, USGS; Soil Survey Geographic Database, NRCS), we conducted a global sensitivity analysis to elucidate dominant drivers of simulated fluxes. Finally, we simulated and compared wetland hydrology in five contrasting landscapes dominated by depressional wetlands: prairie potholes, Carolina and Delmarva bays, pocosins, western vernal pools, and Texas coastal prairie wetlands. Results highlight specific drivers that vary across these regions. Largely, hydroclimatic variables (e.g., PET/P ratios) controlled the timing and magnitude of wetland connectivity, whereas both wetland morphology (e.g., storage capacity and watershed size) and soil characteristics (e.g., ksat and confining layer depth) controlled the duration and mode (surface vs. subsurface) of wetland connectivity. Improved understanding of the drivers of wetland hydrologic connectivity supports enhanced, region

  19. Environmental isotope hydrology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1973-01-01

    Environmental isotope hydrology is a relatively new field of investigation based on isotopic variations observed in natural waters. These isotopic characteristics have been established over a broad space and time scale. They cannot be controlled by man, but can be observed and interpreted to gain valuable regional information on the origin, turnover and transit time of water in the system which often cannot be obtained by other techniques. The cost of such investigations is usually relatively small in comparison with the cost of classical hydrological studies. The main environmental isotopes of hydrological interest are the stable isotopes deuterium (hydrogen-2), carbon-13, oxygen-18, and the radioactive isotopes tritium (hydrogen-3) and carbon-14. Isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen are ideal geochemical tracers of water because their concentrations are usually not subject to change by interaction with the aquifer material. On the other hand, carbon compounds in groundwater may interact with the aquifer material, complicating the interpretation of carbon-14 data. A few other environmental isotopes such as 32 Si and 238 U/ 234 U have been proposed recently for hydrological purposes but their use has been quite limited until now and they will not be discussed here. (author)

  20. Understanding Greenland ice sheet hydrology using an integrated multi-scale approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rennermalm, A K; Moustafa, S E; Mioduszewski, J; Robinson, D A; Chu, V W; Smith, L C; Forster, R R; Hagedorn, B; Harper, J T; Mote, T L; Shuman, C A; Tedesco, M

    2013-01-01

    Improved understanding of Greenland ice sheet hydrology is critically important for assessing its impact on current and future ice sheet dynamics and global sea level rise. This has motivated the collection and integration of in situ observations, model development, and remote sensing efforts to quantify meltwater production, as well as its phase changes, transport, and export. Particularly urgent is a better understanding of albedo feedbacks leading to enhanced surface melt, potential positive feedbacks between ice sheet hydrology and dynamics, and meltwater retention in firn. These processes are not isolated, but must be understood as part of a continuum of processes within an integrated system. This letter describes a systems approach to the study of Greenland ice sheet hydrology, emphasizing component interconnections and feedbacks, and highlighting research and observational needs. (letter)

  1. Use of hydrochemistry and environmental isotopes for evaluation of the hydrological connection between groundwater and wetland swamp Colombia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santa A, Diana P; Martinez F, Diana C; Betancur V, Teresita

    2008-01-01

    The understanding of water flow paths around a wetland is based on the hydrologic information interpretation. Although the incorporation of non-conventional techniques like hydrochemistry and isotopic hydrology allows a major compression level of hydrologic systems: They allow identify origin and evolution of water, movement times, permanence in the hydrologic cycle components. Cienaga Colombia wetland and its catch area, represent a strategic ecosystem located in the Bajo Cauca antioqueno. The natural conditions and the consequences of the human intervention on the wetland impose the need to approach its study and understanding, seeking to be able lo design effective measures to guarantee its sustainability. We presents the firsts results of the project developed by Antioquia University and IAEA: Hydrochemical and Isotopic techniques for the assessment of hydrological processes in the wetlands of Bajo Cauca Antioqueno which is part of the program: Isotopic techniques for assessment of hydrological processes in wetlands by International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. The general objective of the study is evaluate the dynamic of water flow, in and out of the wetland in the Bajo Cauca Antioqueno, using geochemical and isotopic techniques.

  2. Assessment on Hydrologic Response by Climate Change in the Chao Phraya River Basin, Thailand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mayzonee Ligaray

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The Chao Phraya River in Thailand has been greatly affected by climate change and the occurrence of extreme flood events, hindering its economic development. This study assessed the hydrological responses of the Chao Phraya River basin under several climate sensitivity and greenhouse gas emission scenarios. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT model was applied to simulate the streamflow using meteorological and observed data over a nine-year period from 2003 to 2011. The SWAT model produced an acceptable performance for calibration and validation, yielding Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE values greater than 0.5. Precipitation scenarios yielded streamflow variations that corresponded to the change of rainfall intensity and amount of rainfall, while scenarios with increased air temperatures predicted future water shortages. High CO2 concentration scenarios incorporated plant responses that led to a dramatic increase in streamflow. The greenhouse gas emission scenarios increased the streamflow variations to 6.8%, 41.9%, and 38.4% from the reference period (2003–2011. This study also provided a framework upon which the peak flow can be managed to control the nonpoint sources during wet season. We hope that the future climate scenarios presented in this study could provide predictive information for the river basin.

  3. The role of climate change in regulating Arctic permafrost peatland hydrological and vegetation change over the last millennium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hui; Piilo, Sanna R.; Amesbury, Matthew J.; Charman, Dan J.; Gallego-Sala, Angela V.; Väliranta, Minna M.

    2018-02-01

    Climate warming has inevitable impacts on the vegetation and hydrological dynamics of high-latitude permafrost peatlands. These impacts in turn determine the role of these peatlands in the global biogeochemical cycle. Here, we used six active layer peat cores from four permafrost peatlands in Northeast European Russia and Finnish Lapland to investigate permafrost peatland dynamics over the last millennium. Testate amoeba and plant macrofossils were used as proxies for hydrological and vegetation changes. Our results show that during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), Russian sites experienced short-term permafrost thawing and this induced alternating dry-wet habitat changes eventually followed by desiccation. During the Little Ice Age (LIA) both sites generally supported dry-hummock habitats, at least partly driven by permafrost aggradation. However, proxy data suggest that occasionally, MCA habitat conditions were drier than during the LIA, implying that evapotranspiration may create important additional eco-hydrological feedback mechanisms under warm conditions. All sites showed a tendency towards dry conditions as inferred from both proxies starting either from ca. 100 years ago or in the past few decades after slight permafrost thawing, suggesting that recent warming has stimulated surface desiccation rather than deeper permafrost thawing. This study shows links between two important controls over hydrology and vegetation changes in high-latitude peatlands: direct temperature-induced surface layer response and deeper permafrost layer-related dynamics. These data provide important backgrounds for predictions of Arctic permafrost peatlands and related feedback mechanisms. Our results highlight the importance of increased evapotranspiration and thus provide an additional perspective to understanding of peatland-climate feedback mechanisms.

  4. Hydrologic assessment and numerical simulation of groundwater flow, San Juan Mine, San Juan County, New Mexico, 2010–13

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Anne M.

    2018-04-03

    Coal combustion byproducts (CCBs), which are composed of fly ash, bottom ash, and flue gas desulfurization material, produced at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station (SJGS), located in San Juan County, New Mexico, have been buried in former surface-mine pits at the San Juan Mine, also referred to as the San Juan Coal Mine, since operations began in the early 1970s. This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Mining and Minerals Division of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, describes results of a hydrogeologic assessment, including numerical groundwater modeling, to identify the timing of groundwater recovery and potential pathways for groundwater transport of metals that may be leached from stored CCBs and reach hydrologic receptors after operations cease. Data collected for the hydrologic assessment indicate that groundwater in at least one centrally located reclaimed surface-mining pit has already begun to recover.The U.S. Geological Survey numerical modeling package MODFLOW–NWT was used with MODPATH particle-tracking software to identify advective flow paths from CCB storage areas toward potential hydrologic receptors. Results indicate that groundwater at CCB storage areas will recover to the former steady state, or in some locations, groundwater may recover to a new steady state in 6,600 to 10,600 years at variable rates depending on the proximity to a residual cone-of-groundwater depression caused by mine dewatering and regional oil and gas pumping as well as on actual, rather than estimated, groundwater recharge and evapotranspirational losses. Advective particle-track modeling indicates that the number of particles and rates of advective transport will vary depending on hydraulic properties of the mine spoil, particularly hydraulic conductivity and porosity. Modeling results from the most conservative scenario indicate that particles can migrate from CCB repositories to either the

  5. Dynamics of meteorological and hydrological droughts in the Neman river basin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rimkus, Egidijus; Stonevičius, Edvinas; Kažys, Justas; Valiuškevičius, Gintaras; Korneev, Vladimir; Pakhomau, Aliaksandr

    2013-01-01

    The analysis of drought dynamics in the Neman river basin allows an assessment of extreme regional climate changes. Meteorological and hydrological warm period droughts were analyzed in this study. Meteorological droughts were identified using the standardized precipitation index, and hydrological droughts using the streamflow drought index. The whole river basin was analyzed over the period from 1961 to 2010. Precipitation data from Vilnius meteorological station (from 1887) and discharge data from Smalininkai (Neman) hydrological station (from 1811) were used for an evaluation of meteorological and hydrological drought recurrence over a long-term period. It was found that the total area dryness has decreased over the last 50 years. A statistically significant increase in standardized precipitation index values was observed in some river sub-basins. An analysis of drought recurrence dynamics showed that there was no indication that the number of dangerous drought was increased. It was determined that the standardized precipitation index cannot successfully identify the hydrological summer droughts in an area where the spring snowmelt forms a large part of the annual flow. In particular, the weak relationship between the indices was recorded in the first half of the summer, when a large part of the river runoff depends on accumulated water during the spring thaw. (letter)

  6. Influence of the Amazon Hydrological Regime on Eutrophication Indicators of a Hydroelectric Power Plant Reservoir.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freire, Jean Carlos A; Hauser-Davis, Rachel Ann; da Costa Lobato, Tarcísio; de Morais, Jefferson M; de Oliveira, Terezinha F; F Saraiva, Augusto Cesar

    2017-05-01

    Dam constructions in the Amazon have increased exponentially in the last decades, causing several environmental impacts and serious anthropogenic impacts in certain hydroelectric power plant reservoirs in the region have been identified. The assessment of the trophic status of these reservoirs is of interest to indicate man-made changes in the environment, but must take into account the hydrological cycle of the area. This can be relevant for environmental management actions, aiding in the identification of the ecological status of water bodies. In this context, physico-chemical parameters and eutrophication indicators were determined in a hydroelectric power plant reservoir in the Brazilian Amazon to assess trophic variations during the regional hydrological regime phases on the reservoir, namely dry, filling, full and emptying stages. The local hydrological regimes were shown to significantly influence TSS and turbidity, as well as NH 4 , NO 3 , PO 4 , with higher values consistently observed during the filling stage of the reservoir. In addition, differences among the sampling stations regarding land use, population and anthropogenic activities were reflected in the PO 4 3- values during the different hydrological phases.

  7. Hydrological catchment modelling: past, present and future

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses basic issues in hydrological modelling and flood forecasting, ranging from the roles of physically-based and data-driven rainfall runoff models, to the concepts of predictive uncertainty and equifinality and their implications. The evolution of a wide range of hydrological catchment models employing the physically meaningful and data-driven approaches introduces the need for objective test beds or benchmarks to assess the merits of the different models in reconciling the alternative approaches. In addition, the paper analyses uncertainty in models and predictions by clarifying the meaning of uncertainty, by distinguishing between parameter and predictive uncertainty and by demonstrating how the concept of equifinality must be addressed by appropriate and robust inference approaches. Finally, the importance of predictive uncertainty in the decision making process is highlighted together with possible approaches aimed at overcoming the diffidence of end-users.

  8. Hydrological Process Simulation of Inland River Watershed: A Case Study of the Heihe River Basin with Multiple Hydrological Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lili Wang

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Simulating the hydrological processes of an inland river basin can help provide the scientific guidance to the policies of water allocation among different subbasins and water resource management groups within the subbasins. However, it is difficult to simulate the hydrological processes of an inland river basin with hydrological models due to the non-consistent hydrological characteristics of the entire basin. This study presents a solution to this problem with a case study about the hydrological process simulation in an inland river basin in China, Heihe River basin. It is divided into the upper, middle, and lower reaches based on the distinctive hydrological characteristics in the Heihe River basin, and three hydrological models are selected, applied, and tested to simulate the hydrological cycling processes for each reach. The upper reach is the contributing area with the complex runoff generation processes, therefore, the hydrological informatic modeling system (HIMS is utilized due to its combined runoff generation mechanisms. The middle reach has strong impacts of intensive human activities on the interactions of surface and subsurface flows, so a conceptual water balance model is applied to simulate the water balance process. For the lower reach, as the dissipative area with groundwater dominating the hydrological process, a groundwater modeling system with the embedment of MODFLOW model is applied to simulate the groundwater dynamics. Statistical parameters and water balance analysis prove that the three models have excellent performances in simulating the hydrological process of the three reaches. Therefore, it is an effective way to simulate the hydrological process of inland river basin with multiple hydrological models according to the characteristics of each subbasin.

  9. Hydropower assessment of Bolivia—A multisource satellite data and hydrologic modeling approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velpuri, Naga Manohar; Pervez, Shahriar; Cushing, W. Matthew

    2016-11-28

    This study produced a geospatial database for use in a decision support system by the Bolivian authorities to investigate further development and investment potentials in sustainable hydropower in Bolivia. The study assessed theoretical hydropower of all 1-kilometer (km) stream segments in the country using multisource satellite data and a hydrologic modeling approach. With the assessment covering the 2 million square kilometer (km2) region influencing Bolivia’s drainage network, the potential hydropower figures are based on theoretical yield assuming that the systems generating the power are 100 percent efficient. There are several factors to consider when determining the real-world or technical power potential of a hydropower system, and these factors can vary depending on local conditions. Since this assessment covers a large area, it was necessary to reduce these variables to the two that can be modeled consistently throughout the region, streamflow or discharge, and elevation drop or head. First, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission high-resolution 30-meter (m) digital elevation model was used to identify stream segments with greater than 10 km2 of upstream drainage. We applied several preconditioning processes to the 30-m digital elevation model to reduce errors and improve the accuracy of stream delineation and head height estimation. A total of 316,500 1-km stream segments were identified and used in this study to assess the total theoretical hydropower potential of Bolivia. Precipitation observations from a total of 463 stations obtained from the Bolivian Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología (Bolivian National Meteorology and Hydrology Service) and the Brazilian Agência Nacional de Águas (Brazilian National Water Agency) were used to validate six different gridded precipitation estimates for Bolivia obtained from various sources. Validation results indicated that gridded precipitation estimates from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

  10. A Hydrological Response Analysis Considering Climatic Variability: Case Study of Hunza Catchment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. N. Laghari

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available The hydrological response of mountainous catchments particularly dependent on melting runoff is very vulnerable to climatic variability. This study is an attempt to assess hydrological response towards climatic variability of the Hunza catchment located in the mountainous chain of greater Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH region. The hydrological response is analyzed through changes in snowmelt, ice melt and total runoff simulated through the application of the hydrological modeling system PREVAH under hypothetically developed climate change scenarios. The developed scenarios are based on changes in precipitation (Prp and temperature (Tmp and their combination. Under all the warmer scenarios, the increase in temperature systematically decreases the mean annual snow melt and increases significantly glacier melt volume. Temperature changes from 1°C to 4°C produce a large increase in spring and summer runoff, while no major variation was observed in the winter and autumn runoff. The maximum seasonal changes recorded under the Tmp+4°C, Prp+10% scenario.

  11. The assessment of the influence of different natural conditions on the particular processes of the hydrological cycle within a river basin

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Šípek, Václav; Němečková, Soňa

    2011-01-01

    Roč. 13, - (2011), s. 6904 ISSN 1607-7962. [European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2011. 03.04.2011-08.04.2011, Vienna] R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA300600901 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20600510 Keywords : hydrological modelling * hydrological cycle * SWIM model Subject RIV: DA - Hydrology ; Limnology

  12. Global hydrological droughts in the 21st century under a changing hydrological regime

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wanders, Niko|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/364253940; Wada, Yoshi|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/341387819; van Lanen, H.A.J

    2015-01-01

    Climate change very likely impacts future hydrological drought characteristics across the world. Here, we quantify the impact of climate change on future low flows and associated hydrological drought characteristics on a global scale using an alternative drought identification approach that

  13. Hydrology and Ecology Go to Court

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wise, W. R.; Crisman, T. L.

    2009-04-01

    The authors were involved in a high profile case in the United States District Court involving Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades Agricultural Area in the State of Florida. One of the central issues of the case rested on a theory that all navigable waters of the United States comprised one "unitary" water body, and as such, transfer of water from one navigable water to another did not require any permitting action. Should this theory have prevailed, great precedent would be set regarding inter-basin transfer of volumes of water capable of significantly impact to the ecologic structure and function of all involved basins. Furthermore, the impact would certainly have had demographic implications of great significance. We were asked to serve as an expert witnesses in the case charged with developing a strategy to demonstrate that three large irrigation canals were "meaningfully hydrologically distinct" (language from the U.S. Supreme Court opinion on a related case) from Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake wholly in the continental U.S. Although a totally hydrologic approach could have been taken easily, it was thought better for the legal team to include an aquatic ecologic perspective, a true example of the linkage of the two disciplines into ecohydrology. Together, an argument was crafted to explain to the judge how, in fact, the waters could in no way be "unitary" in character and that they were "meaningfully hydrologically distinct." The fundamentals of the arguments rested on well known and established principles of physics, chemistry, and biology. It was incumbent upon the authors to educate the judge on how to think about hydrologic and ecologic principles. Issues of interest to the judge included a forensic assessment of the hydrologic and ecologic regime of the lake and the original Everglades system when the State of Florida first joined the U.S. While there are anecdotal archives that describe some elements of the system, there are few

  14. Coupled Crop/Hydrology Model to Estimate Expanded Irrigation Impact on Water Resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Handyside, C. T.; Cruise, J.

    2017-12-01

    A coupled agricultural and hydrologic systems model is used to examine the environmental impact of irrigation in the Southeast. A gridded crop model for the Southeast is used to determine regional irrigation demand. This irrigation demand is used in a regional hydrologic model to determine the hydrologic impact of irrigation. For the Southeast to maintain/expand irrigated agricultural production and provide adaptation to climate change and climate variability it will require integrated agricultural and hydrologic system models that can calculate irrigation demand and the impact of the this demand on the river hydrology. These integrated models can be used as (1) historical tools to examine vulnerability of expanded irrigation to past climate extremes (2) future tools to examine the sustainability of expanded irrigation under future climate scenarios and (3) a real-time tool to allow dynamic water resource management. Such tools are necessary to assure stakeholders and the public that irrigation can be carried out in a sustainable manner. The system tools to be discussed include a gridded version of the crop modeling system (DSSAT). The gridded model is referred to as GriDSSAT. The irrigation demand from GriDSSAT is coupled to a regional hydrologic model developed by the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center of the USDA Forest Service) (WaSSI). The crop model provides the dynamic irrigation demand which is a function of the weather. The hydrologic model includes all other competing uses of water. Examples of use the crop model coupled with the hydrologic model include historical analyses which show the change in hydrology as additional acres of irrigated land are added to water sheds. The first order change in hydrology is computed in terms of changes in the Water Availability Stress Index (WASSI) which is the ratio of water demand (irrigation, public water supply, industrial use, etc.) and water availability from the hydrologic model. Also

  15. Hydrological system dynamics of glaciated Karnali River Basin Nepal Himalaya using J2000 Hydrological model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khatiwada, K. R.; Nepal, S.; Panthi, J., Sr.; Shrestha, M.

    2015-12-01

    Hydrological modelling plays an important role in understanding hydrological processes of a catchment. In the context of climate change, the understanding of hydrological characteristic of the catchment is very vital to understand how the climate change will affect the hydrological regime. This research facilitates in better understanding of the hydrological system dynamics of a himalayan mountainous catchment in western Nepal. The Karnali River, longest river flowing inside Nepal, is one of the three major basins of Nepal, having the area of 45269 sq. km. is unique. The basin has steep topography and high mountains to the northern side. The 40% of the basin is dominated by forest land while other land cover are: grass land, bare rocky land etc. About 2% of the areas in basin is covered by permanent glacier apart from that about 12% of basin has the snow and ice cover. There are 34 meteorological stations distributed across the basin. A process oriented distributed J2000 hydrologial model has been applied to understand the hydrological system dynamics. The model application provides distributed output of various hydrological components. The J2000 model applies Hydrological Response Unit (HRU) as a modelling entity. With 6861 HRU and 1010 reaches, the model was calibrated (1981-1999) and validated (2000-2004) at a daily scale using split-sample test. The model is able to capture the overall hydrological dynamics well. The rising limbs and recession limbs are simulated equally and with satisfactory ground water conditions. Based on the graphical and statistical evaluation of the model performance the model is able to simulate hydrological processes fairly well. Calibration shows that Nash Sutcliffe efficiency is 0.91, coefficient of determination is 0.92 Initial observation shows that during the pre-monsoon season(March to May) the glacial runoff is 25% of the total discharge while in the monsoon(June to September) season it is only 13%. The surface runoff

  16. Fifty years of forest hydrology in the Southeast

    Science.gov (United States)

    C. Rhett Jackson; Ge Sun; Devendra Amatya; Wayne T. Swank; Mark Riedel; Jim Patric; Tom Williams; Jim M. Vose; Carl Trettin; W. Michael Aust; R. Scott Beasley; Hamlin Williston; George G. Ice

    2004-01-01

    The forests of the southeastern United States are incredibly valuable and diverse, both for timber production and for the aquatic habitat they provide. These overlapping values and diverse conditions have spawned numerous studies to assess how forest management affects hydrology and water quality. In the mountains, key watershed studies include those conducted at USDA...

  17. Hydrology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Obando G, E.

    1989-01-01

    Isotopical techniques are used in hydrology area for exploration, evaluation and exploration of water investigation. These techniques have been used successfully and are often the best or only means for providing certain hydrogeological parameters

  18. Review article: Hydrological modeling in glacierized catchments of central Asia - status and challenges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yaning; Li, Weihong; Fang, Gonghuan; Li, Zhi

    2017-02-01

    Meltwater from glacierized catchments is one of the most important water supplies in central Asia. Therefore, the effects of climate change on glaciers and snow cover will have increasingly significant consequences for runoff. Hydrological modeling has become an indispensable research approach to water resources management in large glacierized river basins, but there is a lack of focus in the modeling of glacial discharge. This paper reviews the status of hydrological modeling in glacierized catchments of central Asia, discussing the limitations of the available models and extrapolating these to future challenges and directions. After reviewing recent efforts, we conclude that the main sources of uncertainty in assessing the regional hydrological impacts of climate change are the unreliable and incomplete data sets and the lack of understanding of the hydrological regimes of glacierized catchments of central Asia. Runoff trends indicate a complex response to changes in climate. For future variation of water resources, it is essential to quantify the responses of hydrologic processes to both climate change and shrinking glaciers in glacierized catchments, and scientific focus should be on reducing uncertainties linked to these processes.

  19. Towards an integrated model of floodplain hydrology representing feedbacks and anthropogenic effects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andreadis, K.; Schumann, G.; Voisin, N.; O'Loughlin, F.; Tesfa, T. K.; Bates, P.

    2017-12-01

    The exchange of water between hillslopes, river channels and floodplain can be quite complex and the difficulty in capturing the mechanisms behind it is exacerbated by the impact of human activities such as irrigation and reservoir operations. Although there has been a vast body of work on modeling hydrological processes, most of the resulting models have been limited with regards to aspects of the coupled human-natural system. For example, hydrologic models that represent processes such as evapotranspiration, infiltration, interception and groundwater dynamics often neglect anthropogenic effects or do not adequately represent the inherently two-dimensional floodplain flow. We present an integrated modeling framework that is comprised of the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) hydrology model, the LISFLOOD-FP hydrodynamic model, and the Water resources Management (WM) model. The VIC model solves the energy and water balance over a gridded domain and simulates a number of hydrologic features such as snow, frozen soils, lakes and wetlands, while also representing irrigation demand from cropland areas. LISFLOOD-FP solves an approximation of the Saint-Venant equations to efficiently simulate flow in river channels and the floodplain. The implementation of WM accommodates a variety of operating rules in reservoirs and withdrawals due to consumptive demands, allowing the successful simulation of regulated flow. The models are coupled so as to allow feedbacks between their corresponding processes, therefore providing the ability to test different hypotheses about the floodplain hydrology of large-scale basins. We test this integrated framework over the Zambezi River basin by simulating its hydrology from 2000-2010, and evaluate the results against remotely sensed observations. Finally, we examine the sensitivity of streamflow and water inundation to changes in reservoir operations, precipitation and temperature.

  20. Hydrologic consistency as a basis for assessing complexity of monthly water balance models for the continental United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez, Guillermo F.; Gupta, Hoshin V.

    2011-12-01

    Methods to select parsimonious and hydrologically consistent model structures are useful for evaluating dominance of hydrologic processes and representativeness of data. While information criteria (appropriately constrained to obey underlying statistical assumptions) can provide a basis for evaluating appropriate model complexity, it is not sufficient to rely upon the principle of maximum likelihood (ML) alone. We suggest that one must also call upon a "principle of hydrologic consistency," meaning that selected ML structures and parameter estimates must be constrained (as well as possible) to reproduce desired hydrological characteristics of the processes under investigation. This argument is demonstrated in the context of evaluating the suitability of candidate model structures for lumped water balance modeling across the continental United States, using data from 307 snow-free catchments. The models are constrained to satisfy several tests of hydrologic consistency, a flow space transformation is used to ensure better consistency with underlying statistical assumptions, and information criteria are used to evaluate model complexity relative to the data. The results clearly demonstrate that the principle of consistency provides a sensible basis for guiding selection of model structures and indicate strong spatial persistence of certain model structures across the continental United States. Further work to untangle reasons for model structure predominance can help to relate conceptual model structures to physical characteristics of the catchments, facilitating the task of prediction in ungaged basins.

  1. Evaluation and hydrological modelization in the natural hazard prevention

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pla Sentis, Ildefonso

    2011-01-01

    Soil degradation affects negatively his functions as a base to produce food, to regulate the hydrological cycle and the environmental quality. All over the world soil degradation is increasing partly due to lacks or deficiencies in the evaluations of the processes and causes of this degradation on each specific situation. The processes of soil physical degradation are manifested through several problems as compaction, runoff, hydric and Eolic erosion, landslides with collateral effects in situ and in the distance, often with disastrous consequences as foods, landslides, sedimentations, droughts, etc. These processes are frequently associated to unfavorable changes into the hydrologic processes responsible of the water balance and soil hydric regimes, mainly derived to soil use changes and different management practices and climatic changes. The evaluation of these processes using simple simulation models; under several scenarios of climatic change, soil properties and land use and management; would allow to predict the occurrence of this disastrous processes and consequently to select and apply the appropriate practices of soil conservation to eliminate or reduce their effects. This simulation models require, as base, detailed climatic information and hydrologic soil properties data. Despite of the existence of methodologies and commercial equipment (each time more sophisticated and precise) to measure the different physical and hydrological soil properties related with degradation processes, most of them are only applicable under really specific or laboratory conditions. Often indirect methodologies are used, based on relations or empiric indexes without an adequate validation, that often lead to expensive mistakes on the evaluation of soil degradation processes and their effects on natural disasters. It could be preferred simple field methodologies, direct and adaptable to different soil types and climates and to the sample size and the spatial variability of the

  2. OHD/HL - National Weather Hydrology Laboratory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laboratory Branches Hydrologic Software Engineering Branch (HSEB) Hydrologic Science and Modeling Branch enter or select the go button to submit request City, St Go Science Research and Collaboration Hydrology Subversion Usage Guidelines updated 11/18/2008 Other Documents Science Algorithm Description Document (doc

  3. Nuclear techniques in hydrology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moser, H.

    1976-01-01

    The nuclear techniques used in hydrology are usually tracer techniques based on the use of nuclides either intentionally introduced into, or naturally present in the water. The low concentrations of these nuclides, which must be detected in groundwater and surface water, require special measurement techniques for the concentrations of radioactive or of stable nuclides. The nuclear techniques can be used most fruitfully in conjunction with conventional methods for the solution of problems in the areas of hydrology, hydrogeology and glacier hydrology. Nuclear techniques are used in practice in the areas of prospecting for water, environment protection and engineering hydrogeology. (orig.) [de

  4. SEDAH. Data Server for hydrologic alteration evaluation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martinez Romero, R.; Magdaleno Mas, F.; Ortiz Rodriguez, J.; Fernandez Yuste, J. A.; Martinez Santa-Maria, C.

    2011-01-01

    Several tasks and studies have been developed from 2008 till 2010 all around the country in order to evaluate the hydrologic alteration of water bodies. In most cases this alteraction has been evaluated through IAHRIS (Martinez and Fernandez, 2006). The necessity of creating a new toll that allowed a better performance of the National Flow-Stage Stations Network data was showed up by developing these works. The output data series should match IAHRIS and IHA. SEDAH (Data Server for Evaluating Hydrologic Alteration) Helps to solve some of these problems by supplying an easy way to select flow stations, dates, flow series typology, etc. Moreover, other useful utilities are: a preliminary appraisement of quality data, calssification of altered or reference flow series and exportation of data in different file formats. The web application works with different data bases, daily, monthly and annual series belonging to, wither actual series from flow station data or completed series by statistical procedures. Through SEDAH the user has easy access to all this huge information ready for being applied in hydrologic alteration assessment, environmental fows regime, river restoration projects, etc. Furthermore, this first phase of the application constitute the basis for future powerful functionalities related to the natural flow series obtaining. (Author) 5 refs.

  5. Grid based calibration of SWAT hydrological models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Gorgan

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available The calibration and execution of large hydrological models, such as SWAT (soil and water assessment tool, developed for large areas, high resolution, and huge input data, need not only quite a long execution time but also high computation resources. SWAT hydrological model supports studies and predictions of the impact of land management practices on water, sediment, and agricultural chemical yields in complex watersheds. The paper presents the gSWAT application as a web practical solution for environmental specialists to calibrate extensive hydrological models and to run scenarios, by hiding the complex control of processes and heterogeneous resources across the grid based high computation infrastructure. The paper highlights the basic functionalities of the gSWAT platform, and the features of the graphical user interface. The presentation is concerned with the development of working sessions, interactive control of calibration, direct and basic editing of parameters, process monitoring, and graphical and interactive visualization of the results. The experiments performed on different SWAT models and the obtained results argue the benefits brought by the grid parallel and distributed environment as a solution for the processing platform. All the instances of SWAT models used in the reported experiments have been developed through the enviroGRIDS project, targeting the Black Sea catchment area.

  6. Isotope methods in hydrology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moser, H.; Rauert, W.

    1980-01-01

    Of the investigation methods used in hydrology, tracer methods hold a special place as they are the only ones which give direct insight into the movement and distribution processes taking place in surface and ground waters. Besides the labelling of water with salts and dyes, as in the past, in recent years the use of isotopes in hydrology, in water research and use, in ground-water protection and in hydraulic engineering has increased. This by no means replaces proven methods of hydrological investigation but tends rather to complement and expand them through inter-disciplinary cooperation. The book offers a general introduction to the application of various isotope methods to specific hydrogeological and hydrological problems. The idea is to place the hydrogeologist and the hydrologist in the position to recognize which isotope method will help him solve his particular problem or indeed, make a solution possible at all. He should also be able to recognize what the prerequisites are and what work and expenditure the use of such methods involves. May the book contribute to promoting cooperation between hydrogeologists, hydrologists, hydraulic engineers and isotope specialists, and thus supplement proven methods of investigation in hydrological research and water utilization and protection wherever the use of isotope methods proves to be of advantage. (orig./HP) [de

  7. Curricula and Syllabi in Hydrology. A Contribution to the International Hydrological Programme. UNESCO Technical Papers in Hydrology No. 22. Second Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chandra, Satish, Ed.; Mostertman, L. J., Ed.

    Hydrology is the science dealing with the earth's waters, their occurrence, circulation, and distribution, their chemical and physical properties, and their reaction with the environment. As such, hydrology is an indispensible requirement for planning in the field of water resources. Objectives for, spectrum of, and topics for education in…

  8. Projections of future floods and hydrological droughts in Europe under a +2°C global warming

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Roudier, Philippe; Andersson, Jafet C.M.; Donnelly, Chantal; Feyen, Luc; Greuell, Wouter; Ludwig, Fulco

    2016-01-01

    We present an assessment of the impacts of a +2°C global warming on extreme floods and hydrological droughts (1 in 10 and 1 in 100 year events) in Europe using eleven bias-corrected climate model simulations from CORDEX Europe and three hydrological models. The results show quite contrasted results

  9. Setting up a hydrological model based on global data for the Ayeyarwady basin in Myanmar

    Science.gov (United States)

    ten Velden, Corine; Sloff, Kees; Nauta, Tjitte

    2017-04-01

    The use of global datasets in local hydrological modelling can be of great value. It opens up the possibility to include data for areas where local data is not or only sparsely available. In hydrological modelling the existence of both static physical data such as elevation and land use, and dynamic meteorological data such as precipitation and temperature, is essential for setting up a hydrological model, but often such data is difficult to obtain at the local level. For the Ayeyarwady catchment in Myanmar a distributed hydrological model (Wflow: https://github.com/openstreams/wflow) was set up with only global datasets, as part of a water resources study. Myanmar is an emerging economy, which has only recently become more receptive to foreign influences. It has a very limited hydrometeorological measurement network, with large spatial and temporal gaps, and data that are of uncertain quality and difficult to obtain. The hydrological model was thus set up based on resampled versions of the SRTM digital elevation model, the GlobCover land cover dataset and the HWSD soil dataset. Three global meteorological datasets were assessed and compared for use in the hydrological model: TRMM, WFDEI and MSWEP. The meteorological datasets were assessed based on their conformity with several precipitation station measurements, and the overall model performance was assessed by calculating the NSE and RVE based on discharge measurements of several gauging stations. The model was run for the period 1979-2012 on a daily time step, and the results show an acceptable applicability of the used global datasets in the hydrological model. The WFDEI forcing dataset gave the best results, with a NSE of 0.55 at the outlet of the model and a RVE of 8.5%, calculated over the calibration period 2006-2012. As a general trend the modelled discharge at the upstream stations tends to be underestimated, and at the downstream stations slightly overestimated. The quality of the discharge measurements

  10. Near-Field Hydrology Data Package for the Immobilized Low-Activity Waste 2001 Performance Assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    PD Meyer; RJ Serne

    1999-01-01

    Lockheed Martin Hanford Company (LMHC) is designing and assessing the performance of disposal facilities to receive radioactive wastes that are currently stored in single- and double-shell tanks at the Hanford Site. The preferred method for disposing of the portion that is classified as immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW) is to vitrify the waste and place the product in new-surface, shallow land burial facilities. The LMHC project to assess the performance of these disposal facilities is the Hanford ILAW Performance Assessment (PA) Activity. The goal of this project is to provide a reasonable expectation that the disposal of the waste is protective of the general public, groundwater resources, air resources, surface water resources, and inadvertent intruders. Achieving this goal will require prediction of contaminant migration from the facilities. This migration is expected to occur primarily via the movement of water through the facilities and the consequent transport of dissolved contaminants in the pore water of the vadose zone. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) assists LMHC in its performance assessment activities. One of PNNL's tasks is to provide estimates of the physical, hydraulic, and transport properties of the materials comprising the disposal facilities and the disturbed region around them. These materials are referred to as the near-field materials. Their properties are expressed as parameters of constitutive models used in simulations of subsurface flow and transport. In addition to the best-estimate parameter values, information on uncertainty in the parameter values and estimates of the changes in parameter values over time are required to complete the PA. These parameter estimates and information are contained in this report, the Near-Field Hydrology Data Package

  11. Assessment of Hydrologic Alterations Caused by the Three Gorges Dam in the Middle and Lower Reaches of Yangtze River, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liuzhi Jiang

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Hydrologic regime plays a major role in structuring biotic diversity within river ecosystems by controlling key habitat conditions within the river channel and floodplain. Daily flow records from seven hydrological stations and the range of variability approach were utilized to investigate the variability and spatial pattern of the hydrologic alterations induced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China. Results show that the impoundment of the TGD disturbed the hydrologic regime downstream and directly affected the streamflow variations. The rate of changes and the annual extreme conditions were more affected by the TGD, particularly the low-flow relevant parameters. The alterations in the hydrologic regime were mainly caused by the TGD storing water during early autumn and releasing water during winter and spring. The effects on spatial patterns decreased as the distance from the dam increased, which was mainly attributed to the inflows from large tributaries along the Yangtze River as well as the interaction with the two largest natural lakes (i.e., Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake. These hydrologic alterations not only break the natural balance of eco-flow regimes but also result in undesirable ecological effects, particularly in terms of habitat availability for the fish community.

  12. Quantifying the sources of uncertainty in an ensemble of hydrological climate-impact projections

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aryal, Anil; Shrestha, Sangam; Babel, Mukand S.

    2018-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to quantify the various sources of uncertainty in the assessment of climate change impact on hydrology in the Tamakoshi River Basin, located in the north-eastern part of Nepal. Multiple climate and hydrological models were used to simulate future climate conditions and discharge in the basin. The simulated results of future climate and river discharge were analysed for the quantification of sources of uncertainty using two-way and three-way ANOVA. The results showed that temperature and precipitation in the study area are projected to change in near- (2010-2039), mid- (2040-2069) and far-future (2070-2099) periods. Maximum temperature is likely to rise by 1.75 °C under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and by 3.52 °C under RCP 8.5. Similarly, the minimum temperature is expected to rise by 2.10 °C under RCP 4.5 and by 3.73 °C under RCP 8.5 by the end of the twenty-first century. Similarly, the precipitation in the study area is expected to change by - 2.15% under RCP 4.5 and - 2.44% under RCP 8.5 scenarios. The future discharge in the study area was projected using two hydrological models, viz. Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Hydrologic Engineering Center's Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS). The SWAT model projected discharge is expected to change by small amount, whereas HEC-HMS model projected considerably lower discharge in future compared to the baseline period. The results also show that future climate variables and river hydrology contain uncertainty due to the choice of climate models, RCP scenarios, bias correction methods and hydrological models. During wet days, more uncertainty is observed due to the use of different climate models, whereas during dry days, the use of different hydrological models has a greater effect on uncertainty. Inter-comparison of the impacts of different climate models reveals that the REMO climate model shows higher uncertainty in the prediction of precipitation and

  13. Multi-model analysis in hydrological prediction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lanthier, M.; Arsenault, R.; Brissette, F.

    2017-12-01

    Hydrologic modelling, by nature, is a simplification of the real-world hydrologic system. Therefore ensemble hydrological predictions thus obtained do not present the full range of possible streamflow outcomes, thereby producing ensembles which demonstrate errors in variance such as under-dispersion. Past studies show that lumped models used in prediction mode can return satisfactory results, especially when there is not enough information available on the watershed to run a distributed model. But all lumped models greatly simplify the complex processes of the hydrologic cycle. To generate more spread in the hydrologic ensemble predictions, multi-model ensembles have been considered. In this study, the aim is to propose and analyse a method that gives an ensemble streamflow prediction that properly represents the forecast probabilities and reduced ensemble bias. To achieve this, three simple lumped models are used to generate an ensemble. These will also be combined using multi-model averaging techniques, which generally generate a more accurate hydrogram than the best of the individual models in simulation mode. This new predictive combined hydrogram is added to the ensemble, thus creating a large ensemble which may improve the variability while also improving the ensemble mean bias. The quality of the predictions is then assessed on different periods: 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months using a PIT Histogram of the percentiles of the real observation volumes with respect to the volumes of the ensemble members. Initially, the models were run using historical weather data to generate synthetic flows. This worked for individual models, but not for the multi-model and for the large ensemble. Consequently, by performing data assimilation at each prediction period and thus adjusting the initial states of the models, the PIT Histogram could be constructed using the observed flows while allowing the use of the multi-model predictions. The under-dispersion has been

  14. Directional connectivity in hydrology and ecology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen, Laurel G.; Choi, Jungyill; Nungesser, Martha K.; Harvey, Judson W.

    2012-01-01

    Quantifying hydrologic and ecological connectivity has contributed to understanding transport and dispersal processes and assessing ecosystem degradation or restoration potential. However, there has been little synthesis across disciplines. The growing field of ecohydrology and recent recognition that loss of hydrologic connectivity is leading to a global decline in biodiversity underscore the need for a unified connectivity concept. One outstanding need is a way to quantify directional connectivity that is consistent, robust to variations in sampling, and transferable across scales or environmental settings. Understanding connectivity in a particular direction (e.g., streamwise, along or across gradient, between sources and sinks, along cardinal directions) provides critical information for predicting contaminant transport, planning conservation corridor design, and understanding how landscapes or hydroscapes respond to directional forces like wind or water flow. Here we synthesize progress on quantifying connectivity and develop a new strategy for evaluating directional connectivity that benefits from use of graph theory in ecology and percolation theory in hydrology. The directional connectivity index (DCI) is a graph-theory based, multiscale metric that is generalizable to a range of different structural and functional connectivity applications. It exhibits minimal sensitivity to image rotation or resolution within a given range and responds intuitively to progressive, unidirectional change. Further, it is linearly related to the integral connectivity scale length—a metric common in hydrology that correlates well with actual fluxes—but is less computationally challenging and more readily comparable across different landscapes. Connectivity-orientation curves (i.e., directional connectivity computed over a range of headings) provide a quantitative, information-dense representation of environmental structure that can be used for comparison or detection of

  15. Directional connectivity in hydrology and ecology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen, Laurel G; Choi, Jungyill; Nungesser, Martha K; Harvey, Judson W

    2012-12-01

    Quantifying hydrologic and ecological connectivity has contributed to understanding transport and dispersal processes and assessing ecosystem degradation or restoration potential. However, there has been little synthesis across disciplines. The growing field of ecohydrology and recent recognition that loss of hydrologic connectivity is leading to a global decline in biodiversity underscore the need for a unified connectivity concept. One outstanding need is a way to quantify directional connectivity that is consistent, robust to variations in sampling, and transferable across scales or environmental settings. Understanding connectivity in a particular direction (e.g., streamwise, along or across gradient, between sources and sinks, along cardinal directions) provides critical information for predicting contaminant transport, planning conservation corridor design, and understanding how landscapes or hydroscapes respond to directional forces like wind or water flow. Here we synthesize progress on quantifying connectivity and develop a new strategy for evaluating directional connectivity that benefits from use of graph theory in ecology and percolation theory in hydrology. The directional connectivity index (DCI) is a graph-theory based, multiscale metric that is generalizable to a range of different structural and functional connectivity applications. It exhibits minimal sensitivity to image rotation or resolution within a given range and responds intuitively to progressive, unidirectional change. Further, it is linearly related to the integral connectivity scale length--a metric common in hydrology that correlates well with actual fluxes--but is less computationally challenging and more readily comparable across different landscapes. Connectivity-orientation curves (i.e., directional connectivity computed over a range of headings) provide a quantitative, information-dense representation of environmental structure that can be used for comparison or detection of

  16. Evaluating the hydrological consistency of evaporation products

    KAUST Repository

    Lopez Valencia, Oliver Miguel; Houborg, Rasmus; McCabe, Matthew

    2017-01-01

    Advances in space-based observations have provided the capacity to develop regional- to global-scale estimates of evaporation, offering insights into this key component of the hydrological cycle. However, the evaluation of large-scale evaporation retrievals is not a straightforward task. While a number of studies have intercompared a range of these evaporation products by examining the variance amongst them, or by comparison of pixel-scale retrievals against ground-based observations, there is a need to explore more appropriate techniques to comprehensively evaluate remote-sensing-based estimates. One possible approach is to establish the level of product agreement between related hydrological components: for instance, how well do evaporation patterns and response match with precipitation or water storage changes? To assess the suitability of this "consistency"-based approach for evaluating evaporation products, we focused our investigation on four globally distributed basins in arid and semi-arid environments, comprising the Colorado River basin, Niger River basin, Aral Sea basin, and Lake Eyre basin. In an effort to assess retrieval quality, three satellite-based global evaporation products based on different methodologies and input data, including CSIRO-PML, the MODIS Global Evapotranspiration product (MOD16), and Global Land Evaporation: the Amsterdam Methodology (GLEAM), were evaluated against rainfall data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) along with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) water storage anomalies. To ensure a fair comparison, we evaluated consistency using a degree correlation approach after transforming both evaporation and precipitation data into spherical harmonics. Overall we found no persistent hydrological consistency in these dryland environments. Indeed, the degree correlation showed oscillating values between periods of low and high water storage changes, with a phase difference of about 2–3 months

  17. Evaluating the hydrological consistency of evaporation products

    KAUST Repository

    Lopez Valencia, Oliver Miguel

    2017-01-18

    Advances in space-based observations have provided the capacity to develop regional- to global-scale estimates of evaporation, offering insights into this key component of the hydrological cycle. However, the evaluation of large-scale evaporation retrievals is not a straightforward task. While a number of studies have intercompared a range of these evaporation products by examining the variance amongst them, or by comparison of pixel-scale retrievals against ground-based observations, there is a need to explore more appropriate techniques to comprehensively evaluate remote-sensing-based estimates. One possible approach is to establish the level of product agreement between related hydrological components: for instance, how well do evaporation patterns and response match with precipitation or water storage changes? To assess the suitability of this "consistency"-based approach for evaluating evaporation products, we focused our investigation on four globally distributed basins in arid and semi-arid environments, comprising the Colorado River basin, Niger River basin, Aral Sea basin, and Lake Eyre basin. In an effort to assess retrieval quality, three satellite-based global evaporation products based on different methodologies and input data, including CSIRO-PML, the MODIS Global Evapotranspiration product (MOD16), and Global Land Evaporation: the Amsterdam Methodology (GLEAM), were evaluated against rainfall data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) along with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) water storage anomalies. To ensure a fair comparison, we evaluated consistency using a degree correlation approach after transforming both evaporation and precipitation data into spherical harmonics. Overall we found no persistent hydrological consistency in these dryland environments. Indeed, the degree correlation showed oscillating values between periods of low and high water storage changes, with a phase difference of about 2–3 months

  18. Hydrologic data from wells at or in the vicinity of the San Juan coal mine, San Juan County, New Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Anne M.; Thomas, Nicole

    2015-01-01

    In 2010, in cooperation with the Mining and Minerals Division (MMD) of the State of New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) initiated a 4-year assessment of hydrologic conditions at the San Juan coal mine (SJCM), located about 14 miles west-northwest of the city of Farmington, San Juan County, New Mexico. The mine produces coal for power generation at the adjacent San Juan Generating Station (SJGS) and stores coal-combustion byproducts from the SJGS in mined-out surface-mining pits. The purpose of the hydrologic assessment is to identify groundwater flow paths away from SJCM coal-combustion-byproduct storage sites that might allow metals that may be leached from coal-combustion byproducts to eventually reach wells or streams after regional dewatering ceases and groundwater recovers to predevelopment levels. The hydrologic assessment, undertaken between 2010 and 2013, included compilation of existing data. The purpose of this report is to present data that were acquired and compiled by the USGS for the SJCM hydrologic assessment.

  19. A national-scale seasonal hydrological forecast system: development and evaluation over Britain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. A. Bell

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Skilful winter seasonal predictions for the North Atlantic circulation and northern Europe have now been demonstrated and the potential for seasonal hydrological forecasting in the UK is now being explored. One of the techniques being used combines seasonal rainfall forecasts provided by operational weather forecast systems with hydrological modelling tools to provide estimates of seasonal mean river flows up to a few months ahead. The work presented here shows how spatial information contained in a distributed hydrological model typically requiring high-resolution (daily or better rainfall data can be used to provide an initial condition for a much simpler forecast model tailored to use low-resolution monthly rainfall forecasts. Rainfall forecasts (hindcasts from the GloSea5 model (1996 to 2009 are used to provide the first assessment of skill in these national-scale flow forecasts. The skill in the combined modelling system is assessed for different seasons and regions of Britain, and compared to what might be achieved using other approaches such as use of an ensemble of historical rainfall in a hydrological model, or a simple flow persistence forecast. The analysis indicates that only limited forecast skill is achievable for Spring and Summer seasonal hydrological forecasts; however, Autumn and Winter flows can be reasonably well forecast using (ensemble mean rainfall forecasts based on either GloSea5 forecasts or historical rainfall (the preferred type of forecast depends on the region. Flow forecasts using ensemble mean GloSea5 rainfall perform most consistently well across Britain, and provide the most skilful forecasts overall at the 3-month lead time. Much of the skill (64 % in the 1-month ahead seasonal flow forecasts can be attributed to the hydrological initial condition (particularly in regions with a significant groundwater contribution to flows, whereas for the 3-month ahead lead time, GloSea5 forecasts account for  ∼ 70

  20. Preliminary subsurface hydrologic considerations: Columbia River Plateau Physiographic Province. Assessment of effectiveness of geologic isolation systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Veatch, M.D.

    1980-04-01

    This report contains a discussion of the hydrologic conditions of the Columbia River Plateau physiographic province. The Columbia River Plateau is underlain by a thick basalt sequence. The Columbia River basalt sequence contains both basalt flows and sedimentary interbeds. These sedimentary interbeds, which are layers of sedimentary rock between lava flows, are the main aquifer zones in the basalt sequence. Permeable interflow zones, involving the permeable top and/or rubble bottom of a flow, are also water-transmitting zones. A number of stratigraphic units are present in the Pasco Basin, which is in the central part of the Columbia River Plateau. At a conceptual level, the stratigraphic sequence from the surface downward can be separated into four hydrostratigraphic systems. These are: (1) the unsaturated zone, (2) the unconfined aquifer, (3) the uppermost confined aquifers, and (4) the lower Yakima basalt hydrologic sequence. A conceptual layered earth model (LEM) has been developed. The LEM represents the major types of porous media (LEM units) that may be encountered at a number of places on the Columbia Plateau, and specifically in the Pasco Basin. The conceptual LEM is not representative of the actual three-dimensional hydrostratigraphic sequence and hydrologic conditions existing at any specific site within the Columbia Plateau physiographic province. However, the LEM may be useful for gaining a better understanding of how the hydrologic regime may change as a result of disruptive events that may interact with a waste repository in geologic media

  1. Hydrologic impacts of climate change on the Nile River basin: Implications of the 2007 IPCC climate scenarios

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beyene, T.; Lettenmaier, D.P.; Kabat, P.

    2010-01-01

    We assess the potential impacts of climate change on the hydrology and water resources of the Nile River basin using a macroscale hydrology model. Model inputs are bias corrected and spatially downscaled 21st Century simulations from 11 General Circulation Models (GCMs) and two global emissions

  2. Uncertainty in hydrological signatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    McMillan, Hilary; Westerberg, Ida

    2015-04-01

    Information that summarises the hydrological behaviour or flow regime of a catchment is essential for comparing responses of different catchments to understand catchment organisation and similarity, and for many other modelling and water-management applications. Such information types derived as an index value from observed data are known as hydrological signatures, and can include descriptors of high flows (e.g. mean annual flood), low flows (e.g. mean annual low flow, recession shape), the flow variability, flow duration curve, and runoff ratio. Because the hydrological signatures are calculated from observed data such as rainfall and flow records, they are affected by uncertainty in those data. Subjective choices in the method used to calculate the signatures create a further source of uncertainty. Uncertainties in the signatures may affect our ability to compare different locations, to detect changes, or to compare future water resource management scenarios. The aim of this study was to contribute to the hydrological community's awareness and knowledge of data uncertainty in hydrological signatures, including typical sources, magnitude and methods for its assessment. We proposed a generally applicable method to calculate these uncertainties based on Monte Carlo sampling and demonstrated it for a variety of commonly used signatures. The study was made for two data rich catchments, the 50 km2 Mahurangi catchment in New Zealand and the 135 km2 Brue catchment in the UK. For rainfall data the uncertainty sources included point measurement uncertainty, the number of gauges used in calculation of the catchment spatial average, and uncertainties relating to lack of quality control. For flow data the uncertainty sources included uncertainties in stage/discharge measurement and in the approximation of the true stage-discharge relation by a rating curve. The resulting uncertainties were compared across the different signatures and catchments, to quantify uncertainty

  3. A Community Data Model for Hydrologic Observations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarboton, D. G.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Zaslavsky, I.; Maidment, D. R.; Valentine, D.; Jennings, B.

    2006-12-01

    The CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System project is developing information technology infrastructure to support hydrologic science. Hydrologic information science involves the description of hydrologic environments in a consistent way, using data models for information integration. This includes a hydrologic observations data model for the storage and retrieval of hydrologic observations in a relational database designed to facilitate data retrieval for integrated analysis of information collected by multiple investigators. It is intended to provide a standard format to facilitate the effective sharing of information between investigators and to facilitate analysis of information within a single study area or hydrologic observatory, or across hydrologic observatories and regions. The observations data model is designed to store hydrologic observations and sufficient ancillary information (metadata) about the observations to allow them to be unambiguously interpreted and used and provide traceable heritage from raw measurements to usable information. The design is based on the premise that a relational database at the single observation level is most effective for providing querying capability and cross dimension data retrieval and analysis. This premise is being tested through the implementation of a prototype hydrologic observations database, and the development of web services for the retrieval of data from and ingestion of data into the database. These web services hosted by the San Diego Supercomputer center make data in the database accessible both through a Hydrologic Data Access System portal and directly from applications software such as Excel, Matlab and ArcGIS that have Standard Object Access Protocol (SOAP) capability. This paper will (1) describe the data model; (2) demonstrate the capability for representing diverse data in the same database; (3) demonstrate the use of the database from applications software for the performance of hydrologic analysis

  4. Hydrologic Sub-basins of Greenland

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Hydrologic Sub-basins of Greenland data set contains Geographic Information System (GIS) polygon shapefiles that include 293 hydrologic sub-basins of the...

  5. Bi-national Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin climate change and hydrologic scenarios report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lavender, B.; Smith, J.V.; Koshida, G.; Mortsch, L.D. [eds.

    1998-09-01

    Climate experts in government, industry and academic institutions have put together a national assessment of how climate change will affect Canadians and their social, biological and economic environment over the next century. This volume documents the impacts and implications of climate change on the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Basin, and provides an analysis and assessment of various climate and hydrologic scenarios used for the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence Basin Project. As part of the analysis and assessment, results from the Canadian Climate Centre second-generation General Circulation Model and four transposition scenarios for both climate and hydrological resources are reviewed. The objective is to provide an indication of sensitivities and vulnerabilities of the region to climate, with a view to improve adaptation to potential climate changes. 25 tabs., 26 figs. figs.

  6. Hydrological assessment of freshwater resource areas in the Zambezi River Basin

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Mwenge Kahinda, Jean-Marc

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available characterisation of the degree of regulation of the river system, followed by an assessment of high water yielding areas (water towers), groundwater recharge and base flow index. To understand the environmental patterns and processes that occur in the river... to hydrogeology, IAH Publ. 8, Verlag Heinz Heisse. Xu, Y. and Beekman, H.E. (Eds). 2003. Groundwater recharge estimation in southern Africa. UNESCO IHP Series No. 64. UNESCO Paris. Figure 1: The Zambezi River Basin and its 13 sub basins Figure 3: High water...

  7. Determination of the hydrological properties of a small-scale catchment area in Northern Greece from ASTER and SRTM DEMs and accuracy assessment with a local DTM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tzanou, E. A.; Vergos, G. S.

    2012-04-01

    The combined use of Geographic Information Systems and recent high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from Remote Sensing imagery offers a unique opportunity to study the hydrological properties of basin and catchment dynamics and derive the hydrological features of specific regions of various spatial scales. Until recently, the availability of global DEMs was restricted to low-resolution and accuracy models, e.g., ETOPO5, ETOPO2 and GTOPO30, compared to local Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) derived from photogrammetric methods and offered usually in the form of topographic maps of various scales. The advent of the SRTM and ASTER missions, offer some new tools and opportunities in order to use their data within a GIS to study the hydrological properties of basins and consequently validate their performance both amongst each other, as well as in terms of the results derived from a local DTM. The present work focuses on the use of the recent SRTM v2 90 m and ASTER v2 30 m DEMs along with the national 500 m DTM generated by the Hellenic Military Geographic Service (HMGS), within a GIS in order to assess their performance in determining the hydrological properties of basins. To this respect, the ArcHydro extension tool of ArcGIS v9.3 and HEC-GeoRAS v4.3 have been exploited to determine the hydrographic data of the basins under study which are located in Northern Greece. The hydrological characteristics refer to stream geometry, curve number, flooding areas, etc. as well as the topographic characteristics of the basin itself, such as aspect, hillshade, slope e.t.c..

  8. Development of isotope hydrology technology in China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Zhangsu

    1988-01-01

    The development of isotope hydrology technology in China is described. The isotope technology provides an independent approach for solving hydrological problems. Isotope hydrology is applied in three ways: the use of change in environmental isotopic composition of water (especially used in water resources exploitation), the use of artificial radioactive tracers and the use of redioisotope instruments. Many important achievements have been obtained in application of isotopic hydrology technology. For the sake of promoting rapid development of isotope hydrology the topics on management, technology and others are commented

  9. Global hydrological droughts in the 21st century under a changing hydrological regime

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Wanders

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Climate change very likely impacts future hydrological drought characteristics across the world. Here, we quantify the impact of climate change on future low flows and associated hydrological drought characteristics on a global scale using an alternative drought identification approach that considers adaptation to future changes in hydrological regime. The global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB was used to simulate daily discharge at 0.5° globally for 1971–2099. The model was forced with CMIP5 climate projections taken from five global circulation models (GCMs and four emission scenarios (representative concentration pathways, RCPs, from the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project. Drought events occur when discharge is below a threshold. The conventional variable threshold (VTM was calculated by deriving the threshold from the period 1971–2000. The transient variable threshold (VTMt is a non-stationary approach, where the threshold is based on the discharge values of the previous 30 years implying the threshold to vary every year during the 21st century. The VTMt adjusts to gradual changes in the hydrological regime as response to climate change. Results show a significant negative trend in the low flow regime over the 21st century for large parts of South America, southern Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean. In 40–52% of the world reduced low flows are projected, while increased low flows are found in the snow-dominated climates. In 27% of the global area both the drought duration and the deficit volume are expected to increase when applying the VTMt. However, this area will significantly increase to 62% when the VTM is applied. The mean global area in drought, with the VTMt, remains rather constant (11.7 to 13.4%, compared to the substantial increase when the VTM is applied (11.7 to 20%. The study illustrates that an alternative drought identification that considers adaptation to an altered hydrological regime has a

  10. Vulnerability and Sensitivity of Women and the Aged to Hydrological Extremes in Rural Communities of South Eastern Nigeria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mbajiorgu, Constantine; Ezenne, Gloria I.; Ndulue, Emeka L.

    2017-04-01

    Annual rainfall total of Southeastern Nigeria varies widely from year to year and across the seasons. Southeastern Nigeria is marked with two distinctive seasons, namely: the rainy season (occurs March through November) and the dry season (December through February). Highest daily rainfall of this area occurs in the months of July through September. Climate change has brought about either prolonged rainy or dry season in this region. Flash floods are common features in Southeastern Nigeria during the rainy (wet) season, but the unprecedented floods of 2012 represent the worst with 21 million people displaced, 597,476 houses destroyed or damaged, over 363 people killed and an estimated loss of USD 19.6 billion. Hydrological extremes such as these affect men and women differently because of the different roles socio-culturally assigned to them. Women are more vulnerable and sensitive to floods and drought because of their conventional gender responsibilities. This study assesses how women and the elderly of rural communities of Southeastern Nigeria are affected by hydrological extremes, their vulnerability to the effects as well as risk reduction approaches to cope with and/or adapt to the impacts of climate change. In the study area, women are predominantly the providers of food, water and fuel, and climate change has adverse impacts on all three. Women in these rural communities practice subsistence farming during the rainy season. Their farm lands are submerged during flood events destroying their crops and they are helpless during prolonged dry seasons. Inadequacy of hydrological data makes it difficult to predict and forecast hydrological extremes in the region. Several other factors exacerbate vulnerability of women and the aged to the impacts of hydrological extremes, such as rural poverty, limited livelihood options, education, lack of basic services, and socio-cultural norms. The poverty level affects their resilience and recovery from any flood disaster. It

  11. Fundamentals of watershed hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pamela J. Edwards; Karl W.J. Williard; Jon E. Schoonover

    2015-01-01

    This is a primer about hydrology, the science of water. Watersheds are the basic land unit for water resource management and their delineation, importance, and variation are explained and illustrated. The hydrologic cycle and its components (precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, soil water, groundwater, and streamflow) which collectively provide a foundation for...

  12. Uncertainty in hydrological change modelling

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Seaby, Lauren Paige

    applied at the grid scale. Flux and state hydrological outputs which integrate responses over time and space showed more sensitivity to precipitation mean spatial biases and less so on extremes. In the investigated catchments, the projected change of groundwater levels and basin discharge between current......Hydrological change modelling methodologies generally use climate models outputs to force hydrological simulations under changed conditions. There are nested sources of uncertainty throughout this methodology, including choice of climate model and subsequent bias correction methods. This Ph.......D. study evaluates the uncertainty of the impact of climate change in hydrological simulations given multiple climate models and bias correction methods of varying complexity. Three distribution based scaling methods (DBS) were developed and benchmarked against a more simplistic and commonly used delta...

  13. From engineering hydrology to Earth system science: milestones in the transformation of hydrologic science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Sivapalan

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Hydrology has undergone almost transformative changes over the past 50 years. Huge strides have been made in the transition from early empirical approaches to rigorous approaches based on the fluid mechanics of water movement on and below the land surface. However, progress has been hampered by problems posed by the presence of heterogeneity, including subsurface heterogeneity present at all scales. The inability to measure or map the heterogeneity everywhere prevented the development of balance equations and associated closure relations at the scales of interest, and has led to the virtual impasse we are presently in, in terms of development of physically based models needed for hydrologic predictions. An alternative to the mapping of heterogeneity everywhere is a new Earth system science view, which sees the heterogeneity as the end result of co-evolutionary hydrological, geomorphological, ecological, and pedological processes, each operating at a different rate, which help to shape the landscapes that we find in nature, including the heterogeneity that we do not readily see. The expectation is that instead of specifying exact details of the heterogeneity in our models, we can replace it (without loss of information with the ecosystem function that they perform. Guided by this new Earth system science perspective, development of hydrologic science is now addressing new questions using novel holistic co-evolutionary approaches as opposed to the physical, fluid mechanics based reductionist approaches that we inherited from the recent past. In the emergent Anthropocene, the co-evolutionary view has expanded further to involve interactions and feedbacks with human-social processes as well. In this paper, I present my own perspective of key milestones in the transformation of hydrologic science from engineering hydrology to Earth system science, drawn from the work of several students and colleagues of mine, and discuss their implication for

  14. From engineering hydrology to Earth system science: milestones in the transformation of hydrologic science

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sivapalan, Murugesu

    2018-03-01

    Hydrology has undergone almost transformative changes over the past 50 years. Huge strides have been made in the transition from early empirical approaches to rigorous approaches based on the fluid mechanics of water movement on and below the land surface. However, progress has been hampered by problems posed by the presence of heterogeneity, including subsurface heterogeneity present at all scales. The inability to measure or map the heterogeneity everywhere prevented the development of balance equations and associated closure relations at the scales of interest, and has led to the virtual impasse we are presently in, in terms of development of physically based models needed for hydrologic predictions. An alternative to the mapping of heterogeneity everywhere is a new Earth system science view, which sees the heterogeneity as the end result of co-evolutionary hydrological, geomorphological, ecological, and pedological processes, each operating at a different rate, which help to shape the landscapes that we find in nature, including the heterogeneity that we do not readily see. The expectation is that instead of specifying exact details of the heterogeneity in our models, we can replace it (without loss of information) with the ecosystem function that they perform. Guided by this new Earth system science perspective, development of hydrologic science is now addressing new questions using novel holistic co-evolutionary approaches as opposed to the physical, fluid mechanics based reductionist approaches that we inherited from the recent past. In the emergent Anthropocene, the co-evolutionary view has expanded further to involve interactions and feedbacks with human-social processes as well. In this paper, I present my own perspective of key milestones in the transformation of hydrologic science from engineering hydrology to Earth system science, drawn from the work of several students and colleagues of mine, and discuss their implication for hydrologic observations

  15. HYDROLOGY, LAMAR COUNTY, GEORGIA, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  16. HYDROLOGY, GEORGETOWN COUNTY, SC, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  17. HYDROLOGY, IONIA COUNTY, MI, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  18. HYDROLOGY, WHITLEY COUNTY, KENTUCKY USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  19. HYDROLOGY, TUSCOLA COUNTY, MI, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  20. HYDROLOGY, JEFFERSON COUNTY, WI, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  1. HYDROLOGY, DODGE COUNTY, WI, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  2. HYDROLOGY, WASHINGTON COUNTY, WI, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  3. HYDROLOGY, DUNN COUNTY, WI, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  4. HYDROLOGY, yakima County, WA, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  5. HYDROLOGY, LEVY COUNTY, FL, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  6. HYDROLOGY, WASHINGTON COUNTY, FL, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  7. HYDROLOGY, HAMILTON COUNTY, FL, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  8. HYDROLOGY, LIBERTY COUNTY, FL, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  9. HYDROLOGIC ANALYSIS, HONOLULU COUNTY, HI

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  10. HYDROLOGY, BALLARD COUNTY, KENTUCKY USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  11. HYDROLOGY, Richland County, ND, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  12. HYDROLOGY, Grant County, SD, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  13. HYDROLOGY, MONITEAU COUNTY, MISSOURI USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  14. HYDROLOGY, IRON COUNTY, UTAH, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  15. HYDROLOGY, Bourbon COUNTY, KENTUCKY USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  16. HYDROLOGY, MADISON COUNTY, FL, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  17. HYDROLOGY, RICE COUNTY, MN, USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  18. HYDROLOGY, LAUREL COUNTY, KENTUCKY USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  19. HYDROLOGY, MADISON COUNTY, ALABAMA USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  20. HYDROLOGY, SIMPSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  1. HYDROLOGIC ANALYSIS, MONO COUNTY, CA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  2. HYDROLOGIC ANALYSIS, EDGEFIELD COUNTY, SC

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  3. HYDROLOGY, STORY COUNTY, IOWA USA

    Data.gov (United States)

    Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security — Hydrology data include spatial datasets and data tables necessary for documenting the hydrologic procedures for estimating flood discharges for a flood insurance...

  4. Historical upscaling of the socio-hydrological cycle: Three cases from the Mediterranean Spain

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macian-Sorribes, Hector; Pulido-Velazquez, Manuel; Sanchis-Ibor, Carles

    2015-04-01

    Understanding the co-evolution between hydrological and socio-economic systems is vital to assess how anthropogenic and natural systems will evolve and interact in the future. Examining past socio-hydrological changes is therefore important to produce knowledge able to develop socio-hydrological models for predicting the future hydrology and society evolution patterns. As noticeable climate changes leading to higher water stress are expected in the Mediterranean Europe, socio-hydrological processes are likely to suffer considerable modifications in the XXI century, driving to potential conflicts as water demand increases while water resources fall. The goal of this contribution is to identify the hydro-social processes that have caused water conflicts, and how they have been solved in the Mediterranean Spain. The method is based in the analysis of historical documents, available since the Middle Ages. Once historical water conflicts (always well-documented) were located, a socio-hydrological "causal loop" is formulated, determining what caused that conflict, what factors or chain of factors were involved, and how it was addressed. Repeating that process for all the reported water conflicts allow us to gain insight into their driving forces, the socio-hydrological relationships linked to those, and the successful (and unsuccessful) strategies employed to address them. Three cases were selected from the Mediterranean Spain: the Mijares, the Turia and the Jucar river basins. All of them share similar documental sources (the Royal Archives, courts' archives, municipal archives and farmers' archives), similar climate and similar socio-economic backgrounds. Moreover, all of them are predicted to suffer similar climate change impacts. Irrigation is their major water demand. In these three rivers, during the last millennia, successive waterscapes have been constructed by different societies, in a prolonged process of institutional and environmental up-scaling, from the

  5. Hydrologic applications of weather radar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seo, Dong-Jun; Habib, Emad; Andrieu, Hervé; Morin, Efrat

    2015-12-01

    By providing high-resolution quantitative precipitation information (QPI), weather radars have revolutionized hydrology in the last two decades. With the aid of GIS technology, radar-based quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) have enabled routine high-resolution hydrologic modeling in many parts of the world. Given the ever-increasing need for higher-resolution hydrologic and water resources information for a wide range of applications, one may expect that the use of weather radar will only grow. Despite the tremendous progress, a number of significant scientific, technological and engineering challenges remain to realize its potential. New challenges are also emerging as new areas of applications are discovered, explored and pursued. The purpose of this special issue is to provide the readership with some of the latest advances, lessons learned, experiences gained, and science issues and challenges related to hydrologic applications of weather radar. The special issue features 20 contributions on various topics which reflect the increasing diversity as well as the areas of focus in radar hydrology today. The contributions may be grouped as follows:

  6. iTree-Hydro: Snow hydrology update for the urban forest hydrology model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang Yang; Theodore A. Endreny; David J. Nowak

    2011-01-01

    This article presents snow hydrology updates made to iTree-Hydro, previously called the Urban Forest Effects—Hydrology model. iTree-Hydro Version 1 was a warm climate model developed by the USDA Forest Service to provide a process-based planning tool with robust water quantity and quality predictions given data limitations common to most urban areas. Cold climate...

  7. Impact of dam-induced hydrological changes on riparian vegetation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tealdi, Stefano; Camporeale, Carlo; Ridolfi, Luca

    2010-05-01

    Hydrological disturbances are a key factor for the riparian vegetation, which is a highly dynamic ecosystem prone to external forcing. Random fluctuations of water stages drive in fact the alternation of periods of floods and exposure of the vegetated plots. During flooding, the plots are submerged and vegetation is damaged by burial, uprooting and anoxia, while during exposure periods vegetation grows according to the soil moisture content and the phreatic water table depth. The distribution of vegetation along the riparian transect is then directly connected to the stochasticity of river discharges. River damming can have remarkable impacts on the hydrology of a river and, consequently, on the riparian vegetation. Several field studies show how the river regulation induced by artificial reservoirs can greatly modify the statistical moments and the autocorrelation of the discharge time series. The vegetation responds to these changes reducing its overall heterogeneity, declining - substituted by exotic species - and shifting its starting position nearer or far away from the channel center. These latter processes are known as narrowing and widening, respectively. In our work we explore the effects of dam-induced hydrological changes on the narrowing/widening process and on the total biomass along the transect. To this aim we use an eco-hydrological stochastic model developed by Camporeale and Ridolfi [2006], which is able to give a realistic distribution of the biomass along the transect as a function of a few hydrologic, hydraulic and vegetation parameters. We apply the model to an exemplifying case, by investigating the vegetation response to a set of changes in mean discharge and coefficient of variation. The range of these changes is deduced from the analysis of field data in pre- and post-dam conditions. Firstly, we analyze the narrowing/widening process. In particular, we analyze two percentage differences of the starting transversal position with respect to

  8. Mountaintop Removal Mining and Catchment Hydrology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew J. Miller

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Mountaintop mining and valley fill (MTM/VF coal extraction, practiced in the Central Appalachian region, represents a dramatic landscape-scale disturbance. MTM operations remove as much as 300 m of rock, soil, and vegetation from ridge tops to access deep coal seams and much of this material is placed in adjacent headwater streams altering landcover, drainage network, and topography. In spite of its scale, extent, and potential for continued use, the effects MTM/VF on catchment hydrology is poorly understood. Previous reviews focus on water quality and ecosystem health impacts, but little is known about how MTM/VF affects hydrology, particularly the movement and storage of water, hence the hydrologic processes that ultimately control flood generation, water chemistry, and biology. This paper aggregates the existing knowledge about the hydrologic impacts of MTM/VF to identify areas where further scientific investigation is needed. While contemporary surface mining generally increases peak and total runoff, the limited MTM/VF studies reveal significant variability in hydrologic response. Significant knowledge gaps relate to limited understanding of hydrologic processes in these systems. Until the hydrologic impact of this practice is better understood, efforts to reduce water quantity and quality problems and ecosystem degradation will be difficult to achieve.

  9. Small scale green infrastructure design to meet different urban hydrological criteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Z; Tang, S; Luo, W; Li, S; Zhou, M

    2016-04-15

    As small scale green infrastructures, rain gardens have been widely advocated for urban stormwater management in the contemporary low impact development (LID) era. This paper presents a simple method that consists of hydrological models and the matching plots of nomographs to provide an informative and practical tool for rain garden sizing and hydrological evaluation. The proposed method considers design storms, infiltration rates and the runoff contribution area ratio of the rain garden, allowing users to size a rain garden for a specific site with hydrological reference and predict overflow of the rain garden under different storms. The nomographs provide a visual presentation on the sensitivity of different design parameters. Subsequent application of the proposed method to a case study conducted in a sub-humid region in China showed that, the method accurately predicted the design storms for the existing rain garden, the predicted overflows under large storm events were within 13-50% of the measured volumes. The results suggest that the nomographs approach is a practical tool for quick selection or assessment of design options that incorporate key hydrological parameters of rain gardens or other infiltration type green infrastructure. The graphic approach as displayed by the nomographs allow urban planners to demonstrate the hydrological effect of small scale green infrastructure and gain more support for promoting low impact development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Embedding complex hydrology in the climate system - towards fully coupled climate-hydrology models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Butts, M.; Rasmussen, S.H.; Ridler, M.

    2013-01-01

    Motivated by the need to develop better tools to understand the impact of future management and climate change on water resources, we present a set of studies with the overall aim of developing a fully dynamic coupling between a comprehensive hydrological model, MIKE SHE, and a regional climate...... distributed parameters using satellite remote sensing. Secondly, field data are used to investigate the effects of model resolution and parameter scales for use in a coupled model. Finally, the development of the fully coupled climate-hydrology model is described and some of the challenges associated...... with coupling models for hydrological processes on sub-grid scales of the regional climate model are presented....

  11. Hydrologic assessment of three drainage basins in the Pinelands of southern New Jersey, 2004-06

    Science.gov (United States)

    Walker, Richard L.; Nicholson, Robert S.; Storck, Donald A.

    2011-01-01

    The New Jersey Pinelands is an ecologically diverse area in the southern New Jersey Coastal Plain, most of which overlies the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer system. The demand for groundwater from this aquifer system is increasing as local development increases. Because any increase in groundwater withdrawals has the potential to affect streamflows and wetland water levels, and ultimately threaten the ecological health and diversity of the Pinelands ecosystem, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, began a multi-phase hydrologic investigation in 2004 to characterize the hydrologic system supporting the aquatic and wetland communities of the New Jersey Pinelands area (Pinelands). The current investigation of the hydrology of three representative drainage basins in the Pinelands (Albertson Brook, McDonalds Branch, and Morses Mill Stream basins) included a compilation of existing data; collection of water-level and streamflow data; mapping of the water-table altitude and depth to the water table; and analyses of water-level and streamflow variability, subsurface gradients and flow patterns, and water budgets. During 2004-06, a hydrologic database of existing and new data from wells and stream sites was compiled. Methods of data collection and analysis were defined, and data networks consisting of 471 wells and 106 surface-water sites were established. Hydrographs from 26 water-level-monitoring wells and four streamflow-gaging stations were analyzed to show the response of water levels and streamflow to precipitation and recharge with respect to the locations of these wells and streams within each basin. Water-level hydrographs show varying hydraulic gradients and flow potentials, and indicate that responses to recharge events vary with well depth and proximity to recharge and discharge areas. Results of the investigation provide a detailed characterization of hydrologic conditions, processes, and relations among the components

  12. Isotope hydrology and its impact in the developing world

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Verhagen, B.Th.

    2003-01-01

    Ground water has increasingly taken its place in the provision of safe, potable supply in the developing world. Large investments have been made in infrastructural development for rural ground water supply schemes, but far too little attention has been given to assess the sustainability of these supplies. Overexploitation of aquifers, evident in failing boreholes and deteriorating water quality, has become a world-wide concern. Developments in physics half a century ago established the basis of isotope hydrology. Radioactive isotopes give information on ground water dynamics and recharge rates whilst non-radioactive - or stable - isotopes indicate origins of ground water and delineate ground water bodies. Environmental isotope hydrology is increasingly seen as a powerful discipline in assessing ground water systems. This is particularly important in developing environments, where historical data is rarely available. Brief examples are presented of isotope applications to collaborative ground water studies conducted at the University of the Witwatersrand. Recharge estimates based on isotope 'snapshot' data conform well with results from subsequent long-term water level observations in the Kalahari of Botswana. The importance is demonstrated of irrigation return flow and pollution hazard to the Lomagundi dolomite of Zimbabwe. Isotopes suggest the source of high nitrate concentrations to an important ground water supply in Tanzania. Mechanisms of the release of arsenic into millions of tube wells in Bangladesh are put into perspective. Isotope hydrology as appropriate technology is highlighted in terms of its cost-effectiveness and the investigative empowerment of local investigators. (author)

  13. Five hydrologic and landscape databases for selected National Wildlife Refuges in the Southeastern United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buell, Gary R.; Gurley, Laura N.; Calhoun, Daniel L.; Hunt, Alexandria M.

    2017-06-12

    This report serves as metadata and a user guide for five out of six hydrologic and landscape databases developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to describe data-collection, data-reduction, and data-analysis methods used to construct the databases and provides statistical and graphical descriptions of the databases. Six hydrologic and landscape databases were developed: (1) the Cache River and White River National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) and contributing watersheds in Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, (2) the Cahaba River NWR and contributing watersheds in Alabama, (3) the Caloosahatchee and J.N. “Ding” Darling NWRs and contributing watersheds in Florida, (4) the Clarks River NWR and contributing watersheds in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, (5) the Lower Suwannee NWR and contributing watersheds in Georgia and Florida, and (6) the Okefenokee NWR and contributing watersheds in Georgia and Florida. Each database is composed of a set of ASCII files, Microsoft Access files, and Microsoft Excel files. The databases were developed as an assessment and evaluation tool for use in examining NWR-specific hydrologic patterns and trends as related to water availability and water quality for NWR ecosystems, habitats, and target species. The databases include hydrologic time-series data, summary statistics on landscape and hydrologic time-series data, and hydroecological metrics that can be used to assess NWR hydrologic conditions and the availability of aquatic and riparian habitat. Landscape data that describe the NWR physiographic setting and the locations of hydrologic data-collection stations were compiled and mapped. Categories of landscape data include land cover, soil hydrologic characteristics, physiographic features, geographic and hydrographic boundaries, hydrographic features, and regional runoff estimates. The geographic extent of each database covers an area within which human activities, climatic

  14. Assessment for Learning as Support for Student Self-Regulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heritage, Margaret

    2018-01-01

    Assessment for learning (AfL) is integral to teaching and learning, and has as its central foci (i) pedagogical intervention in the immediacy of student learning, and (ii) the students' agency in the learning and assessment process. The role that students adopt in AfL is consistent with the idea of self-regulated learning, which involves students…

  15. Stochastic Modelling of Hydrologic Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jonsdottir, Harpa

    2007-01-01

    In this PhD project several stochastic modelling methods are studied and applied on various subjects in hydrology. The research was prepared at Informatics and Mathematical Modelling at the Technical University of Denmark. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part contains...... an introduction and an overview of the papers published. Then an introduction to basic concepts in hydrology along with a description of hydrological data is given. Finally an introduction to stochastic modelling is given. The second part contains the research papers. In the research papers the stochastic methods...... are described, as at the time of publication these methods represent new contribution to hydrology. The second part also contains additional description of software used and a brief introduction to stiff systems. The system in one of the papers is stiff....

  16. Assessing the value of variational assimilation of streamflow data into distributed hydrologic models for improved streamflow monitoring and prediction at ungauged and gauged locations in the catchment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Hak Su; Seo, Dong-Jun; Liu, Yuqiong; McKee, Paul; Corby, Robert

    2010-05-01

    State updating of distributed hydrologic models via assimilation of streamflow data is subject to "overfitting" because large dimensionality of the state space of the model may render the assimilation problem seriously underdetermined. To examine the issue in the context of operational hydrology, we carried out a set of real-world experiments in which we assimilate streamflow data at interior and/or outlet locations into gridded SAC and kinematic-wave routing models of the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) Research Distributed Hydrologic Model (RDHM). We used for the experiments nine basins in the southern plains of the U.S. The experiments consist of selectively assimilating streamflow at different gauge locations, outlet and/or interior, and carrying out both dependent and independent validation. To assess the sensitivity of the quality of assimilation-aided streamflow simulation to the reduced dimensionality of the state space, we carried out data assimilation at spatially semi-distributed or lumped scale and by adjusting biases in precipitation and potential evaporation at a 6-hourly or larger scale. In this talk, we present the results and findings.

  17. Simplifying a hydrological ensemble prediction system with a backward greedy selection of members – Part 1: Optimization criteria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. Brochero

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Hydrological Ensemble Prediction Systems (HEPS, obtained by forcing rainfall-runoff models with Meteorological Ensemble Prediction Systems (MEPS, have been recognized as useful approaches to quantify uncertainties of hydrological forecasting systems. This task is complex both in terms of the coupling of information and computational time, which may create an operational barrier. The main objective of the current work is to assess the degree of simplification (reduction of the number of hydrological members that can be achieved with a HEPS configured using 16 lumped hydrological models driven by the 50 weather ensemble forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF. Here, Backward Greedy Selection (BGS is proposed to assess the weight that each model must represent within a subset that offers similar or better performance than a reference set of 800 hydrological members. These hydrological models' weights represent the participation of each hydrological model within a simplified HEPS which would issue real-time forecasts in a relatively short computational time. The methodology uses a variation of the k-fold cross-validation, allowing an optimal use of the information, and employs a multi-criterion framework that represents the combination of resolution, reliability, consistency, and diversity. Results show that the degree of reduction of members can be established in terms of maximum number of members required (complexity of the HEPS or the maximization of the relationship between the different scores (performance.

  18. Historical trends and the long-term changes of the hydrological cycle components in a Mediterranean river basin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mentzafou, A; Wagner, S; Dimitriou, E

    2018-04-29

    Identifying the historical hydrometeorological trends in a river basin is necessary for understanding the dominant interactions between climate, human activities and local hydromorphological conditions. Estimating the hydrological reference conditions in a river is also crucial for estimating accurately the impacts from human water related activities and design appropriate water management schemes. In this effort, the output of a regional past climate model was used, covering the period from 1660 to 1990, in combination with a dynamic, spatially distributed, hydrologic model to estimate the past and recent trends in the main hydrologic parameters such as overland flow, water storages and evapotranspiration, in a Mediterranean river basin. The simulated past hydrologic conditions (1660-1960) were compared with the current hydrologic regime (1960-1990), to assess the magnitude of human and natural impacts on the identified hydrologic trends. The hydrological components of the recent period of 2008-2016 were also examined in relation to the impact of human activities. The estimated long-term trends of the hydrologic parameters were partially assigned to varying atmospheric forcing due to volcanic activity combined with spontaneous meteorological fluctuations. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  19. Gradation of complexity and predictability of hydrological processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sang, Yan-Fang; Singh, Vijay P.; Wen, Jun; Liu, Changming

    2015-06-01

    Quantification of the complexity and predictability of hydrological systems is important for evaluating the impact of climate change on hydrological processes, and for guiding water activities. In the literature, the focus seems to have been on describing the complexity of spatiotemporal distribution of hydrological variables, but little attention has been paid to the study of complexity gradation, because the degree of absolute complexity of hydrological systems cannot be objectively evaluated. Here we show that complexity and predictability of hydrological processes can be graded into three ranks (low, middle, and high). The gradation is based on the difference in the energy distribution of hydrological series and that of white noise under multitemporal scales. It reflects different energy concentration levels and contents of deterministic components of the hydrological series in the three ranks. Higher energy concentration level reflects lower complexity and higher predictability, but scattered energy distribution being similar to white noise has the highest complexity and is almost unpredictable. We conclude that the three ranks (low, middle, and high) approximately correspond to deterministic, stochastic, and random hydrological systems, respectively. The result of complexity gradation can guide hydrological observations and modeling, and identification of similarity patterns among different hydrological systems.

  20. USGS Geospatial Fabric and Geo Data Portal for Continental Scale Hydrology Simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sampson, K. M.; Newman, A. J.; Blodgett, D. L.; Viger, R.; Hay, L.; Clark, M. P.

    2013-12-01

    This presentation describes use of United States Geological Survey (USGS) data products and server-based resources for continental-scale hydrologic simulations. The USGS Modeling of Watershed Systems (MoWS) group provides a consistent national geospatial fabric built on NHDPlus. They have defined more than 100,000 hydrologic response units (HRUs) over the continental United States based on points of interest (POIs) and split into left and right bank based on the corresponding stream segment. Geophysical attributes are calculated for each HRU that can be used to define parameters in hydrologic and land-surface models. The Geo Data Portal (GDP) project at the USGS Center for Integrated Data Analytics (CIDA) provides access to downscaled climate datasets and processing services via web-interface and python modules for creating forcing datasets for any polygon (such as an HRU). These resources greatly reduce the labor required for creating model-ready data in-house, contributing to efficient and effective modeling applications. We will present an application of this USGS cyber-infrastructure for assessments of impacts of climate change on hydrology over the continental United States.

  1. Integrated hydrologic model of Pajaro Valley, Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanson, Randall T.; Schmid, Wolfgang; Faunt, Claudia C.; Lear, Jonathan; Lockwood, Brian

    2014-01-01

    Increasing population, agricultural development (including shifts to more water-intensive crops), and climate variability are placing increasingly larger demands on available groundwater resources in the Pajaro Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. This study provided a refined conceptual model, geohydrologic framework, and integrated hydrologic model of the Pajaro Valley. The goal of this study was to produce a model capable of being accurate at scales relevant to water management decisions that are being considered in the revision and updates to the Basin Management Plan (BMP). The Pajaro Valley Hydrologic Model (PVHM) was designed to reproduce the most important natural and human components of the hydrologic system and related climatic factors, permitting an accurate assessment of groundwater conditions and processes that can inform the new BMP and help to improve planning for long-term sustainability of water resources. Model development included a revision of the conceptual model of the flow system, reevaluation of the previous model transformed into MODFLOW, implementation of the new geohydrologic model and conceptual model, and calibration of the transient hydrologic model.

  2. Sensitivity of hydrological performance assessment analysis to variations in material properties, conceptual models, and ventilation models

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sobolik, S.R.; Ho, C.K.; Dunn, E. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Robey, T.H. [Spectra Research Inst., Albuquerque, NM (United States); Cruz, W.T. [Univ. del Turabo, Gurabo (Puerto Rico)

    1996-07-01

    The Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project is studying Yucca Mountain in southwestern Nevada as a potential site for a high-level nuclear waste repository. Site characterization includes surface- based and underground testing. Analyses have been performed to support the design of an Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) and the design of the tests performed as part of the characterization process, in order to ascertain that they have minimal impact on the natural ability of the site to isolate waste. The information in this report pertains to sensitivity studies evaluating previous hydrological performance assessment analyses to variation in the material properties, conceptual models, and ventilation models, and the implications of this sensitivity on previous recommendations supporting ESF design. This document contains information that has been used in preparing recommendations for Appendix I of the Exploratory Studies Facility Design Requirements document.

  3. Sensitivity of hydrological performance assessment analysis to variations in material properties, conceptual models, and ventilation models

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sobolik, S.R.; Ho, C.K.; Dunn, E.; Robey, T.H.; Cruz, W.T.

    1996-07-01

    The Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project is studying Yucca Mountain in southwestern Nevada as a potential site for a high-level nuclear waste repository. Site characterization includes surface- based and underground testing. Analyses have been performed to support the design of an Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) and the design of the tests performed as part of the characterization process, in order to ascertain that they have minimal impact on the natural ability of the site to isolate waste. The information in this report pertains to sensitivity studies evaluating previous hydrological performance assessment analyses to variation in the material properties, conceptual models, and ventilation models, and the implications of this sensitivity on previous recommendations supporting ESF design. This document contains information that has been used in preparing recommendations for Appendix I of the Exploratory Studies Facility Design Requirements document

  4. Linking fish tolerance to water quality criteria for the assessment of environmental flows: A practical method for streamflow regulation and pollution control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Changsen; Yang, Shengtian; Liu, Junguo; Liu, Changming; Hao, Fanghua; Wang, Zhonggen; Zhang, Huitong; Song, Jinxi; Mitrovic, Simon M; Lim, Richard P

    2018-05-15

    The survival of aquatic biota in stream ecosystems depends on both water quantity and quality, and is particularly susceptible to degraded water quality in regulated rivers. Maintenance of environmental flows (e-flows) for aquatic biota with optimum water quantity and quality is essential for sustainable ecosystem services, especially in developing regions with insufficient stream monitoring of hydrology, water quality and aquatic biota. Few e-flow methods are available that closely link aquatic biota tolerances to pollutant concentrations in a simple and practical manner. In this paper a new method was proposed to assess e-flows that aimed to satisfy the requirements of aquatic biota for both the quantity and quality of the streamflow by linking fish tolerances to water quality criteria, or the allowable concentration of pollutants. For better operation of water projects and control of pollutants discharged into streams, this paper presented two coefficients for streamflow adjustment and pollutant control. Assessment of e-flows in the Wei River, the largest tributary of the Yellow River, shows that streamflow in dry seasons failed to meet e-flow requirements. Pollutant influx exerted a large pressure on the aquatic ecosystem, with pollutant concentrations much higher than that of the fish tolerance thresholds. We found that both flow velocity and water temperature exerted great influences on the pollutant degradation rate. Flow velocity had a much greater influence on pollutant degradation than did the standard deviation of flow velocity. This study provides new methods to closely link the tolerance of aquatic biota to water quality criteria for e-flow assessment. The recommended coefficients for streamflow adjustment and pollutant control, to dynamically regulate streamflow and control pollutant discharge, are helpful for river management and ecosystems rehabilitation. The relatively low data requirement also makes the method easy to use efficiently in developing

  5. Debates—Hypothesis testing in hydrology: Introduction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blöschl, Günter

    2017-03-01

    This paper introduces the papers in the "Debates—Hypothesis testing in hydrology" series. The four articles in the series discuss whether and how the process of testing hypotheses leads to progress in hydrology. Repeated experiments with controlled boundary conditions are rarely feasible in hydrology. Research is therefore not easily aligned with the classical scientific method of testing hypotheses. Hypotheses in hydrology are often enshrined in computer models which are tested against observed data. Testability may be limited due to model complexity and data uncertainty. All four articles suggest that hypothesis testing has contributed to progress in hydrology and is needed in the future. However, the procedure is usually not as systematic as the philosophy of science suggests. A greater emphasis on a creative reasoning process on the basis of clues and explorative analyses is therefore needed.

  6. Assessing the hydrological response from an ensemble of CMIP5 climate projections in the transition zone of the Atlantic region (Bay of Biscay)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meaurio, Maite; Zabaleta, Ane; Boithias, Laurie; Epelde, Ane Miren; Sauvage, Sabine; Sánchez-Pérez, Jose-Miguel; Srinivasan, Raghavan; Antiguedad, Iñaki

    2017-05-01

    The climate changes projected for the 21st century will have consequences on the hydrological response of catchments. These changes, and their consequences, are most uncertain in the transition zones. The study area, in the Bay of Biscay, is located in the transition zone of the European Atlantic region, where hydrological impact of climate change was scarcely studied. In order to address this scarcity, the hydrological impacts of climate change on river discharge were assessed. To do so, a hydrological modelling was carried out considering 16 climate scenarios that include 5 General Circulation Models (GCM) from the 5th report of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), 2 statistical downscaling methods and 2 Representative Concentration Pathways. Projections for future discharge (2011-2100) were divided into three 30-year horizons (2030s, 2060s and 2090s) and a comparison was made between these time horizons and the baseline (1961-2000). The results show that the downscaling method used resulted in a higher source of uncertainty than GCM itself. In addition, the uncertainties inherent to the methods used at all the levels do not affect the results equally along the year. In spite of those uncertainties, general trends for the 2090s predict seasonal discharge decreases by around -17% in autumn, -16% in spring, -11% in winter and -7% in summer. These results are in line with those predicted for the Atlantic region (France and the Iberian Peninsula). Trends for extreme flows were also analysed: the most significant show an increase in the duration (days) of low flows. From an environmental point of view, and considering the need to meet the objectives established by the Water Framework Directive (WFD), this will be a major challenge for the future planning on water management.

  7. Impact of the operation of cascade reservoirs in upper Yangtze River on hydrological variability of the mainstream

    Science.gov (United States)

    Changjiang, Xu; Dongdong, Zhang

    2018-06-01

    As the impacts by climate changes and human activities are intensified, variability may occur in river's annual runoff as well as flood and low water characteristics. In order to understand the characteristics of variability in hydrological series, diagnosis and identification must be conducted specific to the variability of hydrological series, i.e., whether there was variability and where the variability began to occur. In this paper, the mainstream of Yangtze River was taken as the object of study. A model was established to simulate the impounding and operation of upstream cascade reservoirs so as to obtain the runoff of downstream hydrological control stations after the regulation by upstream reservoirs in different level years. The Range of Variability Approach was utilized to analyze the impact of the operation of upstream reservoirs on the variability of downstream. The results indicated that the overall hydrologic alterations of Yichang hydrological station in 2010 level year, 2015 level year and the forward level year were 68.4, 72.5 and 74.3 % respectively, belonging to high alteration in all three level years. The runoff series of mainstream hydrological stations presented variability in different degrees, where the runoff series of the four hydrological stations including Xiangjiaba, Gaochang and Wulong belonged to high alteration in the three level years; and the runoff series of Beibei hydrological station in 2010 level year belonged to medium alteration, and high alteration in 2015 level year and the forward level year. The study on the impact of the operation of cascade reservoirs in Upper Yangtze River on hydrological variability of the mainstream had important practical significance on the sustainable utilization of water resources, disaster prevention and mitigation, safe and efficient operation and management of water conservancy projects and stable development of the economic society.

  8. Hydrologic budget and conditions of Permian, Pennsylvanian, and Mississippian aquifers in the Appalachian Plateaus physiographic province

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCoy, Kurt J.; Yager, Richard M.; Nelms, David L.; Ladd, David E.; Monti,, Jack; Kozar, Mark D.

    2015-08-13

    In response to challenges to groundwater availability posed by historic land-use practices, expanding development of hydrocarbon resources, and drought, the U.S. Geological Survey Groundwater Resources Program began a regional assessment of the Appalachian Plateaus aquifers in 2013 that incorporated a hydrologic landscape approach to estimate all components of the hydrologic system: surface runoff, base flow from groundwater, and interaction with atmospheric water (precipitation and evapotranspiration). This assessment was intended to complement other Federal and State investigations and provide foundational groundwater-related datasets in the Appalachian Plateaus.

  9. Hydrologic regime alteration of a Mediterranean catchment under climate change projection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sellami, Haykel; Benabdallah, Sihem; La Jeunesse, Isabelle; Herrmann, Frank; Vanclooster, Marnik

    2014-05-01

    Most of the climate models projections for the Mediterranean basin have showed that the region will likely to experience a general tendency towards drier climate conditions with decreases in total precipitation, increases in temperature, alterations in the rainfall extreme events and droughts frequency (IPCC, 2007; Giorgi and Lionello, 2008; López-Moreno et al., 2011). The region is already suffering from water resources scarcity and vulnerability which are expected to amplify in the next century (Ludwig et al., 2011; Schneider et al., 2013). Therefore, assessing the impact of climate change on the hydrologic regime of Mediterranean catchments is with a major concern not only to scientist but also to water resources policy makers and general public. However, most of the climate change impact studies focus on the flow regime on global or regional scale rather than on the catchment scale which is more useful and more appropriate to guide practical mitigation and adaptation policy. This is because hydro-climate modeling at the local scale is confronted to the variability in climate, topography, geology, lack of observations and anthropogenic activities within the catchment. Furthermore, it is well recognized that hydrological and climate models forecasts are always affected with uncertainty making the assessment of climate change impact on Mediterranean catchment hydrology more challenging. This work aims to assess the impact of climate change on a Mediterranean catchment located in North Africa (the Chiba catchment in northeast Tunisia) through a conjunctive use of physically based hydrological model (SWAT) driven with four climate models*. Quantification of the impact of climate change has been conducted by means of the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (Richter et al., 1996) which are also ecologically meaningful. By comparing changes in these indicators in the reference period (1971-2000) to the projected ones in the future (2041-2070), it was possible to draw

  10. Hydrological and hydraulic modelling of the Nyl River floodplain Part ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Catchment land-use and water resource developments may threaten the ecological integrity of the Nyl River floodplain, a world-renowned conservation area. The effect of developments on the water supply regime to the floodplain can be predicted by hydrological modelling, but assessing their ecological consequences ...

  11. Hydrologic classification of rivers based on cluster analysis of dimensionless hydrologic signatures: Applications for environmental instream flows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Praskievicz, S. J.; Luo, C.

    2017-12-01

    Classification of rivers is useful for a variety of purposes, such as generating and testing hypotheses about watershed controls on hydrology, predicting hydrologic variables for ungaged rivers, and setting goals for river management. In this research, we present a bottom-up (based on machine learning) river classification designed to investigate the underlying physical processes governing rivers' hydrologic regimes. The classification was developed for the entire state of Alabama, based on 248 United States Geological Survey (USGS) stream gages that met criteria for length and completeness of records. Five dimensionless hydrologic signatures were derived for each gage: slope of the flow duration curve (indicator of flow variability), baseflow index (ratio of baseflow to average streamflow), rising limb density (number of rising limbs per unit time), runoff ratio (ratio of long-term average streamflow to long-term average precipitation), and streamflow elasticity (sensitivity of streamflow to precipitation). We used a Bayesian clustering algorithm to classify the gages, based on the five hydrologic signatures, into distinct hydrologic regimes. We then used classification and regression trees (CART) to predict each gaged river's membership in different hydrologic regimes based on climatic and watershed variables. Using existing geospatial data, we applied the CART analysis to classify ungaged streams in Alabama, with the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) catchment (average area 3 km2) as the unit of classification. The results of the classification can be used for meeting management and conservation objectives in Alabama, such as developing statewide standards for environmental instream flows. Such hydrologic classification approaches are promising for contributing to process-based understanding of river systems.

  12. Hydrological modeling of the Simly Dam watershed (Pakistan) using GIS and SWAT model

    OpenAIRE

    Shimaa M. Ghoraba

    2015-01-01

    Modern mathematical models have been developed for studying the complex hydrological processes of a watershed and their direct relation to weather, topography, geology and land use. In this study the hydrology of Simly Dam watershed located in Saon River basin at the north-east of Islamabad is modeled, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). It aims to simulate the stream flow, establish the water balance and estimate the monthly volume inflow to Simly Dam in order to help the manage...

  13. Developing young adolescents’ self-regulation by means of formative assessment: A theoretical perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kelly D. Meusen-Beekman

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Fostering self-regulated learning (SRL has become increasingly important at various educational levels. Most studies on SRL have been conducted in higher education. The present literature study aims toward understanding self-regulation processes of students in primary and secondary education. We explored the development of young students’ self-regulation from a theoretical perspective. In addition, effective characteristics for an intervention to develop young students’ self-regulation were examined, as well as the possibilities of implementing formative assessments in primary education to develop self-regulation. The results show that SRL can be supported in both primary and secondary education. However, at both school levels, differences were found, regarding the theoretical background of the training and the type of instructed strategy. Studies so far suggest avenues toward formative assessment, which seems to be a unifying theory of instruction that improves the learning process by developing self-regulation among students. But gaps in knowledge about the impact of formative assessments on the development of SRL strategies among primary school students require further exploration.

  14. Assessing Hydrologic Impacts of Future Land Cover Change Scenarios in the South Platte River Basin (CO, WY, & NE) and the San Pedro River Basin (U.S./Mexico).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barlow, J. E.; Burns, I. S.; Guertin, D. P.; Kepner, W. G.; Goodrich, D. C.

    2016-12-01

    Long-term land-use and land cover change and their associated impacts pose critical challenges to sustaining vital hydrological ecosystem services for future generations. In this study, a methodology to characterize hydrologic impacts from future urban growth through time that was developed and applied on the San Pedro River Basin was expanded and utilized on the South Platte River Basin as well. Future urban growth is represented by housing density maps generated in decadal intervals from 2010 to 2100, produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Integrated Climate and Land-Use Scenarios (ICLUS) project. ICLUS developed future housing density maps by adapting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) social, economic, and demographic storylines to the conterminous United States. To characterize hydrologic impacts from future growth, the housing density maps were reclassified to National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2006 land cover classes and used to parameterize the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) using the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA) tool. The objectives of this project were to 1) develop and implement a methodology for adapting the ICLUS data for use in AGWA as an approach to evaluate impacts of development on water-quantity and -quality, 2) present, evaluate, and compare results from scenarios for watersheds in two different geographic and climatic regions, 3) determine watershed specific implications of this type of future land cover change analysis.

  15. Sensitivity of hydrological modeling to meteorological data and implications for climate change studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roy, L.G.; Roy, R.; Desrochers, G.E.; Vaillancourt, C.; Chartier, I.

    2008-01-01

    There are uncertainties associated with the use of hydrological models. This study aims to analyse one source of uncertainty associated with hydrological modeling, particularly in the context of climate change studies on water resources. Additional intent of this study is to compare the ability of some meteorological data sources, used in conjunction with an hydrological model, to reproduce the hydrologic regime of a watershed. A case study on a watershed of south-western Quebec, Canada using five different sources of meteorological data as input to an offline hydrological model are presented in this paper. Data used came from weather stations, NCEP reanalysis, ERA40 reanalysis and two Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) runs driven by NCEP and ERA40 reanalysis, providing atmospheric driving boundary conditions to this limited-area climate model. To investigate the sensitivity of simulated streamflow to different sources of meteorological data, we first calibrated the hydrological model with each of the meteorological data sets over the 1961-1980 period. The five different sets of parameters of the hydrological model were then used to simulate streamflow of the 1981-2000 validation period with the five meteorological data sets as inputs. The 25 simulated streamflow series have been compared to the observed streamflow of the watershed. The five meteorological data sets do not have the same ability, when used with the hydrological model, to reproduce streamflow. Our results show also that the hydrological model parameters used may have an important influence on results such as water balance, but it is linked with the differences that may have in the characteristics of the meteorological data used. For climate change impacts assessments on water resources, we have found that there is an uncertainty associated with the meteorological data used to calibrate the model. For expected changes on mean annual flows of the Chateauguay River, our results vary from a small

  16. Hydrologic Impact of Harvesting and Road Construction in Mountainous Regime of Pacific Northwest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, E.; Hubbart, J.; Gravelle, J.; Link, T.

    2006-12-01

    The impact of forest management practices on hydrologic flow regimes have been debated for years. Vegetation removal and forest road construction are two anthropogenic disturbances that may affect watershed hydrology. The Mica Creek Experimental Watershed (MCEW), ID was initiated by Potlatch Corporation in 1990 to evaluate how contemporary forest harvest practices may impact water flows, quality and aquatic health. The study was recently expanded to identify the specific mechanisms producing the observed flow responses. The extensive and long term monitoring program in MCEW enables the validation of simulated internal watershed processes, thereby increasing our confidence in the ability of models to simulate the hydrologic effects of land cover change. The spatially-distributed, physically-based Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model (DHSVM), will be used to deconvolve the effects of canopy change, forest road construction, and climate variability in MCEW. First, the model performance will be assessed for pre-harvest, post-road, and post-harvest experimental periods. The model will then be used to explore how the flow regime would be expected to differ under historical, alternative management and future scenarios. A retrospective study of fully-harvested and increased forest road density (as opposed to current road density of 3 to 5 percent by surface area) will be compared with contemporary management practices. The impact of harvest patterns on sub-catchment flows will be assessed to understand the degree to which flow synchronization or desynchronization on confluent streams might affect cumulative downstream flow regime. Future scenarios will assess the potential impact of climatic variability that is expected to raise the transient snow zone and increase the wintertime rain to snow ratios in the Pacific Northwest. Variables such as harvest patterns and climate variation will be manipulated to project whether the hydrologic effects of land cover and

  17. Climate change impacts on groundwater hydrology – where are the main uncertainties and can they be reduced?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Refsgaard, Jens C.; Sonnenborg, Torben; Butts, Michael

    2016-01-01

    This paper assesses how various sources of uncertainty propagate through the uncertainty cascade from emission scenarios through climate models and hydrological models to impacts with particular focus on groundwater aspects for a number of coordinated studies in Denmark. We find results similar...... to surface water studies showing that climate model uncertainty dominates for projections of climate change impacts on streamflow and groundwater heads. However, we find uncertainties related to geological conceptualisation and hydrological model discretisation to be dominating for projections of well field...... climate-hydrology models....

  18. Assessment of hydrological controls on gully formation near Lake Tana, Northern Highlands of Ethiopia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tebebu, T. Y.; Abiy, A. Z.; Dahlke, H. E.; White, E. D.; Collick, A. S.; Steenhuis, T. S.

    2008-12-01

    For the past five decades, gully erosion has been one of the dominant degradation processes in the Ethiopian Highlands. Gully erosion negatively affects soil resources, lowers soil fertility in intergully areas, reduces the pastureland available for livestock, and aggravates siltation of reservoirs. Assessing the location and rate of gully development and changes in the controlling factors (climate, soil, hydrology and land cover) of gully erosion will help explain the faced acceleration in land degradation. The study was performed in a gully system in the 800 ha Debre-Mewi watershed south of Bahir Dar, Amhara region, Ethiopia. Analyses comprised monitoring gully development through profile measurements, air photograph interpretations, and semi-structured interview techniques. Gully hydrological processes were investigated based on measurements of gully runoff and water levels in 24 piezometers in the gully contributing area. The Debre-Mewi gully is a still actively eroding gully system. A comparison of the gully area estimated from a 0.5 m resolution Quickbird image with the current gully area, walked with a Garmin GPS, showed that the eroded gully area increased by 30% from 0.51 ha in 2005 to 0.735 ha in 2008. Based on measurements of several gully cross-sections an approximate gully volume of 7985 m3 could be estimated. Using the watershed area of the gully system of 14.29 ha and an average gully erosion rate of 24.8 t ha-1 a- 1 could be estimated. Gully erosion rates accelerated since 1991 through the increased degradation of the vegetation cover and clearance of the indigenous vegetation on the hillsides, leading to an increase of surface and subsurface runoff from the hillsides to the wet valley bottoms. Gully heads retreat into the hillslope through concentrated runoff during the rainy season erodes existing soil pipes and cracks in the vicinity of the gully head and banks. The formation of subsurface soil pipes is likely triggered through abrupt changes in

  19. Hydrologic Design in the Anthropocene

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogel, R. M.; Farmer, W. H.; Read, L.

    2014-12-01

    In an era dubbed the Anthropocene, the natural world is being transformed by a myriad of human influences. As anthropogenic impacts permeate hydrologic systems, hydrologists are challenged to fully account for such changes and develop new methods of hydrologic design. Deterministic watershed models (DWM), which can account for the impacts of changes in land use, climate and infrastructure, are becoming increasing popular for the design of flood and/or drought protection measures. As with all models that are calibrated to existing datasets, DWMs are subject to model error or uncertainty. In practice, the model error component of DWM predictions is typically ignored yet DWM simulations which ignore model error produce model output which cannot reproduce the statistical properties of the observations they are intended to replicate. In the context of hydrologic design, we demonstrate how ignoring model error can lead to systematic downward bias in flood quantiles, upward bias in drought quantiles and upward bias in water supply yields. By reincorporating model error, we document how DWM models can be used to generate results that mimic actual observations and preserve their statistical behavior. In addition to use of DWM for improved predictions in a changing world, improved communication of the risk and reliability is also needed. Traditional statements of risk and reliability in hydrologic design have been characterized by return periods, but such statements often assume that the annual probability of experiencing a design event remains constant throughout the project horizon. We document the general impact of nonstationarity on the average return period and reliability in the context of hydrologic design. Our analyses reveal that return periods do not provide meaningful expressions of the likelihood of future hydrologic events. Instead, knowledge of system reliability over future planning horizons can more effectively prepare society and communicate the likelihood

  20. 2003 hydrological drought - natural disaster

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trninic, Dusan; Bosnjak, Tomislava

    2004-01-01

    An exceptionally dry and warm period from February to early October 2003 resulted in hydrological drought with attributes of a natural disaster in most of the Croatian regions. The paper presents hydrological analysis of the Sava River near Zupanja for the period 1945-2003 (N=59 years). In defining maximum annual volumes of isolated waves below the reference discharges, the following reference discharges were used:Q 30,95% = 202m 3 s -1 - minimum mean 30-day discharge, 95 % probability, Q 30,80% = 254m 3 s -1 - minimum mean 30-day discharge, 80 % probability, Q 95% = 297m 3 s -1 - (H = -17cm minimum navigation level = 95 % of water level duration from average duration curve). The analysis results have shown that the hydrological drought recorded during the current year belongs to the most thoroughly studied droughts in 59 years. For example, hydrological analysis of the reference discharge of 297m 3 s -1 has shown that this year drought comes second, immediately after the driest year 1946. However, this year hydrological drought hit the record duration of 103 days, unlike the one from 1946, which lasted 98 days. It is interesting that the hydrological droughts affect the Sava River usually in autumn and summer, rarely in winter, and it has never been recorded in spring (referring to the analysed 1945-2003 period). In conclusion, some recommendations are given for increase in low streamflows and on possible impacts of climate changes on these flows.(Author)

  1. Integrated hydrological modelling of the North China Plain

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shu, Yunqiao; Villholth, Karen G.; Jensen, Karsten Høgh

    2012-01-01

    The integrated hydrological model MIKE SHE was applied to a part of the North China Plain to examine the dynamics of the hydrological system and to assess water management options to restore depleted groundwater resources. The model simulates the spatio-temporal distribution of recharge...... for scenario analysis of the effect of different cropping rotations, irrigation intensity, and other water management options, like the implementation of the South to North Water Transfer (SNWT) project. The model analysis verified that groundwater tables in the region are subject to steep declines (up to 1 m....../yr) due to decades of intensive exploitation of the groundwater resources for crop irrigation, primarily the widespread crop rotation of irrigated winter wheat and mostly rainfed summer maize. The SNWT project mitigates water stress in Shijiazhuang city and areas adjacent to wastewater canals but cannot...

  2. Hydrology and water quality characteristics of a stressed lotic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The hydrology and water quality of Aiba stream were investigated from November 2012 to April 2013 on monthly basis. This was with a view to assessing the status of the stream sequel to its last study which indicated a poor physico-chemical water quality. Four sampling stations were established for the study along the ...

  3. Flathead River Basin Hydrologic Observatory, Northern Rocky Mountains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woessner, W. W.; Running, S. W.; Potts, D. F.; Kimball, J. S.; Deluca, T. H.; Fagre, D. B.; Makepeace, S.; Hendrix, M. S.; Lorang, M. S.; Ellis, B. K.; Lafave, J.; Harper, J.

    2004-12-01

    We are proposing the 22, 515 km2 glacially-sculpted Flathead River Basin located in Montana and British Columbia as a Hydrologic Observatory. This hydrologic landscape is diverse and includes large pristine watersheds, rapidly developing intermountain valleys, and a 95 km2 regulated reservoir and 510 km2 lake. The basin has a topographic gradient of over 2,339 m, and spans high alpine to arid climatic zones and a range of biomes. Stream flows are snow-melt dominated and underpinned by groundwater baseflow. The site headwaters contain 37 glaciers and thousands of square kilometers of watersheds in which fire and disease are the only disturbances. In contrast, the HO also contains watersheds at multiple scales that were dominated by glaciers within the last 100 years but are now glacier free, impacted by timber harvests and fires of varying ages to varying degrees, modified by water management practices including irrigation diversion and dams, and altered by development for homes, cities and agriculture. This Observatory provides a sensitive monitor of historic and future climatic shifts, air shed influences and impacts, and the consequences of land and water management practices on the hydrologic system. The HO watersheds are some of the only pristine watersheds left in the contiguous U.S.. They provide critical habitat for key species including the native threaten bull trout and lynx, and the listed western cutthroat trout, bald eagle, gray wolf and the grizzly bear. For the last several thousand years this system has been dominated by snow-melt runoff and moderated by large quantities of water stored in glacial ice. However, the timing and magnitude of droughts and summer flows have changed dramatically. With the information that can be gleaned from sediment cores and landscape records at different scales, this HO provides scientists with opportunities to establish baseline watershed conditions and data on natural hydrologic variability within the system. Such a

  4. Entropy: From Thermodynamics to Hydrology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Demetris Koutsoyiannis

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Some known results from statistical thermophysics as well as from hydrology are revisited from a different perspective trying: (a to unify the notion of entropy in thermodynamic and statistical/stochastic approaches of complex hydrological systems and (b to show the power of entropy and the principle of maximum entropy in inference, both deductive and inductive. The capability for deductive reasoning is illustrated by deriving the law of phase change transition of water (Clausius-Clapeyron from scratch by maximizing entropy in a formal probabilistic frame. However, such deductive reasoning cannot work in more complex hydrological systems with diverse elements, yet the entropy maximization framework can help in inductive inference, necessarily based on data. Several examples of this type are provided in an attempt to link statistical thermophysics with hydrology with a unifying view of entropy.

  5. Application of the HBV model for assessment of climate change impacts on the elements of hydrological cycle for the Struma River Basin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stanev, Krassimir

    2004-01-01

    The model used in this report is a version of the HBV model developed for the project Climate Change and Energy Production, a Nordic project aimed at evaluating the impacts of climate change on the water resources. It has a simple vegetation parametrization including interception, temperature based evapotranspiration. calculations, lake evaporation, lake routing, glacier mass balance simulation, special functions for climate change simulations etc. The HBV model, originally developed at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in the first half of the seventies (Bergstroem 1976) has gained widespread use for a large range of applications both in Scandinavia and beyond. It can be classified as a semi-distributed conceptual model. The version described in this report was developed for the Nordic project 'Climate change and Energy Production' (Saelthun 1996), as a synthesis of several versions used in the different Nordic countries. The main input variables are the average daily temperature, daily totals of the precipitation, the potential evapotranspiration and the daily discharges. The HBV model was applied for assessment of climate change impacts on the elements of hydrological cycle for the Struma river basin. The river Struma flows from North to South up to the Aegean Sea. Considerable part of the river basin is situated in northwest part of Bulgaria, heaving an area of more than 10 000 km 2 and average elevation about 900m asl (cross-section Marino pole). The period of 16 years (1973-1988), four precipitation and temperature stations were used for the model parameters evaluation. The achieved value of R 2 (Nash criterion) is 0.55. The climate change impact calculations (monthly values of temperatures change in o C and precipitation change in %) for two scenarios were used for the input data correction to the HBV model. The obtained results are promising and they show the potential possibility for the HBV model use to assess the climate change

  6. Isotope hydrology in Latin America

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Payne, B.R.

    1976-01-01

    There are a broad range of nuclear techniques applicable to a variety of hydrological problems and these techniques are becoming recognized as an additional and, in some cases, indispensable tool available to the hydrologist in his quest to meet the increasing demands for water by agriculture, industry and community water supply. In Latin America we find examples of almost all the nuclear hydrological techniques. This article endeavours to give a summary account of the status of isotope hydrology in the region and the types of problems to which these techniques have been applied

  7. Artificial radioisotopes in hydrological investigation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Plata-Bedmar, A.

    1988-01-01

    Radioisotope techniques have an important part in hydrological investigations. Sealed radiation sources have been used for measurements of sediments transported by river water, of thickness and density of sediment layers. X-ray fluorescence analysis and well-logging are widely applied in hydrological research. Tracer techniques have been useful in flow rate and river dynamics research, sediments tracing, irrigation and ground water problems, infiltration rate evaluation etc. The IAEA is supporting several projects involving the use of radioactive tracers in hydrological investigations p.e. in Guatemala, Romania, South East Asia, Brazil, Chile and Nicaragua

  8. Hydrological Modelling the Middle Magdalena Valley (Colombia)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arenas, M. C.; Duque, N.; Arboleda, P.; Guadagnini, A.; Riva, M.; Donado-Garzon, L. D.

    2017-12-01

    Hydrological distributed modeling is key point for a comprehensive assessment of the feedback between the dynamics of the hydrological cycle, climate conditions and land use. Such modeling results are markedly relevant in the fields of water resources management, natural hazards and oil and gas industry. Here, we employ TopModel (TOPography based hydrological MODEL) for the hydrological modeling of an area in the Middle Magdalena Valley (MMV), a tropical basin located in Colombia. This study is located over the intertropical convergence zone and is characterized by special meteorological conditions, with fast water fluxes over the year. It has been subject to significant land use changes, as a result of intense economical activities, i.e., and agriculture, energy and oil & gas production. The model employees a record of 12 years of daily precipitation and evapotranspiration data as inputs. Streamflow data monitored across the same time frame are used for model calibration. The latter is performed by considering data from 2000 to 2008. Model validation then relies on observations from 2009 to 2012. The robustness of our analyses is based on the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient (values of this metric being 0.62 and 0.53, respectively for model calibration and validation). Our results reveal high water storage capacity in the soil, and a marked subsurface runoff, consistent with the characteristics of the soil types in the regions. A significant influence on runoff response of the basin to topographical factors represented in the model is evidenced. Our calibrated model provides relevant indications about recharge in the region, which is important to quantify the interaction between surface water and groundwater, specially during the dry season, which is more relevant in climate-change and climate-variability scenarios.

  9. HESS Opinions "The art of hydrology"*

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. H. G. Savenije

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Hydrological modelling is the same as developing and encoding a hydrological theory. A hydrological model is not a tool but a hypothesis. The whole discussion about the inadequacy of hydrological models we have witnessed of late, is related to the wrong concept of what a model is. Good models don't exist. Instead of looking for the "best" model, we should aim at developing better models. The process of modelling should be top-down, learning from the data while at the same time connection should be established with underlying physical theory (bottom-up. As a result of heterogeneity occurring at all scales in hydrology, there always remains a need for calibration of models. This implies that we need tailor-made and site-specific models. Only flexible models are fit for this modelling process, as opposed to most of the established software or "one-size-fits-all" models. The process of modelling requires imagination, inspiration, creativity, ingenuity, experience and skill. These are qualities that belong to the field of art. Hydrology is an art as much as it is science and engineering.

  10. Evaluation of climate and land use changes on hydrologic processes in the Salt River Basin, Missouri, United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    The impact of climate and land use changes on hydrologic processes at the watershed scale is needed by land managers and policy makers to properly assess potential adaptation strategies. While numerous studies have been conducted on hydrologic processes in the Midwest, only a few have analyzed the l...

  11. LAND-USE, ECONOMICS AND HYDROLOGIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT: A SECOND STEP TOWARDS ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

    Science.gov (United States)

    Past and present development and land-use patterns have drastically altered the hydrologic function of our nation's watersheds. What is only now widely recognized is that the increased storm water volume and peak flows resulting from development in watersheds, not just the pollu...

  12. Hydrological characterization of a pre-Inca artificial recharge system to alleviate drought and flooding in the Peruvian Andes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ochoa-Tocachi, B. F.; Buytaert, W.; Bardales, J. D.; Antiporta, J.; De Bièvre, B.

    2017-12-01

    The tropical Andes provide a broad range of ecosystem services for downstream cities, with an abundant supply of fresh water among the most important. Because of the highly seasonal precipitation regime and flashy response of the mountainous topography, rivers along the Pacific coast of Peru are prone to generate devastating flash floods during the wet season, and low to non-existing base flows during the dry season. This creates hydrological challenges, especially for Lima, Peru's capital and the second largest desert city in the world. Furthermore, the complex spatiotemporal patterns and the generalized data scarcity of tropical Andean catchments make hydrological predictions very challenging. Long before modern urbanization, pre-Incan communities already recognized the problems of such a variable hydrological regime, and as a response developed artificial recharge systems that increase water availability during the dry season. The specific kind of technique called "Mamanteo" in the central Sierra, consists of diverting flow from a natural small stream to force it to infiltrate on mountain slopes during the rainy season. This water builds in lag times of weeks to months, and resurfaces in springs to be `harvested' during critical dry months. To quantify the storage and regulation capacity of these systems, hydrological monitoring and dye tracer experiments were implemented in two subcatchments of the Chillon river, which is part of the water supply of Lima. We found a clear hydrological connectivity between the infiltration canals and open springs downslope, with travel times of dye tracer between 2 weeks and 8 months -peaking at 2 months- confirming the ability of the system to effectively make water available in the dry season. However, some challenges remain, especially with respect to an accurate quantification of harvestable water and percolated volumes to deeper soil strata, that might be a benefit for Lima in the coastal plain. Nevertheless, there is clear

  13. Scaling, Similarity, and the Fourth Paradigm for Hydrology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters-Lidard, Christa D.; Clark, Martyn; Samaniego, Luis; Verhoest, Niko E. C.; van Emmerik, Tim; Uijlenhoet, Remko; Achieng, Kevin; Franz, Trenton E.; Woods, Ross

    2017-01-01

    In this synthesis paper addressing hydrologic scaling and similarity, we posit that roadblocks in the search for universal laws of hydrology are hindered by our focus on computational simulation (the third paradigm), and assert that it is time for hydrology to embrace a fourth paradigm of data-intensive science. Advances in information-based hydrologic science, coupled with an explosion of hydrologic data and advances in parameter estimation and modelling, have laid the foundation for a data-driven framework for scrutinizing hydrological scaling and similarity hypotheses. We summarize important scaling and similarity concepts (hypotheses) that require testing, describe a mutual information framework for testing these hypotheses, describe boundary condition, state flux, and parameter data requirements across scales to support testing these hypotheses, and discuss some challenges to overcome while pursuing the fourth hydrological paradigm. We call upon the hydrologic sciences community to develop a focused effort towards adopting the fourth paradigm and apply this to outstanding challenges in scaling and similarity.

  14. A comparison of MIKE SHE and DRAINMOD for modeling forested wetland hydrology in coastal South Carolina, USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhaohua Dai; Devendra M. Amatya; Ge Sun; Carl C. Trettin; Changsheng Li; Harbin Li

    2010-01-01

    Models are widely used to assess hydrologic impacts of land-management, land-use change and climate change. Two hydrologic models with different spatial scales, MIKE SHE (spatially distributed, watershed-scale) and DRAINMOD (lumped, fieldscale), were compared in terms of their performance in predicting stream flow and water table depth in a first-order forested...

  15. JAMS - a software platform for modular hydrological modelling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kralisch, Sven; Fischer, Christian

    2015-04-01

    Current challenges of understanding and assessing the impacts of climate and land use changes on environmental systems demand for an ever-increasing integration of data and process knowledge in corresponding simulation models. Software frameworks that allow for a seamless creation of integrated models based on less complex components (domain models, process simulation routines) have therefore gained increasing attention during the last decade. JAMS is an Open-Source software framework that has been especially designed to cope with the challenges of eco-hydrological modelling. This is reflected by (i) its flexible approach for representing time and space, (ii) a strong separation of process simulation components from the declarative description of more complex models using domain specific XML, (iii) powerful analysis and visualization functions for spatial and temporal input and output data, and (iv) parameter optimization and uncertainty analysis functions commonly used in environmental modelling. Based on JAMS, different hydrological and nutrient-transport simulation models were implemented and successfully applied during the last years. We will present the JAMS core concepts and give an overview of models, simulation components and support tools available for that framework. Sample applications will be used to underline the advantages of component-based model designs and to show how JAMS can be used to address the challenges of integrated hydrological modelling.

  16. Assessing the reduction of the hydrological connectivity of gully systems through vegetation restoration: field experiments and numerical modelling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Molina

    2009-10-01

    well, as the error on the simulated total outflow volumes is below 13% for 15 out of 16 cases. However, predicting infiltration amounts is difficult: the high sensitivity of model results to some crucial hydraulic parameters (runoff width, hydraulic conductivity and sorptivity is one of the reasons why the relationships between model parameter values and gully features are relatively weak.

    The results obtained from the field experiments show that gully systems are key elements in the hydrological connectivity of degraded landscapes. The transfer of overland flow and sediment from the slopes towards the river system highly depends on the presence/absence of vegetation in the gully beds and should therefore be accounted for in assessments of landscape degradation and/or recovery.

  17. Assessing River Low-Flow Uncertainties Related to Hydrological Model Calibration and Structure under Climate Change Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mélanie Trudel

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Low-flow is the flow of water in a river during prolonged dry weather. This paper investigated the uncertainty originating from hydrological model calibration and structure in low-flow simulations under climate change conditions. Two hydrological models of contrasting complexity, GR4J and SWAT, were applied to four sub-watersheds of the Yamaska River, Canada. The two models were calibrated using seven different objective functions including the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient (NSEQ and six other objective functions more related to low flows. The uncertainty in the model parameters was evaluated using a PARAmeter SOLutions procedure (PARASOL. Twelve climate projections from different combinations of General Circulation Models (GCMs and Regional Circulation Models (RCMs were used to simulate low-flow indices in a reference (1970–2000 and future (2040–2070 horizon. Results indicate that the NSEQ objective function does not properly represent low-flow indices for either model. The NSE objective function applied to the log of the flows shows the lowest total variance for all sub-watersheds. In addition, these hydrological models should be used with care for low-flow studies, since they both show some inconsistent results. The uncertainty is higher for SWAT than for GR4J. With GR4J, the uncertainties in the simulations for the 7Q2 index (the 7-day low-flow value with a 2-year return period are lower for the future period than for the reference period. This can be explained by the analysis of hydrological processes. In the future horizon, a significant worsening of low-flow conditions was projected.

  18. Global Assessment of New GRACE Mascons Solutions for Hydrologic Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Save, H.; Zhang, Z.; Scanlon, B. R.; Wiese, D. N.; Landerer, F. W.; Long, D.; Longuevergne, L.; Chen, J.

    2016-12-01

    Advances in GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data processing using new mass concentration (mascon) solutions have greatly increased the spatial localization and amplitude of recovered total Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) signals; however, limited testing has been conduct on land hydrologic applications. In this study we compared TWS anomalies from (1) Center for Space Research mascons (CSR-M) solution with (2) NASA JPL mascon (JPL-M) solution, and with (3) a CSR gridded spherical harmonic rescaled (sf) solution from Tellus (CSRT-GSH.sf) in 176 river basins covering 80% of the global land area. There is good correspondence in TWS anomalies from mascons (CSR-M and JPL-M) and SH solutions based on high correlations between time series (rank correlation coefficients mostly >0.9). The long-term trends in basin TWS anomalies represent a relatively small signal (up to ±20 mm/yr) with differences among GRACE solutions and inter-basin variability increasing with decreasing basin size. Long-term TWS declines are greatest in (semi)arid and irrigated basins. Annual and semiannual signals have much larger amplitudes (up to ±250 mm). There is generally good agreement among GRACE solutions, increasing confidence in seasonal fluctuations from GRACE data. Rescaling spherical harmonics to restore lost signal increases agreement with mascons solutions for long-term trends and seasonal fluctuations. There are many advantages to using GRACE mascons solutions relative to SH solutions, such as reduced leakage from land to ocean increasing signal amplitude, and constraining results by applying geophysical data during processing with little or no post-processing requirements, making mascons more user friendly for non-geodetic users. This inter-comparison of various GRACE solutions should allow hydrologists to better select suitable GRACE products for hydrologic applications.

  19. Sharing hydrological knowledge: an international comparison of hydrological models in the Meuse River Basin

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouaziz, Laurène; Sperna Weiland, Frederiek; Drogue, Gilles; Brauer, Claudia; Weerts, Albrecht

    2015-04-01

    International collaboration between institutes and universities working and studying the same transboundary basin is needed for consensus building around possible effects of climate change and climate adaptation measures. Education, experience and expert knowledge of the hydrological community have resulted in the development of a great variety of model concepts, calibration and analysis techniques. Intercomparison could be a first step into consensus modeling or an ensemble based modeling strategy. Besides these practical objectives, such an intercomparison offers the opportunity to explore different ranges of models and learn from each other, hopefully increasing the insight into the hydrological processes that play a role in the transboundary basin. In this experiment, different international research groups applied their rainfall-runoff model in the Ourthe, a Belgium sub-catchment of the Meuse. Data preparation involved the interpolation of hourly precipitation station data collected and owned by the Service Public de Wallonie1 and the freely available E-OBS dataset for daily temperature (Haylock et al., 2008). Daily temperature was disaggregated to hourly values and potential evaporation was derived with the Hargreaves formula. The data was made available to the researchers through an FTP server. The protocol for the modeling involved a split-sample calibration and validation for pre-defined periods. Objective functions for calibration were fixed but the calibration algorithm was a free choice of the research groups. The selection of calibration algorithm was considered model dependent because lumped as well as computationally less efficient distributed models were used. For each model, an ensemble of best performing parameter sets was selected and several performance metrics enabled to assess the models' abilities to simulate discharge. The aim of this experiment is to identify those model components and structures that increase model performance and may best

  20. Assessing Forest Carbon Response to Climate Change and Disturbances Using Long-term Hydro-climatic Observations and Simulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trettin, C.; Dai, Z.; Amatya, D. M.

    2014-12-01

    Long-term climatic and hydrologic observations on the Santee Experimental Forest in the lower coastal plain of South Carolina were used to estimate long-term changes in hydrology and forest carbon dynamics for a pair of first-order watersheds. Over 70 years of climate data indicated that warming in this forest area in the last decades was faster than the global mean; 35+ years of hydrologic records showed that forest ecosystem succession three years following Hurricane Hugo caused a substantial change in the ratio of runoff to precipitation. The change in this relationship between the paired watersheds was attributed to altered evapotranspiration processes caused by greater abundance of pine in the treatment watershed and regeneration of the mixed hardwood-pine forest on the reference watershed. The long-term records and anomalous observations are highly valuable for reliable calibration and validation of hydrological and biogeochemical models capturing the effects of climate variability. We applied the hydrological model MIKESHE that showed that runoff and water table level are sensitive to global warming, and that the sustained warming trends can be expected to decrease stream discharge and lower the mean water table depth. The spatially-explicit biogeochemical model Forest-DNDC, validated using biomass measurements from the watersheds, was used to assess carbon dynamics in response to high resolution hydrologic observation data and simulation results. The simulations showed that the long-term spatiotemporal carbon dynamics, including biomass and fluxes of soil carbon dioxide and methane were highly regulated by disturbance regimes, climatic conditions and water table depth. The utility of linked-modeling framework demonstrated here to assess biogeochemical responses at the watershed scale suggests applications for assessing the consequences of climate change within an urbanizing forested landscape. The approach may also be applicable for validating large