How to improve attribution of changes in drought and flood impacts

ABSTRACT

For the development of sustainable, efficient risk management strategies for the hydrological extremes of droughts and floods, it is essential to understand the temporal changes of impacts, and their respective causes and interactions. In particular, little is known about changes in vulnerability and their influence on drought and flood impacts. We present a fictitious dialogue between two experts, one in droughts and the other in floods, showing that the main obstacles to scientific advancement in this area are both a lack of data and a lack of commonly accepted approaches. The drought and flood experts “discuss” available data and methods and we suggest a complementary approach. This approach consists of collecting a large number of single or multiple paired-event case studies from catchments around the world, undertaking detailed analyses of changes in impacts and drivers, and carrying out a comparative analysis. The advantages of this approach are that it allows detailed context- and location-specific assessments based on the paired-event analyses, and reveals general, transferable conclusions based on the comparative analysis of various case studies. Additionally, it is quite flexible in terms of data and can accommodate differences between floods and droughts.     

Approaches to analyse and model changes in impacts: reply to discussions of “How to improve attribution of changes in drought and flood impacts”*

ABSTRACT

We thank the authors, Brunella Bonaccorso and Karsten Arnbjerg-Nielsen for their constructive contributions to the discussion about the attribution of changes in drought and flood impacts. We appreciate that they support our opinion, but in particular their additional new ideas on how to better understand changes in impacts. It is great that they challenge us to think a step further on how to foster the collection of long time series of data and how to use these to model and project changes. Here, we elaborate on the possibility to collect time series of data on hazard, exposure, vulnerability and impacts and how these could be used to improve e.g. socio-hydrological models for the development of future risk scenarios.     

Discussion of “How to improve attribution of changes in drought and flood impacts”*

ABSTRACT

The opinion paper by Kreibich et al. provides interesting insights into the interplay between floods and droughts, which are often ignored. The structure of the paper is original and the findings of high interest. It may however be difficult to obtain the required data to pursue the research agenda in actual catchments. This discussion paper suggests various ways in which the linkages between floods and droughts can be explored even if recorded data of sufficient detail is not available.     

Daily streamflow trends in Western versus Eastern Norway and their attribution to hydro-meteorological drivers

Regional warming and modifications in precipitation regimes has large impacts on streamflow in Norway, where both rainfall and snowmelt are important runoff generating processes. Hydrological impacts of recent changes in climate are usually investigated by trend analyses applied on annual, seasonal, or monthly time series. None of these detect sub-seasonal changes and their underlying causes. This study investigated sub-seasonal changes in streamflow, rainfall, and snowmelt in 61 and 51 catchments respectively in Western (Vestlandet) and Eastern (Østlandet) Norway by applying the Mann–Kendall test and Theil–Sen estimator on 10-day moving averaged daily time series over a 30-year period (1983–2012). The relative contribution of rainfall versus snowmelt to daily streamflow and the changes therein have also been estimated to identify the changing relevance of these driving processes over the same period. Detected changes in 10-day moving averaged daily streamflow were finally attributed to changes in the most important hydro-meteorological drivers using multiple-regression models with increasing complexity. Earlier spring flow timing in both regions occur due to earlier snowmelt. Østlandet shows increased summer streamflow in catchments up to 1100 m a.s.l. and slightly increased winter streamflow in about 50% of the catchments. Trend patterns in Vestlandet are less coherent. The importance of rainfall has increased in both regions. Attribution of trends reveals that changes in rainfall and snowmelt can explain some streamflow changes where they are dominant processes (e.g., spring snowmelt in Østlandet and autumn rainfall in Vestlandet). Overall, the detected streamflow changes can be best explained by adding temperature trends as an additional predictor, indicating the relevance of additional driving processes such as increased glacier melt and evapotranspiration.     

A process-based approach to attribution of historical streamflow decline in a data-scarce and human-dominated watershed

Human activities have resulted in rapid hydrological change around the world, in many cases producing shifts in the dominant hydrological processes, confounding predictions, and complicating effective management and planning. Identifying and characterizing such changes in hydrological processes is therefore a globally relevant problem, one that is particularly challenging in sparsely monitored environments. We develop a novel, process-based approach for attribution of hydrological change in such scenarios and apply the approach to the TG Halli watershed outside Bangalore, India, where streamflow has declined considerably over the last 50 years. The approach consists of (a) employing a range of field instrumentation and experiments to identify contemporary streamflow generation mechanisms, (b) using these observations to constrain our understanding and generate hypotheses pertaining to historical changes, and (c) evaluating these hypotheses with a range of evidence including proxies for historical hydrological processes. The body of evidence in the TG Halli watershed indicates the historical presence and subsequent loss of a shallow groundwater table that previously discharged to the stream, meaning that groundwater depletion is the most likely driver of streamflow decline. These findings present a viable path towards improved predictions of future water resources and sustainable water management within the watershed. Our process-based approach to attribution has the potential to improve understanding of human-driven hydrological change in regions with poor monitoring of hydrological systems.     

Changes in flood characteristics and the flood driving mechanism in the mountainous Haihe River Basin,China

ABSTRACT

Recently, the land surface in the Haihe River basin has changed, influencing the flood processes in the basin. To quantify this impact, seven typical sub-catchments were selected from different hydrological regions of the Haihe River basin for study. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall test was used to analyse for trends, and the non-parametric Pettitt test was adopted to detect any change point in the flood time series. Then, a hydrological model was established to simulate the effects of each potential driving factor on flood peak and volume. It was shown that flood peak and volume time series had decreased significantly, and the change point was around the year 1980. Groundwater depletion was not the main contribution to flood peak (FP) and volume (FV) decrease. In the Shifokou, Mubi and Lengkou sub-catchments, small hydraulic structures are the main driving factors for FP and FV decreasing. In the Xitaiyu, Daomaguan and Fuping sub-catchments, both land-use change and hydraulic structures are the main driving factors. The decreasing percentage decreases with the increase of the flood magnitude. The results provide valuable information for flood simulation and control in the Haihe River basin.     

气候变暖下太湖极端洪水的归因探讨

全球增温引起的降水变化是否引起极端洪水的增加,发生在不同气候背景的极端洪水事件可提供不同参照系;而不同驱动因子下气候、水文数值模拟为认识洪水发生和归因提供了有效途径.本文结合机理数值模拟和随机统计模拟两种途径,针对1990s和1880s的太湖流域特大洪水,通过GCM气候模拟驱动的流域水文模拟和不确定性的阈值模拟,分析19世纪末和20世纪末极端洪水的发生强度和频率的变化,从而论证极端洪水发生的风险系数.结果表明,1990s的极端洪水流量(0.1%的极端洪水流量(Q0.1%)为2929~3601 m³/s,0.5%的极端洪水流量(Q0.5%)为1842~1893 m³/s)比工业革命前大气温室气体状况下(Q0.1%为2069~3119 m³/s,Q0.5%为1436~1561 m³/s)显著增大.与19世纪末相比,由于太湖流域人类活动改变的流域下垫面在1999年特大洪水中引起最大增量占35%,本文模拟和分析的20世纪末气候下的洪水最大增量占60%.去除人类活动影响的下垫面变化,估计特大洪水风险的最大增量为25%,因此认为20世纪末气候变化引起的太湖极端洪水风险在增加;这将为认识与全球增温相关联的洪水灾害预测预警提供科学依据.     

Using land cover changes and demographic data to improve hydrological modeling in the Sahel

At the beginning of the drought in the Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s, rainfall decreased markedly, but runoff coefficients and in some cases, absolute runoff increased. This situation was due to the conversion of the land cover from natural vegetation with a low annual runoff coefficient, to cropland and bare soils, whose runoff coefficients are higher. Unless they are adapted, hydrological conceptual models, such as GR2M, are unable to reproduce this increase in runoff. Despite the varying environmental and climatic conditions of the West African Sahel, we show that it is possible to increase the performance of the GR2M model simulations by elaborating a time‐varying soil water holding capacity and to incorporate this value in the annual maximum amount of water to be stored in reservoir A of the model. We looked for interactions between climate, rural society, and the environment. These interactions drive land‐cover changes in the Sahel, which in turn drive the distribution of rainfall between infiltration, evaporation, and runoff and hence the water resources, which are vital in this region. We elaborated several time series of key indicators linked to these interactions. We then integrated these changes in the runoff conditions of the GR2M model through the maximum value of the reservoir capacity. We calculated annual values of water holding capacity using the annual values of four classes of land cover, natural vegetation, cultivated area, bare soil, and surface water. We then used the hydrological model with and without this time‐varying soil value of A and compared the performances of the model under the two scenarios. Whatever the calibration period used, the Nash–Sutcliffe index was always greater in the case of the time‐varying A time series.     

A modelling framework for evaluation of the hydrological impacts of nature‐based approaches to flood risk management,with application to in‐channel interventions across a 29‐km2 scale catchment in the United Kingdom

Nature‐based approaches to flood risk management are increasing in popularity. Evidence for the effectiveness at the catchment scale of such spatially distributed upstream measures is inconclusive. However, it also remains an open question whether, under certain conditions, the individual impacts of a collection of flood mitigation interventions could combine to produce a detrimental effect on runoff response. A modelling framework is presented for evaluation of the impacts of hillslope and in‐channel natural flood management interventions. It couples an existing semidistributed hydrological model with a new, spatially explicit, hydraulic channel network routing model. The model is applied to assess a potential flood mitigation scheme in an agricultural catchment in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom, comprising various configurations of a single variety of in‐channel feature. The hydrological model is used to generate subsurface and surface fluxes for a flood event in 2012. The network routing model is then applied to evaluate the response to the addition of up to 59 features. Additional channel and floodplain storage of approximately 70,000 m³ is seen with a reduction of around 11% in peak discharge. Although this might be sufficient to reduce flooding in moderate events, it is inadequate to prevent flooding in the double‐peaked storm of the magnitude that caused damage within the catchment in 2012. Some strategies using features specific to this catchment are suggested in order to improve the attenuation that could be achieved by applying a nature‐based approach.     

Extreme precipitation and long-term precipitation changes in a Central European sedge-grass marsh in the context of flood occurrence

This study offers a detailed analysis of the extreme precipitation and long-term precipitation changes in a sedge-grass marsh in the “Wet Meadows” area in the Czech Republic (Central Europe) in the context of flood occurrence. Namely, trends in annual maxima of daily precipitation and trends in the occurrence and amount of rainfall are investigated. The analysis is based on daily measurements of precipitation from 1977 to 2015. We found out that extreme precipitation has become significantly more frequent in recent years, and there are also other significant changes in the rainfall distribution. Possible negative effects on the wetland can be linked to a change of carbon exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere and a change of biodiversity. Awareness of these changes is necessary for possible positive human intervention when a desirable wetland functioning is threatened.     

The use of historical flood information in the English Midlands to improve risk assessment

Abstract

The Easter 1998 flood was the largest flood event in the gauged record of many basins of the English Midlands. Flood frequency analysis, using such gauged records only, placed the 1998 event at a return period of over 100 years on several basins. However a review of historical (pre-gauged) flooding on some rivers gives a different perspective. Examples are given of the use of historical flood information on the River Leam, the River Wreake at Melton Mowbray, the River Sence (tributary to the River Soar) and the River Frome at Stroud. The cost of acquiring such historical flood data is trivial in comparison to gauged data, but the benefits are demonstrated as significant. In particular, historical flood data provide a better basis for risk assessment and planning on flood plains through revised estimates of flood discharge and depth.     

Changes in the long-term hydrological regimes and the impacts of human activities in the main Wei River,China

ABSTRACT

Under the combined influence of climate changes and human activities, the hydrological regime of the Wei River shows remarkable variations which have caused many issues in the Wei River in recent decades, such as a lack of freshwater, water pollution, disastrous flooding and channel sedimentation. Hence, hydrological regime changes and potential human-induced impacts have been drawing increasing attention from local government and hydrologists. This study investigates hydrological regime changes in the natural and measured runoff series at four hydrological stations on the main Wei River and quantifies features of their long-term change by analysing their historical annual and seasonal runoff data using several approaches, i.e., continuous wavelet transform, cross-wavelet, wavelet coherence, trend-free pre-whitening Mann-Kendall test and detrended fluctuation analysis. By contrasting two different analysis results between natural and measured river runoff series, the impacts of human activities on the long-term hydrological regime were investigated via the changes of spatio-temporal distribution in dominant periods, the trends and long-range memory of river runoff. The results show : (a) that periodic properties of the streamflow changes are the result of climate, referring to precipitation changes in particular, while human activities play a minor role; (b) a significant decreasing trend can be observed in the natural streamflow series along the entire main stream of the Wei River and the more serious decrease emerging in measured flow should result from human-induced influences in recent decades; and (c) continuous decreasing streamflow in the Wei River will trigger serious shortages of freshwater in the future, which may challenge the sustainability and safety of water resources development in the river basin, and should be paid great attention before 2020.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor K. Hamed     

Tidally‐averaged flows in the interior Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta: Trends and change attribution

The hydrology of the San Francisco Bay‐Delta estuary (the Delta) has been significantly modified over the past 150 years to serve a variety of human needs for water supply and food production, albeit with adverse ecological impacts. These adverse impacts, in concert with evolving societal values, have motivated change in the estuary's water management to promote ecosystem restoration goals while continuing to support human uses. Understanding historical flow patterns, as well as the environmental functions provided by these flow patterns, is critical to restoration planning. Building upon previous work on outflow trends from the Delta to San Francisco Bay, this paper evaluates historical trends in key interior Delta flows spanning nine decades (1922–2016) and presents an attribution of these trends to various anthropogenic drivers. We reconstructed historical time series records at four key locations in the interior of the Delta; these time series represent tidally‐averaged flows that are intensively managed and are of great importance to the beneficial uses of water in the region. We derived several scenario‐based flow time series at these same four locations to assist in attributing change to a variety of drivers, including reservoir and export pumping operations, in‐Delta barrier and gate operations, and upstream water diversions. Flow changes were measured relative to 1920‐level land use and water management conditions. We find the four interior Delta locations to have distinct seasonal flow trends and, in general, unique responses to various drivers of change. Our work highlights the complex nature of historical flow changes in a highly‐managed estuarine ecosystem, and the types of modifications that would be necessary to reverse these changes.     

A framework for quantifying the impacts of climate change and human activities on hydrological drought in a semiarid basin of Northern China

Climate change and human activities are two major driving forces affecting the hydrologic cycle, which further influence the stationarity of the hydrologic regime. Hydrological drought is a substantial negative deviation from the normal hydrologic conditions affected by these two phenomena. In this study, we propose a framework for quantifying the effects of climate change and human activities on hydrological drought. First, trend analysis and change‐point test are performed to determine variations of hydrological variables. After that, the fixed runoff threshold level method (TLM) and the standardized runoff index (SRI) are used to verify whether the traditional assessment methods for hydrological drought are applicable in a changing environment. Finally, two improved drought assessment methods, the variable TLM and the SRI based on parameter transplantation are employed to quantify the impacts of climate change and human activities on hydrological drought based on the reconstructed natural runoff series obtained using the variable infiltration capacity hydrologic model. The results of a case study on the typical semiarid Laohahe basin in North China show that the stationarity of the hydrological processes in the basin is destroyed by human activities (an obvious change‐point for runoff series is identified in 1979). The traditional hydrological drought assessment methods can no longer be applied to the period of 1980–2015. In contrast, the proposed separation framework is able to quantify the contributions of climate change and human activities to hydrological drought during the above period. Their ranges of contributions to hydrological drought calculated by the variable TLM method are 20.6–41.2% and 58.8–79.4%, and the results determined by the SRI based on parameter transplantation method are 15.3–45.3% and 54.7–84.7%, respectively. It is concluded that human activities have a dominant effect on hydrological drought in the study region. The novelty of the study is twofold. First, the proposed method is demonstrated to be efficient in quantifying the effects of climate change and human activities on hydrological drought. Second, the findings of this study can be used for hydrological drought assessment and water resource management in water‐stressed regions under nonstationary conditions.     

黄河流域气候与农业种植面积变化对径流的影响

根据黄河流域1960—2005年5个水文站逐日流量、77个气象站1959—2013年逐日降水数据,结合流域内主要农作物种植面积及大型水库资料,全面探讨气候与农业面积变化及人类活动对黄河流域径流变化的影响.研究表明:黄河流域所有流量分位数总体呈下降趋势,并于1980s中后期到1990s中期发生突变.降水变化是黄河流域径流变化的主要影响因素.在考虑不同流量分位数情况下,农作物种植面积变化对不同分位数径流变化的影响也有差异性.花园口站农作物种植面积变化对径流量量级和可变性均有显著影响;其余4站各项气候变化与农作物种植指标参数较大,虽均未达到10%的显著性水平,但仍会对径流的量级变化产生影响.对唐乃亥站,农作物耕作面积的下降减少了灌溉用水,在0.5流量分位数时有高达60%增加径流量的间接作用.对于头道拐站,农作物耕作面积的增加使得流域总蒸发量增加,灌溉用水增加,在0.3流量分位数时有高达40%减少径流量的间接作用.该研究为气候变化与人类活动影响下黄河流域水资源优化配置提供重要理论依据.     

A Simplified Method for Vulnerability Assessment of Dwelling Buildings and Estimation of Damage Scenarios in Catalonia, Spain

A simplified method for vulnerability assessment of dwelling buildings with a statistical approach at a regional scale based on the EMS’98 is proposed. It is presented some applications of this methodology in Catalonia, Spain: (i) tools for generation of damage scenarios for preventive purposes; (ii) simulation of damages of historical earthquakes if they would occur today; and (iii) territory zonation to establish the criteria for activating the different levels of earthquake emergency actions.     

Natural flood management,land use and climate change trade-offs: the case of Tarland catchment,Scotland

A distributed hydrological model (WaSiM-ETH) was applied to a mesoscale catchment to investigate natural flood management as a nonstructural approach to tackle flood risks from climate change. Peak flows were modelled using climate projections (UKCP09) combined with afforestation-based land-use change options. A significant increase in peak flows was modelled from climate change. Afforestation could reduce some of the increased flow, with greatest benefit from coniferous afforestation, especially replacing lowland farmland. Nevertheless, large-scale woodland expansion was required to maintain peak flows similar to present and beneficial effects were significantly reduced for larger “winter-type” extreme floods. Afforestation was also modelled to increase low-flow risks. Land-use scenarios showed catchment-scale trade-offs across multiple objectives meant “optimal” flood risk solutions were unlikely, especially for afforestation replacing lowland farmland. Hence, combined structural/nonstructural measures may be required in such situations, with integrated catchment management to synergize multiple objectives.     

Simulation of flood hydrographs based on lumped and semi-distributed models for two tropical catchments in Kenya

Abstract

The design and operation of flood management systems require computation of flood hydrographs for both design floods and flood forecasting purposes, since observed data are usually inadequate for these tasks. This is particularly relevant for most developing countries, i.e. mainly for tropical catchments. One possible way of obtaining information about flood hydrographs is through the use of rainfall—runoff models. Two such models, namely the Bochum model and the Nash Cascade—Diskin Infiltration model, which are semi-distributed and lumped models, respectively, were used in the present study. These models were applied to two catchments in Kenya with drainage areas of 6.71 km² and 26.03 km². A set of 13 selected rainfall—runoff events was used to calibrate and validate the models. The physical parameters required by the models were derived from catchment characteristics using GIS and remote sensing data while the conceptual parameters were obtained by optimization. The flood hydrographs simulated using the parameters so derived indicated that it is possible to use the two models in this tropical environment.     

变化环境下珠江流域洪水频率变化特征、成因及影响(1951-2010年)

气候变化和人类活动导致珠江流域水文变化,变化前后洪水频率分布显著不同.运用滑动秩和(Mann-Whitney U test)结合Brown-Forsythe、滑动T、有序聚类和Mann-Kendall检验法,并用累积距平曲线法获取年最大流量序列详细信息,综合确定样本最佳变化节点,并对水文变化成因做了系统分析.在此基础上,对整体序列、变化前后序列用线性矩法推求广义极值分布参数以及不同重现期设计流量.结果表明:(1)西江大部以及北江流域最佳变化节点在1991年左右;东江流域最佳变化节点与该流域内3大控制性水库建成时间基本吻合;(2)变化后,西江、北江年最大流量持续增加,洪峰强度增大,尤其是西江干流年最大流量显著增加;东江流域年最大流量显著减小,洪峰强度降低;(3)变化后,西江与北江洪水风险增加,尤其是下游珠三角地区本身受人类活动显著影响,加之西江与北江持续增加的洪水强度,珠三角地区发生洪水的强度及频次加剧,而东江洪水风险减小.此研究对于珠江流域在变化环境下的洪水风险评估与防洪抗灾具有重要意义.