Estimation of annual actual evapotranspiration from nonsaturated land surfaces with conventional meteorological data

Land surface evapotranspiration is an important component both in earth surface heat and water bal-ance, on whose budgets weather and climate depend, to a great extent, for their changes are responsible for the formation and variation of vegetation features on the globe. Besides, the evapotranspiration is an im-portant topic of short-term flood forecasting and the estimation of runoff from mountainous sides. As a result, the problem as to the evapotranspiration has been one of the concerns in …     

Spatial distribution and temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration during 1961–2006 in the Yellow River Basin,China

Abstract

To explore the spatial and temporal variations of the reference evapotranspiration (ET_ref) is helpful to understand the response of hydrological processes to climate changes. In this study, ET_ref was calculated by the Penman-Monteith method (P-M method) using air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and sunshine hours at 89 meteorological stations during 1961–2006 in the Yellow River Basin (YRB), China. The spatial distribution and temporal variations of ET_ref were explored by means of the kriging method, the Mann-Kendall (M-K) method and the linear regression model, and the causes for the variations discussed. The contribution of main meteorological variables to the variations of ET_ref was explored. From the results we found that: (1) the spatial distributions of ET_ref display seasonal variation, with similar spatial patterns in spring, summer and autumn; (2) temporal trends for ET_ref showed large variation in the upper, middle and lower regions of the basin, most of the significant trends (P?=?0.05) were detected in the middle and lower regions, and, in particular, the upward and downward trends were mainly detected in the middle region and lower region of the basin, respectively; and (3) sensitivity analysis identified the most sensitive variable for ET_ref as relative humidity, followed by air temperature, sunshine hours and wind speed at the basin scale.

Citation Yang, Zhifeng, Liu, Qiang & Cui, Baoshan (2011) Spatial distribution and temporal variation of reference evapotranspiration during 1961–2006 in the Yellow River Basin, China. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(6), 1015–1026.     

对黄河流域水资源保护的探索与实践

黄河水资源贫乏,水污染严重,水资源供需矛盾日益尖锐,黄河流域水资源保护面临着诸多的困难和压力.新《水法》的颁布,给黄河水资源保护带来新的机遇和挑战,依法建立法制化、社会化的流域与区域相结合的水资源保护管理体系,完善法规,建立健全执法体系,以水功能区划管理为重心,实施入河总量控制,建立和完善重大水污染事件快速反应机制,加强水质监测机制与技术创新,加强水资源保护前期和科研工作,建设水资源保护信息管理系统,采取多部门联合治污等项措施,是做好黄河流域水资源保护工作的重要前提和任务.     

Regional differences in the effects of El Niño and La Niña on low flows and floods

Abstract

The response of monthly 7-day low flow, monthly instantaneous peak flow, and monthly frequency of flood events to El Niño and La Niña episodes is investigated for 18 rivers that represent a diverse range of climatic types throughout New Zealand. A significant positive or negative deviation from the long-term average was observed in over half the possible combinations of river, streamflow index, and type of ENSO episode; significant deviations were most frequent in the case of low flow, especially during La Niña episodes. Patterns of streamflow response differ widely between rivers, and the response of a given river to individual ENSO episodes is very variable. The patterns of streamflow response to ENSO are consistent to some extent with the climatic effects of ENSO already identified by meteorologists. Two core regions can be defined in which streamflow tends to respond in the same way. These are in the northeast of the North Island, and in the axial ranges of the South Island, where there are significant effects of ENSO on the frequency and duration of rain-bearing northeasterly and westerly winds respectively. The patterns of response strongly reflect topography, and the exposure of catchments to predominant air masses.     

Study on consumption efficiency of soil water resources in the Yellow River Basin based on regional ET structure

Based on the regional water resources character, the concept of soil water resources is first redefined, and then associated with their transfer relationship in the hydrological cycle, Evapotranspiration (ET)-based consumption structure and consumption efficiency of soil water resources are analyzed. According to ET 's function in productivity, the consumption efficiency of soil water resources is di- vided into three classes: high efficient consumption from vegetation transpiration, low efficient con- sumption from soil evaporation among plants with high vegetation coverage and inefficient consump- tion from soil evaporation among plants with low vegetation coverage and bare soil evaporation. The high efficient and low efficient consumption were further classified as productive consumption. The ineffi- cient consumption is considered non-productive consumption because it is significant in the whole hydrological cycle process. Finally, according to these categories, and employing a WEP-L dis- tributed hydrological model, this paper analyzes the consumption efficiency of soil water resources in the Yel- low River Basin. The results show that there are 2078.89×108 m3 soil water resources in the whole basin. From the viewpoint of consumption structure, the soil water resources are comprised of 381.89×108 m3 transpiration consumption from vegetation and 1697.09×108 m3 evaporation consumption from soil among plants and bare soil. From the viewpoint of consumption efficiency, soil water re- sources are composed of 920.11×108 m3 efficient consumption and 1158.86×108 m3 of inefficient con- sumption. High efficient consumption accounts for 41.5 percent of the total efficient consumption of the whole basin, low efficient for 58.5 percent. Furthermore, consumption efficiency varies by region. Compared with ET from different land use conditions, the whole basin appears to follow the trend of having the greatest proportion of consumption as inefficient consumption, followed by low efficient consumption, and then the least proportion as high efficient consumption. The amount of inefficient consumption in some regions with vegetation is less than in other regions without vegetation. The amount of inefficient consumption in grasslands is much greater than in forestlands. However, the proportion of low efficient consumption is the greatest in crop fields. The amount of high efficient con- sumption in grasslands and forelands is similar to the corresponding low efficient consumption. However, the low efficient consumption in grasslands is larger than in the forelands. Therefore, when adjusting the utilization efficiency of soil water resources, vegetation coverage and plant structure should be modulated in terms of the principle of decreasing inefficient consumption, improving low efficiency ET and increasing high efficiency ET according to area character.     

Capturing the essential spatial variability in distributed hydrological modelling: Infiltration parameters

Selecting the correct resolution in distributed hydrological modelling at the watershed scale is essential in reducing scale-related errors. The work presented herein uses information content (entropy) to identify the resolution which captures the essential variability, at the watershed scale, of the infiltration parameters in the Green and Ampt infiltration equation. A soil map of the Little Washita watershed in south-west Oklahoma, USA was used to investigate the effects of grid cell resolution on the distributed modelling of infiltration. Soil-derived parameters and infiltration exhibit decreased entropy as resolutions become coarser. This is reflected in a decrease in the maximum entropy value for the reclassified/derived parameters vis a vis the original data. Moreover, the entropy curve, when plotted against resolution, shows two distinct segments: a constant section where no entropy was lost with decreasing resolution and another part which is characterized by a sharp decrease in entropy after a critical resolution of 1209 m is reached. This methodology offers a technique for assessing the largest cell size that captures the spatial variability of infiltration parameters for a particular basin. A geographical information system (GIS) based rainfall-runoff model is used to simulate storm hydrographs using infiltration parameter maps at different resolutions as inputs. Model results up to the critical resolution are reproducible and errors are small. However, at resolutions beyond the critical resolution the results are erratic with large errors. A major finding of this study is that a large resolution (1209 m for this basin) yields reproducible model results. When modelling a river basin using a distributed model, the resolution (grid cell size) can drastically affect the model results and calibration. The error structure attributable to grid cell resolution using entropy as a spatial variability measure is shown.     

An integrated hydrological and meteorological approach for the simulation of terrestrial evapotranspiration / Une approche hydrologique et météorologique intégrée pour la simulation de l'évapotranspiration terrestre

Abstract

Terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET) plays an important role in determining water and heat balances in the water cycle between the land surface and the atmosphere. In the present research a dynamic approach is developed to simulate actual ET distribution for large-scale spatial and temporal scales based on an integration of meteorological and hydrological methods. The method developed has been used to examine the impacts of climate change, complex land cover features, and soil moisture on actual ET. The distribution characteristics of actual ET demonstrate that ET in eastern China is greater than that in western China, and that ET is greater in low-latitude regions of China than in high-latitude regions. Actual monthly and annual ET values in most regions show an increasing tendency from the year 1991 to 2000, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. The results of the present study also confirm that soil moisture is one of the critical factors that affect regional ET in China. It is demonstrated that the integrated hydrological-meteorological approach is effective for simulating actual ET on large spatial and temporal scales.