Journal articles on the topic 'Catchment scale'
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1
Troch, P. A., G. Carrillo, M. Sivapalan, T. Wagener, and K. Sawicz. "Climate-vegetation-soil interactions and long-term hydrologic partitioning: signatures of catchment co-evolution." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 17, no. 6 (June 18, 2013): 2209–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-2209-2013.
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Abstract. Budyko (1974) postulated that long-term catchment water balance is controlled to first order by the available water and energy. This leads to the interesting question of how do landscape characteristics (soils, geology, vegetation) and climate properties (precipitation, potential evaporation, number of wet and dry days) interact at the catchment scale to produce such a simple and predictable outcome of hydrological partitioning? Here we use a physically-based hydrologic model separately parameterized in 12 US catchments across a climate gradient to decouple the impact of climate and landscape properties to gain insight into the role of climate-vegetation-soil interactions in long-term hydrologic partitioning. The 12 catchment models (with different paramterizations) are subjected to the 12 different climate forcings, resulting in 144 10 yr model simulations. The results are analyzed per catchment (one catchment model subjected to 12 climates) and per climate (one climate filtered by 12 different model parameterization), and compared to water balance predictions based on Budyko's hypothesis (E/P = ϕ (Ep/P); E: evaporation, P: precipitation, Ep: potential evaporation). We find significant anti-correlation between average deviations of the evaporation index (E/P) computed per catchment vs. per climate, compared to that predicted by Budyko. Catchments that on average produce more E/P have developed in climates that on average produce less E/P, when compared to Budyko's prediction. Water and energy seasonality could not explain these observations, confirming previous results reported by Potter et al. (2005). Next, we analyze which model (i.e., landscape filter) characteristics explain the catchment's tendency to produce more or less E/P. We find that the time scale that controls subsurface storage release explains the observed trend. This time scale combines several geomorphologic and hydraulic soil properties. Catchments with relatively longer subsurface storage release time scales produce significantly more E/P. Vegetation in these catchments have longer access to this additional groundwater source and thus are less prone to water stress. Further analysis reveals that climates that give rise to more (less) E/P are associated with catchments that have vegetation with less (more) efficient water use parameters. In particular, the climates with tendency to produce more E/P have catchments that have lower % root fraction and less light use efficiency. Our results suggest that their exists strong interactions between climate, vegetation and soil properties that lead to specific hydrologic partitioning at the catchment scale. This co-evolution of catchment vegetation and soils with climate needs to be further explored to improve our capabilities to predict hydrologic partitioning in ungauged basins.
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Troch, P. A., G. Carrillo, M. Sivapalan, T. Wagener, and K. Sawicz. "Climate-vegetation-soil interactions and long-term hydrologic partitioning: signatures of catchment co-evolution." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 10, no. 3 (March 7, 2013): 2927–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-10-2927-2013.
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Abstract. Catchment hydrologic partitioning, regional vegetation composition and soil properties are strongly affected by climate, but the effects of climate-vegetation-soil interactions on river basin water balance are still poorly understood. Here we use a physically-based hydrologic model separately parameterized in 12 US catchments across a climate gradient to decouple the impact of climate and landscape properties to gain insight into the role of climate-vegetation-soil interactions in long-term hydrologic partitioning. The 12 catchment models (with different parameterizations) are subjected to the 12 different climate forcings, resulting in 144 10-yr model simulations. The results are analyzed per catchment (one catchment model subjected to 12 climates) and per climate (one climate filtered by 12 different model parameterization), and compared to water balance predictions based on Budyko's hypothesis (E/P = φ (EP/P); E: evaporation, P: precipitation, EP: potential evaporation). We find significant anti-correlation between average deviations of the evaporation index (E/P) computed per catchment vs. per climate, compared to that predicted by Budyko. Catchments that on average produce more E/P have developed in climates that on average produce less E/P, when compared to Budyko's prediction. Water and energy seasonality could not explain these observations, confirming previous results reported by Potter et al. (2005). Next, we analyze which model (i.e., landscape filter) characteristics explain the catchment's tendency to produce more or less E/P. We find that the time scale that controls perched aquifer storage release explains the observed trend. This time scale combines several geomorphologic and hydraulic soil properties. Catchments with relatively longer aquifer storage release time scales produce significantly more E/P. Vegetation in these catchments have longer access to this additional groundwater source and thus are less prone to water stress. Further analysis reveals that climates that give rise to more (less) E/P are associated with catchments that have vegetation with less (more) efficient water use parameters. In particular, the climates with tendency to produce more E/P have catchments that have lower % root fraction and less light use efficiency. Our results suggest that there exists strong interactions between climate, vegetation and soil properties that lead to specific hydrologic partitioning at the catchment scale. This co-evolution of catchment vegetation and soils with climate needs to be further explored to improve our capabilities to predict hydrologic partitioning in ungaged basins.
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Li, Qiaoling, Zhijia Li, Yuelong Zhu, Yuanqian Deng, Ke Zhang, and Cheng Yao. "Hydrological regionalisation based on available hydrological information for runoff prediction at catchment scale." Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences 379 (June 5, 2018): 13–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/piahs-379-13-2018.
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Abstract. Regionalisation provides a way of transferring hydrological information from gauged to ungauged catchments. The past few decades has seen several kinds of regionalisation approaches for catchment classification and runoff predictions. The underlying assumption is that catchments having similar catchment properties are hydrological similar. This requires the appropriate selection of catchment properties, particularly the inclusion of observed hydrological information, to explain the similarity of hydrological behaviour. We selected observable catchments properties and flow duration curves to reflect the hydrological behaviour, and to regionalize rainfall-runoff response for runoff prediction. As a case study, we investigated 15 catchments located in the Yangtze and Yellow River under multiple hydro-climatic conditions. A clustering scheme was developed to separate the catchments into 4 homogeneous regions by employing catchment properties including hydro-climatic attributes, topographic attributes and land cover etc. We utilized daily flow duration curves as the indicator of hydrological response and interpreted hydrological similarity by root mean square errors. The combined analysis of similarity in catchment properties and hydrological response suggested that catchments in the same homogenous region were hydrological similar. A further validation was conducted by establishing a rainfall-runoff coaxial correlation diagram for each catchment. A common coaxial correlation diagram was generated for each homogenous region. The performances of most coaxial correlation diagrams met the national standard. The coaxial correlation diagram can be transferred within the homogeneous region for runoff prediction in ungauged catchments at an hourly time scale.
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Wilson, Henry F., and Marguerite A. Xenopoulos. "Landscape influences on stream fish assemblages across spatial scales in a northern Great Plains ecoregion." Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 65, no. 2 (February 1, 2008): 245–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f07-165.
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We examined the relationship between multiple spatial scales of fish assemblage structure and land cover in streams of a northern Great Plains ecoregion. We used regional richness measurements, an index of biotic integrity (IBI), and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMS) ordination to characterize fish assemblages. These metrics were related to regional catchment landscape at two spatial scales (overall catchment, overall riparian) and then to a set of local subcatchments from within these catchments at three scales (overall subcatchment, overall riparian buffer, and reach). Relationships between catchment fish richness, IBI scores, and landscape predictors were strongest at the riparian scale, with the strongest single predictor being riparian forest (r2 = 0.63, P < 0.01). NMS ordination analysis showed clear similarities between fish species assemblages in agriculturally dominated catchments and assemblages found in smaller headwater streams. At the same time, forested catchments and catchments with larger areas exhibited similar fish species assemblages. Our results indicate that both local and regional stream fish assemblages are structured by broader-scale landscape characteristics, with land cover providing a better indication of overall available habitat volume than catchment area or stream order.
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Donnelly, Chantal, Jörgen Rosberg, and Kristina Isberg. "A validation of river routing networks for catchment modelling from small to large scales." Hydrology Research 44, no. 5 (October 27, 2012): 917–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/nh.2012.341.
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Underpinning all hydrological simulations is an estimate of the catchment area upstream of a point of interest. Locally, the delineation of a catchment and estimation of its area is usually done using fine scale maps and local knowledge, but for large-scale hydrological modelling, particularly continental and global scale modelling, this level of detailed data analysis is not practical. For large-scale hydrological modelling, remotely sensed and hydrologically conditioned river routing networks, such as HYDRO1k and HydroSHEDS, are often used. This study evaluates the accuracy of the accumulated upstream area in each gridpoint given by the networks. This is useful for evaluating the ability of these data sets to delineate catchments of varying scale for use in hydrological models. It is shown that the higher resolution HydroSHEDS data set gives better results than the HYDRO1k data set and that accuracy decreases with decreasing basin scale. In ungauged basins, or where other local catchment area data are not available, the validation made in this study can be used to indicate the likelihood of correctly delineating catchments of different scales using these river routing networks.
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Yillia, P. T., and N. Kreuzinger. "Net flux of pollutants at a reduced spatial scale - an index of catchment vulnerability." Water Science and Technology 59, no. 1 (January 1, 2009): 109–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2009.568.
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Emissions and riverine loads of pollutants were estimated for five sub-catchments in the Njoro River Catchment, Kenya to isolate specific areas for interim pollution management. The most vulnerable sub-catchments were the densely settled and heavily farmed areas around Egerton University and Njoro Township with the restricted area between them demonstrating a remarkable potential to retain/remove most of the pollution emitted in the Egerton University area. The least vulnerable sub-catchment was the predominantly forested Upper Njoro River Catchment whereas the recently settled and increasingly farmed Lower Little Shuru was moderately vulnerability. The method provided a scientific framework for the rapid assessment of catchment vulnerability to prioritize areas for remediation.
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van der Velde, Y., J. C. Rozemeijer, G. H. de Rooij, F. C. van Geer, P. J. J. F. Torfs, and P. G. B. de Louw. "Nested-scale discharge and groundwater level monitoring to improve predictions of flow route discharges and nitrate loads." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 7, no. 5 (October 26, 2010): 8427–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-7-8427-2010.
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Abstract. Identifying effective measures to reduce nutrient loads of headwaters in lowland catchments requires a thorough understanding of flow routes of water and nutrients. In this paper we assess the value of nested-scale discharge and groundwater level measurements for predictions of catchment-scale discharge and nitrate loads. In order to relate field-site measurements to the catchment-scale an upscaling approach is introduced that assumes that scale differences in flow route fluxes originate from differences in the relationship between groundwater storage and the spatial structure of the groundwater table. This relationship is characterized by the Groundwater Depth Distribution (GDD) curve that relates spatial variation in groundwater depths to the average groundwater depth. The GDD-curve was measured for a single field site (0.009 km2) and simple process descriptions were applied to relate the groundwater levels to flow route discharges. This parsimonious model could accurately describe observed storage, tube drain discharge, overland flow and groundwater flow simultaneously with Nash-Sutcliff coefficients exceeding 0.8. A probabilistic Monte Carlo approach was applied to upscale field-site measurements to catchment scales by inferring scale-specific GDD-curves from hydrographs of two nested catchments (0.4 and 6.5 km2). The estimated contribution of tube drain effluent (a dominant source for nitrates) decreased with increasing scale from 76–79% at the field-site to 34–61% and 25–50% for both catchment scales. These results were validated by demonstrating that a model conditioned on nested-scale measurements simulates better nitrate loads and better predictions of extreme discharges during validation periods compared to a model that was conditioned on catchment discharge only.
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Vogt, E., C. F. Braban, U. Dragosits, M. R. Theobald, M. F. Billett, A. J. Dore, Y. S. Tang, et al. "Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale." Biogeosciences Discussions 9, no. 7 (July 23, 2012): 8989–9028. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bgd-9-8989-2012.
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Abstract. A comprehensive assessment of nitrogen (N) flows at the landscape scale is fundamental to understand spatial interactions in the N cascade and to inform the development of locally optimised N management strategies. To explore this interactions, complete N budgets were estimated for two contrasting hydrological catchments (dominated by agricultural grassland vs. semi-natural peat-dominated moorland), forming part of an intensively studied landscape in southern Scotland. Local scale atmospheric dispersion modelling and detailed farm and field inventories provided high resolution estimations of input fluxes. Agricultural inputs (i.e. grazing excreta, organic and synthetic fertiliser) accounted for most of the catchment N inputs with 80% in the grassland and 57% in the moorland catchment, while atmospheric deposition made a significant contribution, particularly in the moorland catchment with 38% of the N inputs. The estimated catchment N budgets highlighted areas of key uncertainty, particularly N2 emissions from denitrification and stream N export. The resulting N balances suggest that the study catchments have a limited capacity to store N within soils, vegetation and groundwater. The "catchment N retention", i.e. the amount of N which is either stored within the catchment or lost through atmospheric emissions, was estimated to be 3% of the net anthropogenic input in the moorland and 55% in the grassland catchment. These values contrast with regional scale estimates: catchment retentions of net anthropogenic input estimated within Europe at the regional scale range from 50% to 90% with an average of 82% (Billen et al., 2011). This study emphasises the need for detailed budget analyses to identify the N status of European landscapes.
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Vogt, E., C. F. Braban, U. Dragosits, M. R. Theobald, M. F. Billett, A. J. Dore, Y. S. Tang, et al. "Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale." Biogeosciences 10, no. 1 (January 9, 2013): 119–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-10-119-2013.
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Abstract. A comprehensive assessment of nitrogen (N) flows at the landscape scale is fundamental to understand spatial interactions in the N cascade and to inform the development of locally optimised N management strategies. To explore these interactions, complete N budgets were estimated for two contrasting hydrological catchments (dominated by agricultural grassland vs. semi-natural peat-dominated moorland), forming part of an intensively studied landscape in southern Scotland. Local scale atmospheric dispersion modelling and detailed farm and field inventories provided high resolution estimations of input fluxes. Direct agricultural inputs (i.e. grazing excreta, N2 fixation, organic and synthetic fertiliser) accounted for most of the catchment N inputs, representing 82% in the grassland and 62% in the moorland catchment, while atmospheric deposition made a significant contribution, particularly in the moorland catchment, contributing 38% of the N inputs. The estimated catchment N budgets highlighted areas of key uncertainty, particularly N2 exchange and stream N export. The resulting N balances suggest that the study catchments have a limited capacity to store N within soils, vegetation and groundwater. The "catchment N retention", i.e. the amount of N which is either stored within the catchment or lost through atmospheric emissions, was estimated to be 13% of the net anthropogenic input in the moorland and 61% in the grassland catchment. These values contrast with regional scale estimates: Catchment retentions of net anthropogenic input estimated within Europe at the regional scale range from 50% to 90%, with an average of 82% (Billen et al., 2011). This study emphasises the need for detailed budget analyses to identify the N status of European landscapes.
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Carroll, C., K. Rohde, G. Millar, C. Dougall, S. Stevens, R. Ritchie, and S. Lewis. "Neighbourhood catchments: a new approach for achieving ownership and change in catchment and stream management." Water Science and Technology 45, no. 11 (June 1, 2002): 185–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2002.0394.
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The Neighbourhood Catchment approach integrates land and stream management practices at a property and through to a local catchment scale, links production and environmental goals, and is a building block to achieve ownership and change at a sub-catchment scale and larger. Research conducted in two 'focus' Neighbourhood Catchments has shown that land management practices that retain >30% soil cover reduce sediment movement to streams. The Neighbourhood Catchment approach engages both early and cautious adopters, and enables continuous improvement of resource management to take place, and be recorded at an individual property and local catchment scale.
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van der Velde, Y., J. C. Rozemeijer, G. H. de Rooij, F. C. van Geer, P. J. J. F. Torfs, and P. G. B. de Louw. "Improving catchment discharge predictions by inferring flow route contributions from a nested-scale monitoring and model setup." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 15, no. 3 (March 15, 2011): 913–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-913-2011.
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Abstract. Identifying effective measures to reduce nutrient loads of headwaters in lowland catchments requires a thorough understanding of flow routes of water and nutrients. In this paper we assess the value of nested-scale discharge and groundwater level measurements for the estimation of flow route volumes and for predictions of catchment discharge. In order to relate field-site measurements to the catchment-scale an upscaling approach is introduced that assumes that scale differences in flow route fluxes originate from differences in the relationship between groundwater storage and the spatial structure of the groundwater table. This relationship is characterized by the Groundwater Depth Distribution (GDD) curve that relates spatial variation in groundwater depths to the average groundwater depth. The GDD-curve was measured for a single field site (0.009 km2) and simple process descriptions were applied to relate groundwater levels to flow route discharges. This parsimonious model could accurately describe observed storage, tube drain discharge, overland flow and groundwater flow simultaneously with Nash-Sutcliff coefficients exceeding 0.8. A probabilistic Monte Carlo approach was applied to upscale field-site measurements to catchment scales by inferring scale-specific GDD-curves from the hydrographs of two nested catchments (0.4 and 6.5 km2). The estimated contribution of tube drain effluent (a dominant source for nitrates) decreased with increasing scale from 76–79% at the field-site to 34–61% and 25–50% for both catchment scales. These results were validated by demonstrating that a model conditioned on nested-scale measurements improves simulations of nitrate loads and predictions of extreme discharges during validation periods compared to a model that was conditioned on catchment discharge only.
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Doble, R., R. Crosbie, L. Peeters, K. Joehnk, and C. Ticehurst. "Modelling overbank flood recharge at a continental scale." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 18, no. 4 (April 3, 2014): 1273–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-1273-2014.
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Abstract. Accounting for groundwater recharge from overbank flooding is required to reduce uncertainty and error in river-loss terms and groundwater sustainable-yield calculations. However, continental- and global-scale models of surface water–groundwater interactions rarely include an explicit process to account for overbank flood recharge (OFR). This paper upscales previously derived analytical equations to a continental scale using national soil atlas data and satellite imagery of flood inundation, resulting in recharge maps for seven hydrologically distinct Australian catchments. Recharge for three of the catchments was validated against independent recharge estimates from bore hydrograph responses and one catchment was additionally validated against point-scale recharge modelling and catchment-scale change in groundwater storage. Flood recharge was predicted for four of the seven catchments modelled, but there was also unexplained recharge present from the satellite's flood inundation mapping data. At a catchment scale, recharge from overbank flooding was somewhat under-predicted using the analytical equations, but there was good confidence in the spatial patterns of flood recharge produced. Due to the scale of the input data, there were no significant relationships found when compared at a point scale. Satellite-derived flood inundation data and uncertainty in soil maps were the key limitations to the accuracy of the modelled recharge. Use of this method to model OFR was found to be appropriate at a catchment to continental scale, given appropriate data sources. The proportion of OFR was found to be at least 4% of total change in groundwater storage in one of the catchments for the period modelled, and at least 15% of the riparian recharge. Accounting for OFR is an important, but often overlooked, requirement for closing water balances in both the surface water and groundwater domains.
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Doble, R., R. Crosbie, L. Peeters, K. Joehnk, and C. Ticehurst. "Modelling overbank flood recharge at a continental scale." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 10, no. 10 (October 17, 2013): 12573–613. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-10-12573-2013.
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Abstract. Accounting for groundwater recharge from overbank flooding is required to reduce uncertainty and error in river loss terms and groundwater sustainable yield calculations. However, continental and global scale models of surface water–groundwater interactions rarely include an explicit process to account for overbank flood recharge (OFR). This paper upscales previously derived analytical equations to a continental scale using national soil atlas data and satellite imagery of flood inundation, resulting in recharge maps for seven hydrologically distinct Australian catchments. Recharge for three of the catchments was validated against independent recharge estimates from bore hydrograph responses and one catchment was additionally validated against point scale recharge modelling and catchment scale change in groundwater storage. Flood recharge was predicted for four of the seven catchments modelled, but there was also unexplained recharge present from the satellite flood inundation mapping data. At a catchment scale, recharge from overbank flooding was somewhat under predicted using the analytical equations, but there was good confidence in the spatial patterns of flood recharge produced. Due to the scale of the input data, there were no significant relationships found when compared at a point scale. Satellite derived flood inundation data and uncertainty in soil maps were the key limitations to the accuracy of the modelled recharge. Use of this method to model OFR was found to be appropriate at a catchment to continental scale, given appropriate data sources. The proportion of OFR was found to be at least 4% of total change in groundwater storage in one of the catchments for the period modelled, and at least 15% of the riparian recharge. Accounting for OFR is an important, and often overlooked, requirement for closing water balances in both the surface water and groundwater domains.
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Ciulla, Fabio, and Charuleka Varadharajan. "A network approach for multiscale catchment classification using traits." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 28, no. 7 (April 11, 2024): 1617–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1617-2024.
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Abstract. The classification of river catchments into groups with similar biophysical characteristics is useful to understand and predict their hydrological behavior. The increasing availability of remote sensing and other large-scale geospatial datasets has enabled the use of advanced data-driven approaches to classify catchments using traits such as topography, geology, climate, land cover, land use, and human influence. Unsupervised clustering algorithms based on the Euclidean distance are commonly used for trait-based classification but are not suitable for highly dimensional data. In this study we present a new network-based method for multi-scale catchment classification, which can be applied to large datasets and used to determine the traits associated with different catchment groups. In this framework, two networks are analyzed in parallel: the first being where the nodes are traits and the second being where the nodes are catchments. In both cases, edges represent pairwise similarity, and a network cluster detection algorithm is used for the classification. The trait network is used to investigate redundancy in the trait data and to condense this information into a small number of interpretable categories. The catchments network is used to classify the catchments into clusters and to identify representative catchments for the different groups using the degree centrality metric. We apply this method to classify 9067 river catchments across the contiguous United States at both regional and continental scales using 274 non-categorical traits. At the continental scale, we identify 25 interpretable trait categories and 34 catchment clusters of sizes greater than 50. We find that catchments with similar trait categories are typically located in the same region, with different spatial patterns emerging among clusters dominated by natural and anthropogenic traits. We also find that the catchment clusters exhibit distinct hydrological behavior based on an analysis of streamflow indices. This network approach provides several advantages over traditional means of classification, including better separation of clusters, the use of alternate similarity metrics that are more suitable for highly dimensional data, and reducing redundancy in the trait information. The paired catchment–trait networks enable analysis of hydrological behavior using the dominant trait categories for each catchment cluster. The approach can be used at multiple spatial scales since the network topologies adjust automatically to reflect the trait patterns at the scale of investigation. Finally, the representative catchments identified as hub nodes in the network can be used to guide transferable observational and modeling strategies. The method is broadly applicable beyond hydrology for classification of other complex systems that utilize different types of trait datasets.
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Pechlivanidis, I. G., N. McIntyre, and H. S. Wheater. "The significance of spatial variability of rainfall on simulated runoff: an evaluation based on the Upper Lee catchment, UK." Hydrology Research 48, no. 4 (July 30, 2016): 1118–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/nh.2016.038.
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The significance of spatial variability of rainfall on runoff is explored as a function of catchment scale and type, and antecedent conditions via the continuous time, semi-distributed probability distributed model (PDM) hydrological model applied to the Upper Lee catchment, UK. The impact of catchment scale and type is assessed using 11 nested catchments, and further assessed by artificially changing the catchment characteristics and translating these to model parameters (MPs) with uncertainty using model regionalisation. Dry and wet antecedent conditions are represented by ‘warming up’ the model under different rainfall time series. Synthetic rainfall events are introduced to directly relate the change in simulated runoff to the spatial variability of rainfall. Results show that runoff volume and peak are more sensitive to the spatial rainfall for more impermeable catchments; however, this sensitivity is significantly undermined under wet antecedent conditions. Although there is indication that the impact of spatial rainfall on runoff varies as a function of catchment scale, the variability of antecedent conditions between the synthetic catchments seems to mask this significance. Parameter uncertainty analysis highlights the importance of accurately representing the spatial variability of the catchment properties and their translation to MPs when investigating the effects of spatial properties of rainfall on runoff.
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Stosch, Kathleen C., Richard S. Quilliam, Nils Bunnefeld, and David M. Oliver. "Catchment-Scale Participatory Mapping Identifies Stakeholder Perceptions of Land and Water Management Conflicts." Land 11, no. 2 (February 16, 2022): 300. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land11020300.
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Competing socioecological demands and pressures on land and water resources have the potential to increase land use conflict. Understanding ecosystem service provisioning and trade-offs, competing land uses, and conflict between stakeholder groups in catchments is therefore critical to inform catchment management and the sustainable use of natural resources. We developed a novel stakeholder engagement methodology that incorporates participatory conflict mapping in three catchments with a short questionnaire to identify the perceptions of 43 participants from four key land and water management stakeholder groups: environmental regulators, water industry practitioners, the farm advisor community, and academics. The participatory mapping exercise produced heat maps of perceived conflict and land use competition, providing spatial detail of the complex combination of land use issues faced by catchment managers. Distinct, localised hotspots were identified in areas under pressure from flooding, abstraction, and urbanisation; as well as more dispersed issues of relevance at the landscape scale, such as from farming, forestry, energy production, and tourism. Subsequent regression modelling linked perceived conflict to land cover maps and identified coastal, urban, and grassland areas as the most likely land cover types associated with conflict in the study catchments. Our approach to participatory conflict mapping provides a novel platform for catchment management and can facilitate increased cooperation among different catchment stakeholders. In turn, land and water management conflicts can be recognised and their underlying drivers and likely solutions identified in an effort to better manage competing demands on catchment resources.
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Adams, R., P. F. Quinn, and M. J. Bowes. "Modelling and monitoring nutrient pollution at the large catchment scale: the implications of sampling regimes on model performance." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 10, no. 8 (August 8, 2013): 10161–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-10-10161-2013.
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Abstract. Daily and sub daily nutrient data are now becoming available to support nutrient research and which will help underpin policy making. It is vital that water quality models that utilize these high-frequency data sets are both appropriate and suitably accurate. Here we address the capability of process based models applied at larger catchment scales (size 100–500 km2) and show what phenomena can be simulated by exploiting high frequency data for larger catchments. Hence we can suggest the dominant processes that underpin the fluxes observed in larger catchment and thus what can be simulated, and to what accuracy. Thus the implications of new sampling frequency and model structure can be addressed and the implication to catchment management is discussed. Here we show a case study using the Frome catchment (414 km2), Dorset UK, which demonstrates: 1. The use of process based model of nutrient flow and nutrient flux (TOPCAT) for use in larger catchments. 2. Simulations of high frequency data at weekly and sub daily time steps, thus reflecting the simulations' strengths and weaknesses. 3. Cumulative distributions of observed and simulated fluxes – as an effective means of communicating the catchment dynamics in larger catchments.
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Qiao, Jie, Mike Crang, Liangping Hong, and Xiaofeng Li. "Exploring the Benefits of Small Catchments on Rural Spatial Governance in Wuling Mountain Area, China." Sustainability 13, no. 2 (January 14, 2021): 760. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13020760.
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China is facing an important period of rural governance innovation and restructuring of territorial spatial patterns. This paper selects catchments as the most closely related spatial units for rural industrial development and rural settlement activities, profoundly revealing the characteristics of transformational development and spatial governance in mountainous areas. To date, extensive literature in this area has produced a broad multidisciplinary consensus on catchment water and soil conservation and rural industry development; however, the interactive mechanism of ecological, social, and economic networks, and the characteristics behind small catchments which benefit from spatial governance, have never been analyzed and are relatively new to the sphere of rural governance. Our research argues the relative importance of multi-scale catchment units compared with traditional administrative village units in enhancing the organizational benefits of rural revitalization in terms of workforce, resources, and capital, using the case study of a catchment in the Wuling mountainous area. Our study presents a framework to explore the multi-dimensional governance experience of a small catchment in the Wuling mountainous area and proposes to integrate the resource endowment advantages of small catchments into rural industries development and transform the economic and social benefits contained in the ecological environment into multi-scale spatial benefits among farmers, villages, and the regional rural area. However, not all cases provide positive evidence. The overall development of a catchment is confronted with complex constraints, which are mainly related to the development stage and local historical and geographical factors. Furthermore, affected by the top-down “project-system” in the “poverty era”, the logic of “betting on the strong” and the single-centered logic of resource allocation at the grassroots level exacerbated the fragmentation of the mountainous area. Generally speaking, the catchment perspective promotes regional linkage development and multi-center governance modes and triggers multidisciplinary theoretical thinking to some extent. The catchment’s overall development helps play to the comparative advantage of mountainous areas and promotes endogenous sustainable development to a certain degree. However, the promotion of catchment governance in poverty-stricken mountainous areas is faced with a lack of financial foundation and needs support in order to break through the national system and local social constraints.
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Carrillo, G., P. A. Troch, M. Sivapalan, T. Wagener, C. Harman, and K. Sawicz. "Catchment classification: hydrological analysis of catchment behavior through process-based modeling along a climate gradient." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 15, no. 11 (November 16, 2011): 3411–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-3411-2011.
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Abstract. Catchment classification is an efficient method to synthesize our understanding of how climate variability and catchment characteristics interact to define hydrological response. One way to accomplish catchment classification is to empirically relate climate and catchment characteristics to hydrologic behavior and to quantify the skill of predicting hydrologic response based on the combination of climate and catchment characteristics. Here we present results using an alternative approach that uses our current level of hydrological understanding, expressed in the form of a process-based model, to interrogate how climate and catchment characteristics interact to produce observed hydrologic response. The model uses topographic, geomorphologic, soil and vegetation information at the catchment scale and conditions parameter values using readily available data on precipitation, temperature and streamflow. It is applicable to a wide range of catchments in different climate settings. We have developed a step-by-step procedure to analyze the observed hydrologic response and to assign parameter values related to specific components of the model. We applied this procedure to 12 catchments across a climate gradient east of the Rocky Mountains, USA. We show that the model is capable of reproducing the observed hydrologic behavior measured through hydrologic signatures chosen at different temporal scales. Next, we analyze the dominant time scales of catchment response and their dimensionless ratios with respect to climate and observable landscape features in an attempt to explain hydrologic partitioning. We find that only a limited number of model parameters can be related to observable landscape features. However, several climate-model time scales, and the associated dimensionless numbers, show scaling relationships with respect to the investigated hydrological signatures (runoff coefficient, baseflow index, and slope of the flow duration curve). Moreover, some dimensionless numbers vary systematically across the climate gradient, possibly as a result of systematic co-variation of climate, vegetation and soil related time scales. If such co-variation can be shown to be robust across many catchments along different climate gradients, it opens perspective for model parameterization in ungauged catchments as well as prediction of hydrologic response in a rapidly changing environment.
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Boothroyd, Richard J., Richard D. Williams, Trevor B. Hoey, Craig MacDonell, Pamela L. M. Tolentino, Laura Quick, Esmael L. Guardian, et al. "National-scale geodatabase of catchment characteristics in the Philippines for river management applications." PLOS ONE 18, no. 3 (March 8, 2023): e0281933. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281933.
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Quantitative descriptions of stream network and river catchment characteristics provide valuable context for enabling geomorphologically-informed sustainable river management. For countries where high-quality topographic data are available, there are opportunities to enable open access availability of baseline products from systematic assessment of morphometric and topographic characteristics. In this study, we present a national-scale assessment of fundamental topographic characteristics of Philippine river systems. We applied a consistent workflow using TopoToolbox V2 to delineate stream networks and river catchments using a nationwide digital elevation model (DEM) acquired in 2013 and generated through airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IfSAR). We assessed morphometric and topographic characteristics for 128 medium- to large-sized catchments (catchment area > 250 km2) and organised the results in a national-scale geodatabase. The dataset realises the potential of topographic data as part of river management applications, by enabling variations in hydromorphology to be characterised and contextualised. The dataset is used to reveal the diversity of stream networks and river catchments in the Philippines. Catchments have a continuum of shapes (Gravelius compactness coefficient ranges from 1.05 to 3.29) with drainage densities that range from 0.65 to 1.23 km/km2. Average catchment slope ranges from 3.1 to 28.1° and average stream slope varies by more than an order of magnitude from 0.004 to 0.107 m/m. Inter-catchment analyses show the distinctive topographic signatures of adjacent river catchments; examples from NW Luzon highlight topographic similarity between catchments whereas examples from Panay Island shown marked topographic differences. These contrasts underline the importance of using place-based analyses for sustainable river management applications. By designing an interactive ArcGIS web-application to display the national-scale geodatabase, we improve data accessibility and enable users to freely access, explore and download the data (https://glasgow-uni.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a88b9ca0919f4400881eab4a26370cee). The national-scale geodatabase provides a baseline understanding of fundamental topographic characteristics in support of varied geomorphological, hydrological and geohazard susceptibility applications.
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Bohté, R., M. L. Mul, T. A. Bogaard, H. H. G. Savenije, S. Uhlenbrook, and T. C. Kessler. "Hydrograph separation and scale dependency of natural tracers in a semi-arid catchment." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 7, no. 1 (February 16, 2010): 1343–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-7-1343-2010.
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Abstract. A solid understanding of the hydrological processes in a catchment is important in order to guarantee appropriate management of the available surface and groundwater resources, both in terms of quality and quantity. In order to achieve this, insights in the behaviour of the water fluxes and the interaction between groundwater and surface water is of utmost importance. This paper discusses the applicability and constraints of using hydrochemical and isotope tracers in identifying the runoff contributing sources at different scales in a semi-arid catchment in Tanzania. The hydrograph separation techniques shows that at the smallest scale (0.3 km2), for all types of tracers, the pre-event contribution is between 74–82%. At the larger scale (26 km2), two sub-catchments contribute to the flow at the weir site in Bangalala. Using the hydrochemical tracers the calculated contributions for the sub-catchments are in agreement with the catchment size and rainfall contributions over these two catchments. This showed that at the weir site 20% of the total flow comes from event water (of which 2% from Vudee sub-catchment and 18% from Ndolwa sub-catchment). The large difference is mainly due to preceding wetness conditions. However, with the isotope tracers no unambiguous results could be obtained. Two end members have been investigated to account for the ambiguous nature of the isotopic concentrations. The rainfall analysis shows that during the season the isotopical concentration changes, with a clear distinction between the two seasons. In addition, within one event the isotopic concentrations vary substantially within the area. The spring analysis also shows substantial temporal and spatial variation. The research therefore shows that the assumption of stable isotopic end-members was not met in our study. At the smaller scale the spatial variability could be neglected and the hydrograph separation technique could be applied, although for each event, end member concentrations needed to be collected to account for the temporal variability.
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Munyaneza, O., A. Mukubwa, S. Maskey, J. Wenninger, and S. Uhlenbrook. "Assessment of surface water resources availability using catchment modeling and the results of tracer studies in the meso-scale Migina Catchment, Rwanda." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 10, no. 12 (December 16, 2013): 15375–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-10-15375-2013.
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Abstract. In the last couple of years, different hydrological research projects were undertaken in the Migina catchment (243.2 km2), a tributary of the Kagera river in Southern Rwanda. These projects were aimed to understand hydrological processes of the catchment using analytical and experimental approaches and to build a pilot case whose experience can be extended to other catchments in Rwanda. In the present study, we developed a hydrological model of the catchment, which can be used to inform water resources planning and decision making. The semi-distributed hydrological model HEC-HMS (version 3.5) was used with its soil moisture accounting, unit hydrograph, liner reservoir (for base flow) and Muskingum-Cunge (river routing) methods. We used rainfall data from 12 stations and streamflow data from 5 stations, which were collected as part of this study over a period of two years (May 2009 and June 2011). The catchment was divided into five sub-catchments each represented by one of the five observed streamflow gauges. The model parameters were calibrated separately for each sub-catchment using the observed streamflow data. Calibration results obtained were found acceptable at four stations with a Nash–Sutcliffe Model Efficiency of 0.65 on daily runoff at the catchment outlet. Due to the lack of sufficient and reliable data for longer periods, a model validation (split sample test) was not undertaken. However, we used results from tracer based hydrograph separation from a previous study to compare our model results in terms of the runoff components. It was shown that the model performed well in simulating the total flow volume, peak flow and timing as well as the portion of direct runoff and base flow. We observed considerable disparities in the parameters (e.g. groundwater storage) and runoff components across the five sub-catchments, that provided insights into the different hydrological processes at sub-catchment scale. We conclude that such disparities justify the need to consider catchment subdivisions, if such parameters and components of the water cycle are to form the base for decision making in water resources planning in the Migina catchment.
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Wałek, Grzegorz. "Wykorzystanie metod GIS do wyznaczania działów wodnych zlewni zurbanizowanych na przykładzie miasta Kielce." Przegląd Naukowy Inżynieria i Kształtowanie Środowiska 26, no. 3 (September 15, 2017): 326–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.22630/pniks.2017.26.3.32.
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The paper presents the analysis of the area and reach of the Silnica river catchment and its six subcatchments delineated using GIS in three different variants: DEM (from Computerized Information System of Country Protection project; Polish: ISOK) in one-meter resolution, the Database of Topographic Objects (Polish: BDOT) in 1 : 10 000 scale and the Geodetic Utilities Network System (Polish: GESUT). A topographic map in 1 : 10 00 scale was also compared with the Map of Hydrographic Division of Poland (Polish: MPHP) and the differences in the catchment reach resulting from this comparison were also examined. The course of delineated drainage divides varied in each variant resulting in differences in the area and reach of the analyzed catchments. The best results in urban catchments delineation were obtained in GIS using DEM and corrected vector data from BDOT and GESUT databases. In this case, the catchments’ reach overlapped with the existing drainage network. Traditional methods with the use of topographic maps and data from MPHP 1 : 10 000 scale proved to be less accurate as far as the reach of the Silnica river catchment was concerned and were useless in delineating the Silnica sub-catchments in Kielce city center.
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Salinas, J. L., A. Castellarin, S. Kohnová, and T. R. Kjeldsen. "Regional parent flood frequency distributions in Europe – Part 2: Climate and scale controls." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 18, no. 11 (November 5, 2014): 4391–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4391-2014.
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Abstract. This study aims to better understand the effect of catchment scale and climate on the statistical properties of regional flood frequency distributions. A database of L-moment ratios of annual maximum series (AMS) of peak discharges from Austria, Italy and Slovakia, involving a total of 813 catchments with more than 25 yr of record length is presented, together with mean annual precipitation (MAP) and basin area as catchment descriptors surrogates of climate and scale controls. A purely data-based investigation performed on the database shows that the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution provides a better representation of the averaged sample L-moment ratios compared to the other distributions considered, for catchments with medium to higher values of MAP independently of catchment area, while the three-parameter lognormal distribution is probably a more appropriate choice for drier (lower MAP) intermediate-sized catchments, which presented higher skewness values. Sample L-moment ratios do not follow systematically any of the theoretical two-parameter distributions. In particular, the averaged values of L-coefficient of skewness (L-Cs) are always larger than Gumbel's fixed L-Cs. The results presented in this paper contribute to the progress in defining a set of "process-driven" pan-European flood frequency distributions and to assess possible effects of environmental change on its properties.
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van der Velde, Y., G. H. de Rooij, and P. J. J. F. Torfs. "Catchment-scale non-linear groundwater-surface water interactions in densely drained lowland catchments." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 13, no. 10 (October 14, 2009): 1867–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-13-1867-2009.
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Abstract. Freely discharging lowland catchments are characterized by a strongly seasonal contracting and expanding system of discharging streams and ditches. Due to this rapidly changing active channel network, discharge and solute transport cannot be modeled by a single characteristic travel path, travel time distribution, unit hydrograph, or linear reservoir. We propose a systematic spatial averaging approach to derive catchment-scale storage and discharge from point-scale water balances. The effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil properties, vegetation, and drainage network are lumped and described by a relation between groundwater storage and the spatial probability distribution of groundwater depths with measurable parameters. The model describes how, in lowland catchments, the catchment-scale flux from groundwater to surface water via various flow routes is affected by a changing active channel network, the unsaturated zone and surface ponding. We used observations of groundwater levels and catchment discharge of a 6.6 km2 Dutch watershed in combination with a high-resolution spatially distributed hydrological model to test the model approach. Good results were obtained when modeling hourly discharges for a period of eight years. The validity of the underlying assumptions still needs to be tested under different conditions and for catchments of various sizes. Nevertheless, at this stage the model can already improve monitoring efficiency of groundwater-surface water interactions.
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Magin, Katrin, Celia Somlai-Haase, Ralf B. Schäfer, and Andreas Lorke. "Regional-scale lateral carbon transport and CO<sub>2</sub> evasion in temperate stream catchments." Biogeosciences 14, no. 21 (November 8, 2017): 5003–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5003-2017.
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Abstract. Inland waters play an important role in regional to global-scale carbon cycling by transporting, processing and emitting substantial amounts of carbon, which originate mainly from their catchments. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between terrestrial net primary production (NPP) and the rate at which carbon is exported from the catchments in a temperate stream network. The analysis included more than 200 catchment areas in southwest Germany, ranging in size from 0.8 to 889 km2 for which CO2 evasion from stream surfaces and downstream transport with stream discharge were estimated from water quality monitoring data, while NPP in the catchments was obtained from a global data set based on remote sensing. We found that on average 13.9 g C m−2 yr−1 (corresponding to 2.7 % of terrestrial NPP) are exported from the catchments by streams and rivers, in which both CO2 evasion and downstream transport contributed about equally to this flux. The average carbon fluxes in the catchments of the study area resembled global and large-scale zonal mean values in many respects, including NPP, stream evasion and the carbon export per catchment area in the fluvial network. A review of existing studies on aquatic–terrestrial coupling in the carbon cycle suggests that the carbon export per catchment area varies in a relatively narrow range, despite a broad range of different spatial scales and hydrological characteristics of the study regions.
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Deelstra, J., M. Bechmann, and S. H. Kvaernø. "SOIL and SOIL-NO at catchment scale – a case study for an agriculture-dominated catchment." Water Science and Technology 45, no. 9 (May 1, 2002): 9–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2002.0193.
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A one-dimensional model, SOIL/SOIL-NO, is used to simulate the water and nitrogen balance at catchment scale. The objective is to use the model in simulating the effects of best management practices on nitrogen runoff. The model was applied to individual farm fields in an agriculture dominated catchment and simulations were carried out for the period from 94–98. The results were promising. The simulated nitrogen runoff agreed quite well with the measured nitrogen loss at the main station. The effects of best management practices like optimal fertiliser application, catch crops and irrigation were simulated. For this particular catchment, the introduction of catch crops resulted in the best effect on reducing nitrogen runoff from agricultural dominated catchments.
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Sillanpää, Nora, and Harri Koivusalo. "Catchment-scale evaluation of pollution potential of urban snow at two residential catchments in southern Finland." Water Science and Technology 68, no. 10 (October 22, 2013): 2164–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2013.466.
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Despite the crucial role of snow in the hydrological cycle in cold climate conditions, monitoring studies of urban snow quality often lack discussions about the relevance of snow in the catchment-scale runoff management. In this study, measurements of snow quality were conducted at two residential catchments in Espoo, Finland, simultaneously with continuous runoff measurements. The results of the snow quality were used to produce catchment-scale estimates of areal snow mass loads (SML). Based on the results, urbanization reduced areal snow water equivalent but increased pollutant accumulation in snow: SMLs in a medium-density residential catchment were two- to four-fold higher in comparison with a low-density residential catchment. The main sources of pollutants were related to vehicular traffic and road maintenance, but also pet excrement increased concentrations to a high level. Ploughed snow can contain 50% of the areal pollutant mass stored in snow despite its small surface area within a catchment.
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Dehotin, J., and I. Braud. "Which spatial discretization for which distributed hydrological model?" Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 4, no. 2 (April 10, 2007): 777–829. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-4-777-2007.
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Abstract. Distributed hydrological models are valuable tools to derive distributed estimation of water balance components or to study the impact of land-use or climate change on water resources and water quality. In these models, the choice of an appropriate spatial scale for the modelling units is a crucial issue. It is obviously linked to the available data and their scale, but not only. For a given catchment and a given data set, the "optimal" spatial discretization should be different according to the problem to be solved and the objectives of the modelling. Thus a flexible methodology is needed, especially for large catchments, to derive modelling units by performing suitable trade-off between available data, the dominant hydrological processes, their representation scale and the modelling objectives. In order to represent catchment heterogeneity efficiently according to the modelling goals, and the availability of the input data, we propose to use nested discretization, starting from a hierarchy of sub-catchments, linked by the river network topology. If consistent with the modelling objectives, the active hydrological processes and data availability, sub-catchment variability can be described using a finer nested discretization. The latter takes into account different geophysical factors such as topography, land-use, pedology, but also suitable hydrological discontinuities such as ditches, hedges, dams, etc. For small catchments, the landscape features such as agricultural fields, buildings, hedges, river reaches can be represented explicitly, as well as the water pathways between them. For larger catchments, such a representation is not feasible and simplification is necessary. For the sub-catchments discretization in these large catchments, we propose a flexible methodology based on the principles of landscape classification, using reference zones. These principles are independent from the catchment size. They allow to keep suitable features which are required in the catchment description in order to fulfil a specific modelling objective. The method leads to unstructured and homogeneous areas within the sub-catchments, which can be used as modelling units. It avoids map smoothing by suppressing the smallest units, the role of which can be very important in hydrology, and provides a confidence map (the distance map) for the classification. The confidence map can be used for further uncertainty analysis of modelling results. The final discretization remains consistent with the scale of input data and that of the source maps. We present an illustration of the method using available data from the upper Saône catchment (11 700 km2) in France. We compare the results with more traditional mapping approach, according to the landscape representation and input data scale.
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Van Loon, A. F., and H. A. J. Van Lanen. "A process-based typology of hydrological drought." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 16, no. 7 (July 6, 2012): 1915–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-1915-2012.
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Abstract. Hydrological drought events have very different causes and effects. Classifying these events into distinct types can be useful for both science and management. We propose a hydrological drought typology that is based on governing drought propagation processes derived from catchment-scale drought analysis. In this typology six hydrological drought types are distinguished, i.e. (i) classical rainfall deficit drought, (ii) rain-to-snow-season drought, (iii) wet-to-dry-season drought, (iv) cold snow season drought, (v) warm snow season drought, and (vi) composite drought. The processes underlying these drought types are the result of the interplay of temperature and precipitation at catchment scale in different seasons. As a test case, about 125 groundwater droughts and 210 discharge droughts in five contrasting headwater catchments in Europe have been classified. The most common drought type in all catchments was the classical rainfall deficit drought (almost 50% of all events), but in the selected catchments these were mostly minor events. If only the five most severe drought events of each catchment are considered, a shift towards more rain-to-snow-season droughts, warm snow season droughts, and composite droughts was found. The occurrence of hydrological drought types is determined by climate and catchment characteristics. The drought typology is transferable to other catchments, including outside Europe, because it is generic and based upon processes that occur around the world. A general framework is proposed to identify drought type occurrence in relation to climate and catchment characteristics.
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Peel, Murray C. "Hydrology: catchment vegetation and runoff." Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 33, no. 6 (October 12, 2009): 837–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0309133309350122.
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The interactions between catchment vegetation and runoff continue to be a staple area of hydrological research. Drawing mainly upon material published since 2002, this report briefly reviews progress in this area with specific reference to: (1) paired and single catchment studies; (2) top-down models; and (3) the likely impact of climate change. Results from a wider range of paired and single catchments studies are revealing the complex relationship between catchment vegetation and runoff and prompting a reassessment of the methodologies used to generalize this relationship. Vegetation appears to have a significant influence on runoff at small scales, which reduces to a second-order influence, relative to aridity, at larger scales. Top-down models of catchment behaviour generally reflect this second-order influence at the large scale. As vegetation responds to CO2 enrichment under climate change, the magnitude and direction of associated changes in runoff remains uncertain. A key element in quantifying the hydrological impact of climate change is the relationship between catchment vegetation and runoff, which continues to be a productive area of research within hydrology.
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Jackson, Faye L., Robert J. Fryer, David M. Hannah, and Iain A. Malcolm. "Can spatial statistical river temperature models be transferred between catchments?" Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 21, no. 9 (September 21, 2017): 4727–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4727-2017.
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Abstract. There has been increasing use of spatial statistical models to understand and predict river temperature (Tw) from landscape covariates. However, it is not financially or logistically feasible to monitor all rivers and the transferability of such models has not been explored. This paper uses Tw data from four river catchments collected in August 2015 to assess how well spatial regression models predict the maximum 7-day rolling mean of daily maximum Tw (Twmax) within and between catchments. Models were fitted for each catchment separately using (1) landscape covariates only (LS models) and (2) landscape covariates and an air temperature (Ta) metric (LS_Ta models). All the LS models included upstream catchment area and three included a river network smoother (RNS) that accounted for unexplained spatial structure. The LS models transferred reasonably to other catchments, at least when predicting relative levels of Twmax. However, the predictions were biased when mean Twmax differed between catchments. The RNS was needed to characterise and predict finer-scale spatially correlated variation. Because the RNS was unique to each catchment and thus non-transferable, predictions were better within catchments than between catchments. A single model fitted to all catchments found no interactions between the landscape covariates and catchment, suggesting that the landscape relationships were transferable. The LS_Ta models transferred less well, with particularly poor performance when the relationship with the Ta metric was physically implausible or required extrapolation outside the range of the data. A single model fitted to all catchments found catchment-specific relationships between Twmax and the Ta metric, indicating that the Ta metric was not transferable. These findings improve our understanding of the transferability of spatial statistical river temperature models and provide a foundation for developing new approaches for predicting Tw at unmonitored locations across multiple catchments and larger spatial scales.
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Haghighatafshar, Salar, Jes la Cour Jansen, Henrik Aspegren, and Karin Jönsson. "Conceptualization and Schematization of Mesoscale Sustainable Drainage Systems: A Full-Scale Study." Water 10, no. 8 (August 6, 2018): 1041. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w10081041.
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Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) can be considered the joint product of water engineering and urban planning and design since these systems must comply with hydraulic, hydrologic, and social-ecological functions. To enhance this joint collaboration, a conceptual model of mesoscale SuDS is introduced based on the observed rainfall-runoff responses from two catchments with SuDS and a pipe-bound catchment. The model shows that in contrast to pipe systems, SuDS disaggregates the catchment into a group of discrete mini catchments that have no instant connection to the outlet. These mini catchments start to connect to each other (and perhaps to the outlet) as the rainfall depth increases. It is shown that the sequence of stormwater control measures (SCMs as individual components of SuDS) affects the system’s overall performance depending on the volumetric magnitude of the rainfall. The concept is useful in the design and implementation of mesoscale SuDS retrofits, which include several SCMs with different retention and detention capacities within a system.
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van der Velde, Y., G. H. de Rooij, and P. J. J. F. Torfs. "Catchment-scale non-linear groundwater-surface water interactions in densely drained lowland catchments." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 6, no. 3 (May 7, 2009): 3753–810. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-6-3753-2009.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract. Freely discharging lowland catchments are characterized by a strong seasonal contracting and expanding system of discharging streams and ditches. Due to this rapidly changing active channel network, discharge and solute transport cannot be modeled by a single characteristic travel path, travel time distribution, unit hydrograph, or linear reservoir. We propose a systematic spatial averaging approach to derive catchment-scale storage and discharge from point-scale water balances. The effects of spatial heterogeneity in soil properties, vegetation and drainage network are lumped and described by a relation between groundwater storage and the spatial probability distribution of groundwater depths with measurable parameters. The model describes how in lowland catchments the catchment-scale flux from groundwater to surface water via various flow routes is affected by a changing active channel network, unsaturated-saturated zone interactions and surface ponding. We used observations of groundwater levels and catchment discharge of a 6.6 km2 Dutch watershed in combination with a high-resolution spatially distributed hydrological model to test the model approach. Good results were obtained when modeling hourly discharges for a period of eight years. The validity of the underlying assumptions still needs to be tested under different conditions and for catchments of various sizes. Nevertheless, at this stage the model can already improve monitoring efficiency of groundwater-surface water interactions.
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Kronvang, B., H. Tornbjerg, C. C. Hoffmann, J. R. Poulsen, and J. Windolf. "Documenting success stories of management of phosphorus emissions at catchment scale: an example from the pilot river Odense, Denmark." Water Science and Technology 74, no. 9 (August 12, 2016): 2097–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2016.379.
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Documentation of the effects of different mitigation measures adopted at different scales to reduce phosphorus (P) loadings to surface waters is needed to help catchment managers select the best management practices. Water quality monitoring data from the outlets of two paired catchments (the river Odense catchment versus a neighbouring control catchment) on the island of Funen, Denmark, showed significantly different trends in annual flow-weighted P concentrations during the period 2000–2013. A significant downward trend in flow-weighted particulate P (PP) concentrations (0.051 mg P L−1) and loss (0.155 kg P ha−1) was detected for the river Odense catchment, whereas a similar trend did not emerge in the control catchment. The observed differences in PP reductions may be due to wetlands acting as P sinks since wetland restoration activities have been much more comprehensive in the river Odense catchment (1.8 ha wetlands km−2) than in the control catchment (0.5 ha wetland km−2). The excess downward trend in total P and PP in the river Odense catchment (5,600 kg P and 3,700 kg P) is corroborated by extrapolating the results from a mass-balance study and 10 years of in situ measurements of P storage (3,700 kg P and 15,000 kg P).
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Holman, I. P., J. M. Hollis, M. E. Bramley, and T. R. E. Thompson. "The contribution of soil structural degradation to catchment flooding: a preliminary investigation of the 2000 floods in England and Wales." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 7, no. 5 (October 31, 2003): 755–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-7-755-2003.
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Abstract. During the autumn of 2000, England and Wales experienced the wettest conditions for over 270 years, causing significant flooding. The exceptional combination of a wet spring and autumn provided the potential for soil structural degradation. Soils prone to structural degradation under five common lowland cropping systems (autumn-sown crops, late-harvested crops, field vegetables, orchards and sheep fattening and livestock rearing systems) were examined within four catchments that experienced serious flooding. Soil structural degradation of the soil surface, within the topsoil or at the topsoil/subsoil junction, was widespread in all five cropping systems, under a wide range of soil types and in all four catchments. Extrapolation to the catchment scale suggests that soil structural degradation may have occurred on approximately 40% of the Severn, 30–35 % of the Yorkshire Ouse and Uck catchments and 20% of the Bourne catchment. Soil structural conditions were linked via hydrological soil group, soil condition and antecedent rainfall conditions to SCS Curve Numbers to evaluate the volume of enhanced runoff in each catchment. Such a response at the catchment-scale is only likely during years when prolonged wet weather and the timing of cultivation practices lead to widespread soil structural degradation. Nevertheless, an holistic catchment-wide approach to managing the interactions between agricultural land use and hydrology, allowing appropriate runoff (and consequent flooding) to be controlled at source, rather than within the floodplain or the river channel, should be highlighted in catchment flood management plans. Keywords: flooding, soil structure, land management, Curve Number, runoff, agriculture
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Dunn, S. M., A. Lilly, J. DeGroote, and A. J. A. Vinten. "Nitrogen Risk Assessment Model for Scotland: II. Hydrological transport and model testing." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 8, no. 2 (April 30, 2004): 205–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-8-205-2004.
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Abstract. The amount and concentration of N in catchment runoff is strongly controlled by a number of hydrological influences, such as leaching rates and the rate of transport of N from the land to surface water bodies. This paper describes how the principal hydrological controls at a catchment scale have been represented within the Nitrogen Risk Assessment Model for Scotland (NIRAMS); it demonstrates their influence through application of the model to eight Scottish catchments, contrasting in terms of their land use, climate and topography. Calculation of N leaching rates, described in the preceding paper (Dunn et al., 2004), is based on soil water content determined by application of a weekly water balance model. This model uses national scale datasets and has been developed and applied to the whole of Scotland using five years of historical meteorological data. A catchment scale transport model, constructed from a 50m digital elevation model, routes flows of N through the sub-surface and groundwater to the stream system. The results of the simulations carried out for eight different catchments demonstrate that the NIRAMS model is capable of predicting time-series of weekly stream flows and N concentrations, to an acceptable degree of accuracy. The model provides an appropriate framework for risk assessment applications requiring predictions in ungauged catchments and at a national scale. Analysis of the model behaviour shows that streamwater N concentrations are controlled both by the rate of supply of N from leaching as well as the rate of transport of N from the land to the water. Keywords: nitrogen, diffuse pollution, hydrology, model, transport, catchment
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Tufekcioglu, Mustafa, Richard C. Schultz, Thomas M. Isenhart, John L. Kovar, and James R. Russell. "Riparian Land-Use, Stream Morphology and Streambank Erosion within Grazed Pastures in Southern Iowa, USA: A Catchment-Wide Perspective." Sustainability 12, no. 16 (August 11, 2020): 6461. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12166461.
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Factors influencing streambank erosion at the field/reach scale include both watershed and riparian land-uses, stream hydrology and channel morphology at the catchment scale. This study assesses the relationship of riparian land-uses, stream morphologic characteristics and catchment scale variables to streambank erosion within grazed riparian pastures in the Southern Iowa Drift Plain. Thirteen cooperating beef cow–calf farms and their catchments ranging from 2.5 to 12.9 km2 in the Rathbun Lake watershed in South Central Iowa (USA) were chosen to conduct this study. Results suggest that the integration of stream morphologic characteristics and riparian land-uses at both the reach and catchment scale are necessary to explain the current level of streambank erosion measured at the reach scale. Larger catchment size or catchments with more total channel length were found to experience more bank erosion at the reach scale. A significant positive relationship between percent sand-and-silt in the bank soil and bank erosion rates implies that bank soils with less cohesiveness are more erodible. Catchment-scale assessments of the thirteen watersheds showed that within the 50 m corridor on both sides of the stream, 46 to 61% of riparian area was devoted to agricultural use and only 6 to 11% was in ungrazed perennial vegetation, much of it enrolled in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. Overall, this and previous Rathbun watershed studies have shown that intensive agricultural use of riparian areas over such extents of time and scale could be directly (in field scale) and/or indirectly (watershed scale) related to excessive amounts of streambank erosion (ranging from 8.6 to 38.3 cm/yr) to receiving streams and lakes leading to their impairment and reduction in ecological services. Exclusion of cattle grazing in the riparian areas along buffered stream lengths (2.1% of the total watershed area) of the Rathbun watershed would reduce this impact. This approach could also be applicable to other similar watersheds with extensive land-use under grazed management.
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Venohr, M., I. Donohue, S. Fogelberg, B. Arheimer, K. Irvine, and H. Behrendt. "Nitrogen retention in a river system and the effects of river morphology and lakes." Water Science and Technology 51, no. 3-4 (February 1, 2005): 19–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2005.0571.
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The mean annual transfer (loss and retention) of nitrogen in a river system was estimated using a conceptual approach based on water surface area and runoff. Two different approaches for the calculation of water surface area were applied to determine riverine nitrogen retention in four European catchments, ranging between 860–14,000 km2 in area, and differing considerably in the proportion and distribution of surface waters, specific runoff and specific nutrient emissions. The transfer rate was estimated sequentially as either the mean value for the total catchment, on a sub-catchment scale, or considering the distribution of water surface area within a sub-catchment. For the latter measure, nitrogen retention in larger lakes was calculated separately. Nitrogen emissions modelled with MONERIS and HBV-N were used to calculate nitrogen river loads and compare those with observed loads. Inclusion of the proportion of water area within a sub-catchment improved modelled results in catchment with large lakes in sub-catchments, but not where there was a homogenous distribution of surface waters among sub-catchments.
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Veinbergs, A., and A. Lagzdins. "The impact of regional and catchment characteristics on long-term runoff in small agricultural catchments in Latvia." Water Practice and Technology 17, no. 2 (January 25, 2022): 587–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wpt.2022.005.
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Abstract The explanation of runoff behavior is challenging due to variable weather conditions, and catchment characteristics. The parameter equifinality in catchment-scale models turns into the uncertain distribution of water balance components even though models tend to represent total runoff well. This study aims to discuss long-term runoff and evapotranspiration (ET) variations affected by regional allocation and catchment characteristics in Latvia. The study applies the observational runoff data from drainage fields and small catchment scales. The sites represent the spatially different regions in Latvia with relatively variable yearly precipitation amounts. The robust data of surface slope gradients, the share of subsurface drainage systems, arable and grasslands, and ditch networks describes the differences in the catchment characteristics. The results reveal that higher long-term yearly average runoff and ET rates are experienced by the regions with higher yearly precipitation amounts. Simultaneously, the higher the long-term yearly average precipitation and steeper the surface slope gradient, the proportionally (%) higher is the runoff contribution into the water balance. When compared with the small catchments, the soil profiles at drainage fields might store more water after the subsurface drainage runoff is running short. Consequently, the small catchments might experience the later response of subsurface drainage runoff after the dry seasons.
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Pan, Baoxiang, and Zhentao Cong. "Information Analysis of Catchment Hydrologic Patterns across Temporal Scales." Advances in Meteorology 2016 (2016): 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1891465.
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Catchment hydrologic cycle takes on different patterns across temporal scales. The interim between event-scale hydrologic process and mean annual water-energy correlation pattern requires further examination to justify self-consistent understanding. In this paper, the temporal scale transition revealed by observation and simulation was evaluated in an information theoretical framework namedAleatory Epistemic Uncertainty Estimation. The Aleatory Uncertainty refers to posterior uncertainty of runoff given the input variables’ observations. The Epistemic Uncertainty refers to the posterior uncertainty increase due to the imperfect observationdecodingin models. Daily hydrometeorological observations in 24 catchments were aggregated from 10 days to 1 year before implementing the information analysis. Estimations of information contents and flows of hydrologic terms across temporal scales were related with the catchments’ seasonality type. It also showed that information distilled by the monthly and annual water balance models applied here did not correspond to that provided by observations around temporal scale from two months to half a year. This calls for a better understanding of seasonal hydrologic mechanism.
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Poulsen, J. B., E. Sebok, C. Duque, D. Tetzlaff, and P. K. Engesgaard. "Detecting groundwater discharge dynamics from point to catchment scale in a lowland stream: combining hydraulic and tracer methods." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 11, no. 12 (December 1, 2014): 13101–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-11-13101-2014.
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Abstract. Detecting, quantifying, and understanding groundwater discharge to streams are crucial for the assessment of water, nutrient and contaminant exchange at the surface water–groundwater interface. In lowland agricultural catchments with significant groundwater discharge this is of particular importance because of the risk of excess leaching of nutrients to streams. Here we aim to combine hydraulic and tracer methods from point to catchment scale to assess the temporal and spatial variability of groundwater discharge in a lowland, groundwater gaining stream in Denmark. At the point scale groundwater fluxes to the stream were quantified based on Vertical streambed Temperature Profiles (VTP). At the reach scale (0.15–2 km) the spatial distribution of zones of focused groundwater discharge was investigated by the use of Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS). Groundwater discharge to the stream was quantified using differential gauging with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). At the catchment scale (26–114 km2) runoff sources during main rain events were investigated by hydrograph separations based on Electrical Conductivity (EC) and stable isotopes 2H / 1H. Clear differences in runoff sources between catchments were detected, ranging from approximately 65% event water for the most responsive sub-catchment and less than 10% event water for the least responsive sub-catchment. This shows a large variability in groundwater discharge to the stream, despite the similar lowland characteristics of sub-catchments, indicating the usefulness of environmental tracers for obtaining information about integrated catchment functioning during events. There were also clear spatial patterns of focused groundwater discharge detected by the DTS and ADCP measurements at the reach scale suggesting high spatial variability, where a significant part of groundwater discharge was concentrated in few zones indicating the possibility of concentrated nutrient or pollutant transport-zones from nearby agricultural fields. VTP measurements confirmed high groundwater fluxes in the discharge areas found by DTS and ADCP, and this coupling of ADCP, DTS and VTP proposes a novel field methodology to detect areas of focused groundwater discharge with higher resolution.
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Rodgers, P., C. Soulsby, S. Waldron, and D. Tetzlaff. "Using stable isotope tracers to assess hydrological flow paths, residence times and landscape influences in a nested mesoscale catchment." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 9, no. 3 (July 22, 2005): 139–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-9-139-2005.
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Abstract. δ18O measurements in precipitation and stream waters were used to investigate hydrological flow paths and residence times at nested spatial scales in the mesoscale (233 km2) River Feugh catchment in the northeast of Scotland over the 2001-2002 hydrological year. Precipitation δ18O exhibited strong seasonal variation, which although significantly damped within the catchment, was reflected in stream water at six sampling sites. This allowed δ18O variations to be used to infer the relative influence of soil-derived storm flows with a seasonally variable isotopic signature, and groundwater of apparently more constant isotopic composition. Periodic regression analysis was then used to examine the sub-catchment difference using an exponential flow model to provide indicative estimates of mean stream water residence times, which varied between approximately 3 and 14 months. This showed that the effects of increasing scale on estimated mean stream water residence time was minimal beyond that of the smallest (ca. 1 km2) headwater catchment scale. Instead, the interaction of catchment soil cover and topography appeared to be the dominant controlling influence. Where sub-catchments had extensive peat coverage, responsive hydrological pathways produced seasonally variable δ18O signatures in runoff with short mean residence times (ca. 3 months). In contrast, areas dominated by steeper slopes, more freely draining soils and larger groundwater storage in shallow valley-bottom aquifers, deeper flow paths allow for more effective mixing and damping of δ18O indicating longer residence times (>12 months). These insights from δ18O measurements extend the hydrological understanding of the Feugh catchment gained from previous geochemical tracer studies, and demonstrate the utility of isotope tracers in investigating the interaction of hydrological processes and catchment characteristics at larger spatial scales.
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Carrillo, G., P. A. Troch, M. Sivapalan, T. Wagener, C. Harman, and K. Sawicz. "Catchment classification: hydrological analysis of catchment behavior through process-based modeling along a climate gradient." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 8, no. 3 (May 9, 2011): 4583–640. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-8-4583-2011.
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Abstract. Catchment classification is an efficient method to synthesize our understanding of how climate variability and catchment characteristics interact to define hydrological response. One way to accomplish catchment classification is to empirically relate climate and catchment characteristics to hydrologic behavior and to quantify the skill of predicting hydrologic response based on the combination of climate and catchment characteristics. Since there are important subsurface properties that cannot be readily measured, the skill of classification reflects (the lack of) the amount of cross-correlation between observable landscape features and unobservable subsurface features. The resulting empirical approach is also strongly controlled by the dataset used, and therefore lacks the power to generalize beyond the heterogeneity of characteristics found in the dataset. An alternative approach, that can partially alleviate the above-mentioned issue of observability, uses our current level of hydrological understanding, expressed in the form of a process-based model, to interrogate how climate and catchment characteristics interact to produce the observed hydrologic response. In this paper we present a general method of hydrologic analysis by means of a process-based model to support a bottom-up catchment classification system complementary to top-down classification methods. The model uses topographic, geomorphologic, soil and vegetation information at the catchment scale and conditions parameter values using readily available data on precipitation, temperature and streamflow. It is applicable to a wide range of catchments in different climate settings. We have developed a step-by-step procedure to analyze the observed hydrologic response and to assign parameter values related to specific components of the model. We applied this procedure to 12 catchments across a climate gradient east of the Rocky Mountains, USA. We show that the model is capable of reproducing the observed hydrologic behavior measured through hydrologic signatures chosen at different temporal scales. Next, we analyze the dominant time scales of catchment response and their dimensionless ratios with respect to climate and observable landscape features in an attempt to explain hydrologic partitioning. We find that only a limited number of model parameters can be related to observable landscape features. However, several climate-model time scales, and the associated dimensionless numbers, show scaling relationships with respect to the investigated hydrological signatures (runoff coefficient, baseflow index, and slope of the flow duration curve). Moreover, our analysis revealed systematic co-variation of climate, vegetation and soil related time scales along the climate gradient. If such co-variation can be shown to be robust across many catchments along different climate gradients, it opens perspective for model parameterization in ungauged catchments as well as prediction of hydrologic response in a rapidly changing environment.
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Beverly, C., M. Bari, B. Christy, M. Hocking, and K. Smettem. "Predicted salinity impacts from land use change: comparison between rapid assessment approaches and a detailed modelling framework." Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 45, no. 11 (2005): 1453. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ea04192.
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This paper illustrates the hydrological limitations and underlying assumptions of 4 catchment modelling approaches representing different generic classes of predictive models. These models are commonly used to estimate the impacts of land use and management change on stream flow and salinity regimes within a target region. Three approaches are based on a simple conceptual framework that assumes a single layer groundwater aquifer and requires minimal information and calibration (Zhang-BC2C, CAT1D-BC2C and LUCICAT), whereas the fourth approach (CAT3D) adopts a fully distributed highly parameterised catchment model capable of simulating complex multi-layered groundwater aquifer systems. All models were applied to the Gardiner subcatchment within the Goulburn–Broken region of Victoria, identified as a National Action Plan for Salinity priority subcatchment. Current condition simulation results were compared with observed stream flow and groundwater hydrograph data. Results show that the simple frameworks predicted whole-of-catchment mean annual salt and water yield with minimum parameterisation. The fully distributed framework produced similar catchment-scale responses to the simple approaches, but required more intensive input data and solution times. However, the fully distributed framework provides finer temporal and spatial scale information within the catchment. The more detailed models (such as CAT3D) also have the predictive capacity to assess the within-catchment dynamics at a range of scales and account for landscape position and complex surface/groundwater interactions. This paper concludes that the simple frameworks are useful for judging the whole-of-catchment impacts of broad-scale land use change on catchment water yields and salinity and therefore provide valuable tools for community engagement. However, the within-catchment dynamics are not well represented and particular care must be taken when applying such models in those catchments where the interaction between groundwater and surface features result in saturated areas that are disconnected from streams. Adoption of a distributed groundwater modelling environment similar to that of CAT3D provides higher spatial resolution relative to the lumped broad scale groundwater glow system (GFS) based parameterisation adopted by the BC2C rapid assessment approaches. The developers of the BC2C model acknowledge that such models are currently limited to upland local and intermediate groundwater flow systems. Given that the majority of land salinisation is located in regions dominated by intermediate and regional groundwater systems, this tool is not well suited to adequately model regional processes. In contrast, the CAT3D distributed groundwater models are likely to be applicable across a range of scales and provide the capacity to assess the trade offs between salinity recharge and discharge intervention strategies. We conclude that more complex models (e.g. CAT3D) are needed to identify at the land management scale (paddock/farm) cost effective land use and land management changes within the catchment to improve catchment health.
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Maurer, T., A. Schneider, and H. H. Gerke. "A structure generator for modelling the initial sediment distribution of an artificial hydrologic catchment." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 15, no. 12 (December 1, 2011): 3617–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-3617-2011.
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Abstract. Artificially-created hydrological catchments are characterised by sediment structures from technological construction processes that can potentially be important for modelling of flow and transport and for understanding initial soil and ecosystem development. The subsurface spatial structures of such catchments have not yet been sufficiently explored and described. Our objective was to develop a structure generator programme for modelling the 3-D spatial distribution patterns of dumped sediments depending on the technical earth-moving and deposition processes. We are focussing in a first step on integrating sediment dumping, particle size, and bulk density modification processes on the catchment scale. For the model development, the artificially-constructed hydrological catchment "Chicken Creek" located in Lower Lusatia, Germany, served as an example. The structure generator describes 3-D technological sediment distributions at two scales: (i) for a 2-D-vertical cross-section, texture and bulk density distributions are generated within individual spoil cones that result from mass dumping, particle segregation, and compaction and (ii) for the whole catchment, the spoil cones are horizontally arranged along trajectories of mass dumping controlled by the belt stacker-machine relative to the catchment's clay layer topography. The generated 3-D texture and bulk density distributions are interpolated and visualised as a gridded 3-D-volume body using 3-D computer-aided design software. The generated subsurface sediment distribution for the Chicken Creek catchment was found to correspond to observed patterns already without calibration. Spatial aggregation and interpolation in the gridded volume body modified the generated distributions towards more uniform (unimodal) distributions and lower values of the standard deviations. The modelling approach is generally applicable to all situations where large masses of unconsolidated sediment are moved and dumped thereby allowing generation of basic soil structures and patterns of hydrological systems.
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Zoccatelli, Davide, Francesco Marra, Moshe Armon, Yair Rinat, James A. Smith, and Efrat Morin. "Contrasting rainfall-runoff characteristics of floods in desert and Mediterranean basins." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 23, no. 6 (June 21, 2019): 2665–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2665-2019.
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Abstract. Catchment-scale hydrological studies on drylands are lacking because of the scarcity of consistent data: observations are often available at the plot scale, but their relevance for the catchment scale remains unclear. A database of 24 years of stream gauge discharge and homogeneous high-resolution radar data over the eastern Mediterranean allows us to describe the properties of floods over catchments spanning from desert to Mediterranean climates, and we note that the data set is mostly of moderate intensity floods. Comparing two climatic regions, desert and Mediterranean, we can better identify specific rainfall-runoff properties. Despite the large differences in rainfall forcing between the two regions, the resulting unit peak discharges and runoff coefficients are comparable. Rain depth and antecedent conditions are the most important properties to shape flood response in Mediterranean areas. In deserts, instead, storm core properties display a strong correlation with unit peak discharge and, to a lesser extent, with runoff coefficient. In this region, an inverse correlation with mean catchment annual precipitation suggests also a strong influence of local surface properties. Preliminary analyses suggest that floods in catchments with wet headwater and dry lower section are more similar to desert catchments, with a strong influence of storm core properties on runoff generation.
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Horan, Robyn, Pawan S. Wable, Veena Srinivasan, Helen E. Baron, Virginie J. D. Keller, Kaushal K. Garg, Nathan Rickards, Mike Simpson, Helen A. Houghton-Carr, and H. Gwyn Rees. "Modelling Small-Scale Storage Interventions in Semi-Arid India at the Basin Scale." Sustainability 13, no. 11 (May 29, 2021): 6129. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13116129.
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There has been renewed interest in the performance, functionality, and sustainability of traditional small-scale storage interventions (check dams, farm bunds and tanks) used within semi-arid regions for the improvement of local water security and landscape preservation. The Central Groundwater Board of India is encouraging the construction of such interventions for the alleviation of water scarcity and to improve groundwater recharge. It is important for water resource management to understand the hydrological effect of these interventions at the basin scale. The quantification of small-scale interventions in hydrological modelling is often neglected, especially in large-scale modelling activities, as data availability is low and their hydrological functioning is uncertain. A version of the Global Water Availability Assessment (GWAVA) water resources model was developed to assess the impact of interventions on the water balance of the Cauvery Basin and two smaller sub-catchments. Model results demonstrate that farm bunds appear to have a negligible effect on the average annual simulated streamflow at the outlets of the two sub-catchments and the basin, whereas tanks and check dams have a more significant and time varying effect. The open water surface of the interventions contributed to an increase in evaporation losses across the catchment. The change in simulated groundwater storage with the inclusion of interventions was not as significant as catchment-scale literature and field studies suggest. The model adaption used in this study provides a step-change in the conceptualisation and quantification of the consequences of small-scale storage interventions in large- or basin-scale hydrological models.
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Dehotin, J., and I. Braud. "Which spatial discretization for distributed hydrological models? Proposition of a methodology and illustration for medium to large-scale catchments." Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 12, no. 3 (May 23, 2008): 769–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hess-12-769-2008.
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Abstract. Distributed hydrological models are valuable tools to derive distributed estimation of water balance components or to study the impact of land-use or climate change on water resources and water quality. In these models, the choice of an appropriate spatial discretization is a crucial issue. It is obviously linked to the available data, their spatial resolution and the dominant hydrological processes. For a given catchment and a given data set, the "optimal" spatial discretization should be adapted to the modelling objectives, as the latter determine the dominant hydrological processes considered in the modelling. For small catchments, landscape heterogeneity can be represented explicitly, whereas for large catchments such fine representation is not feasible and simplification is needed. The question is thus: is it possible to design a flexible methodology to represent landscape heterogeneity efficiently, according to the problem to be solved? This methodology should allow a controlled and objective trade-off between available data, the scale of the dominant water cycle components and the modelling objectives. In this paper, we propose a general methodology for such catchment discretization. It is based on the use of nested discretizations. The first level of discretization is composed of the sub-catchments, organised by the river network topology. The sub-catchment variability can be described using a second level of discretizations, which is called hydro-landscape units. This level of discretization is only performed if it is consistent with the modelling objectives, the active hydrological processes and data availability. The hydro-landscapes take into account different geophysical factors such as topography, land-use, pedology, but also suitable hydrological discontinuities such as ditches, hedges, dams, etc. For numerical reasons these hydro-landscapes can be further subdivided into smaller elements that will constitute the modelling units (third level of discretization). The first part of the paper presents a review about catchment discretization in hydrological models from which we derived the principles of our general methodology. The second part of the paper focuses on the derivation of hydro-landscape units for medium to large scale catchments. For this sub-catchment discretization, we propose the use of principles borrowed from landscape classification. These principles are independent of the catchment size. They allow retaining suitable features required in the catchment description in order to fulfil a specific modelling objective. The method leads to unstructured and homogeneous areas within the sub-catchments, which can be used to derive modelling meshes. It avoids map smoothing by suppressing the smallest units, the role of which can be very important in hydrology, and provides a confidence map (the distance map) for the classification. The confidence map can be used for further uncertainty analysis of modelling results. The final discretization remains consistent with the resolution of input data and that of the source maps. The last part of the paper illustrates the method using available data for the upper Saône catchment in France. The interest of the method for an efficient representation of landscape heterogeneity is illustrated by a comparison with more traditional mapping approaches. Examples of possible models, which can be built on this spatial discretization, are finally given as perspectives for the work.
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Chifflard, Peter, Julius Kranl, Georg zur Strassen, and Harald Zepp. "The significance of soil moisture in forecasting characteristics of flood events. A statistical analysis in two nested catchments." Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics 66, no. 1 (March 1, 2018): 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/johh-2017-0037.
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Abstract We examine the feasibility and added value of upscaling point data of soil moisture from a small- to a mesoscale catchment for the purpose of single-event flood prediction. We test the hypothesis that in a given catchment, the present soil moisture status is a key factor governing peak discharge, flow volume and flood duration. Multiple regression analyses of rainfall, pre-event discharge, single point soil moisture profiles from representative locations and peak discharge, discharge duration, discharge volume are discussed. The soil moisture profiles are selected along a convergent slope connected to the groundwater in flood plain within the small-scale catchment Husten (2.6 km²), which is a headwater catchment of the larger Hüppcherhammer catchment (47.2 km², Germany). Results show that the number of explanatory variables in the regression models is higher in summer (up to 8 variables) than in winter (up to 3 variables) and higher in the meso-scale catchment than in the small-scale catchment (up to 2 variables). Soil moisture data from selected key locations in the small catchment improves the quality of regression models established for the meso-scale catchment. For the different target variables peak discharge, discharge duration and discharge volume the adding of the soil moisture from the flood plain and the lower slope as explanatory variable improves the quality of the regression model by 15%, 20% and 10%, respectively, especially during the summer season. In the winter season the improvement is smaller (up to 6%) and the regression models mainly include rainfall characteristics as explanatory variables. The appearance of the soil moisture variables in the stepwise regression indicates their varying importance, depending on which characteristics of the discharge are focused on. Thus, we conclude that point data for soil moisture in functional landscape elements describe the catchments’ initial conditions very well and may yield valuable information for flood prediction and warning systems.