Integrated watershed management for mitigating streamflow depletion in an urbanized watershed in Korea

A systematic, seven-step approach to integrated watershed planning and management is applied to an urbanized watershed, the Anyangcheon (AY) watershed in Korea which consists of (1) understanding watershed components and processes, (2) identifying and ranking problems to be solved, (3) setting clear and specific goals, (4) developing a list of management options, (5) eliminating infeasible options (6) testing the effectiveness of remaining feasible options, and (7) developing the final options. Watershed characteristics, water quantity and quality simulations with SWAT and PLOAD models, and the developed problem indices of PFD (Potential Flood Damage), PSD (Potential Streamflow Depletion), and PWQD (Potential Water Quality Deterioration) identify that streamflow depletion is more serious than flood risk and water pollution in the study watershed (Steps 1 and 2). Instreamflow requirements, which are the maximum value of the average low flow and the fish flow, are estimated using regional regression and the software PHABSIM (Step 3). Feasible solutions that improve the depleted streams are listed and screened qualitatively against technical, economical, and environmental criteria (Steps 4 and 5). Effectiveness of the remaining 14 feasible alternatives are then analyzed using SWAT (Step 6) and alternative evaluation index (AEI) and their priority ranks are determined against an evaluation criterion that uses the concept of pressure, state, and response (Step 7).     

帕米尔高原东部径流量变化及其对气候变化的响应

水资源是制约中国西北干旱区社会经济可持续发展和生态安全的关键因素.以发源于帕米尔高原东部的喀什噶尔河和叶尔羌河流域为研究区,基于该区6个气象站月平均气温和降水量观测资料,以及5条代表性河流的出山口水文站1950年代晚期以来的月径流量观测数据,分析了该区域气候和水文年际变化特征,以及气候变化背景下径流量的响应特征.结果发...     

Hydrology and related changes after harvesting native forest catchments and establishing pinus radiata plantations. Part 2. The native forest water balance and changes in streamflow after harvesting

Six small, steep, south-west facing catchments (1.63–4.62 ha) have been monitored in Westland, New Zealand since 1974. Two catchments were retained in native mixed evergreen forest and the rest were subjected to various harvesting and land preparation techniques before being planted with Pinus radiata between 1977 and 1980. The 11-year water balance for the native forest catchments was: rain = streamflow + interception loss + transpiration + seepage (2370mm = 1290mm + 620mm + 360mm + 100mm). In the year after treatment streamflow generally increased by 200–250 mm, except for one treatment (clearfelling, herbicide application, no riparian reserve) where the increase was 550 mm. The catchments were planted with Pinus radiata, but rapid colonization by bracken (Pteridium esculentum) and Himalayan honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) led to a rapid decline in streamflow, which returned to pre-treatment levels after an average of about five years. Streamflow yields then continued to decline for another two to three years before stabilizing at a level about 250mm yr^?1 lower than pre-treatment levels. At this time the catchments had a dense bracken/honeysuckle understorey beneath 5 m tall pine trees.     

The evolving perceptual model of streamflow generation at the Panola Mountain Research Watershed

The Panola Mountain Research Watershed (PMRW) is a 41-hectare forested catchment within the Piedmont Province of the Southeastern United States. Observations, experimentation, and numerical modelling have been conducted at Panola over the past 35 years. But to date, these studies have not been fully incorporated into a more comprehensive synthesis. Here we describe the evolving perceptual understanding of streamflow generation mechanisms at the PMRW. We show how the long-term study has enabled insights that were initially unforeseen but are also unachievable in short-term studies. In particular, we discuss how the accumulation of field evidence, detailed site characterization, and modelling enabled a priori hypotheses to be formed, later rejected, and then further refined through repeated field campaigns. The extensive characterization of the soil and bedrock provided robust process insights not otherwise achievable from hydrometric measurements and numerical modelling alone. We focus on two major aspects of streamflow generation: the role of hillslopes (and their connection to the riparian zone) and the role of catchment storage in controlling fluxes and transit times of water in the catchment. Finally, we present location-independent hypotheses based on our findings at PMRW and suggest ways to assess the representativeness of PMRW in the broader context of headwater watersheds.     

Assimilation of streamflow and in situ soil moisture data into operational distributed hydrologic models: Effects of uncertainties in the data and initial model soil moisture states

We assess the potential of updating soil moisture states of a distributed hydrologic model by assimilating streamflow and in situ soil moisture data for high-resolution analysis and prediction of streamflow and soil moisture. The model used is the gridded Sacramento (SAC) and kinematic-wave routing models of the National Weather Service (NWS) Hydrology Laboratory’s Research Distributed Hydrologic Model (HL-RDHM) operating at an hourly time step. The data assimilation (DA) technique used is variational assimilation (VAR). Assimilating streamflow and soil moisture data into distributed hydrologic models is new and particularly challenging due to the large degrees of freedom associated with the inverse problem. This paper reports findings from the first phase of the research in which we assume, among others, perfectly known hydrometeorological forcing. The motivation for the simplification is to reduce the complexity of the problem in favour of improved understanding and easier interpretation even if it may compromise the goodness of the results. To assess the potential, two types of experiments, synthetic and real-world, were carried out for Eldon (ELDO2), a 795-km² headwater catchment located near the Oklahoma (OK) and Arkansas (AR) border in the U.S. The synthetic experiment assesses the upper bound of the performance of the assimilation procedure under the idealized conditions of no structural or parametric errors in the models, a full dynamic range and no microscale variability in the in situ observations of soil moisture, and perfectly known univariate statistics of the observational errors. The results show that assimilating in situ soil moisture data in addition to streamflow data significantly improves analysis and prediction of soil moisture and streamflow, and that assimilating streamflow observations at interior locations in addition to those at the outlet improves analysis and prediction of soil moisture within the drainage areas of the interior stream gauges and of streamflow at downstream cells along the channel network. To assess performance under more realistic conditions, but still under the assumption of perfectly known hydrometeorological forcing to allow comparisons with the synthetic experiment, an exploratory real-world experiment was carried out in which all other assumptions were lifted. The results show that, expectedly, assimilating interior flows in addition to outlet flow improves analysis as well as prediction of streamflow at stream gauge locations, but that assimilating in situ soil moisture data in addition to streamflow data provides little improvement in streamflow analysis and prediction though it reduces systematic biases in soil moisture simulation.     

Improving streamflow estimation in ungauged basins using a multi-modelling approach

ABSTRACT

In this study, a multi-modelling approach is proposed for improved continuous daily streamflow estimation in ungauged basins using regionalization—the process of transferring hydrological data from gauged to ungauged watersheds. Four regionalization models, two data-driven and two hydrological, were used for continuous daily streamflow estimation. Comparison of the individual models reveals that each of the four models performed well on a limited number of ungauged basins while none of them performed well for the entire 90 selected watersheds. The results obtained from the four models are evaluated and reported in a deterministic way by a model combination approach along with its uncertainty range consisting of 16 ensemble members. It is shown that a combined model of the four individual models performed well on all 90 watersheds and the ensemble range can account for the uncertainty of models. The combined model was more efficient and appeared more robust compared to the individual models. Furthermore, continuous ranked probability scores (CRPS) calculated for the ensemble model outputs indicate better performance compared to individual models and competitive with the combined model.

EDITOR A. Castellarin ASSOCIATE EDITOR G. Di Baldassarre     

Discharge responses associated with rapid snow cover ablation events in the Susquehanna and Wabash River basins

ABSTRACT

In the mid-latitudes, snow plays a critical role in regional hydroclimate, with snow ablation variability in ephemeral regions representing an area of essential research. Due to a lack of historical snow-water-equivalent data in the eastern United States, recent research has substituted daily snow depth changes for ablation. These studies, however, do not explicitly examine if such a substitution yields a snowmelt hydrological signal, an important component of water resource management. As such, this study evaluates if ablation events, as defined as a daily snow depth decrease, subsequently result in increased river discharge within two similarly sized watersheds in the eastern United States: the Wabash and Susquehanna River basins. For both basins, >75% of snow ablation events resulted in a positive river discharge response (increase in discharge) at a 3-day lag. Furthermore, results show a significant and positive relationship between ablation event frequency and seasonal discharge response, such that an increase (decrease) in seasonal snow ablation event frequency yields an increase (decrease) in associated seasonal river discharge at a 3-day lag. These relationships indicate that inter-diurnal decreases in snow depth do carry hydrological implications, adding confidence that such a definition of ablation is appropriate for climatological applications.     

Exploring the effects of hillslope-channel link dynamics and excess rainfall properties on the scaling structure of peak-discharge

Several studies revealed that peak discharges (Q) observed in a nested drainage network following a runoff-generating rainfall event exhibit power law scaling with respect to drainage area (A) as Q(A) = αA^θ. However, multiple aspects of how rainfall-runoff process controls the value of the intercept (α) and the scaling exponent (θ) are not fully understood. We use the rainfall-runoff model CUENCAS and apply it to three different river basins in Iowa to investigate how the interplay among rainfall intensity, duration, hillslope overland flow velocity, channel flow velocity, and the drainage network structure affects these parameters. We show that, for a given catchment: (1) rainfall duration and hillslope overland flow velocity play a dominant role in controlling θ, followed by channel flow velocity and rainfall intensity; (2) α is systematically controlled by the interplay among rainfall intensity, duration, hillslope overland flow velocity, and channel flow velocity, which highlights that it is the combined effect of these factors that controls the exact values of α and θ; and (3) a scale break occurs when runoff generated on hillslopes runs off into the drainage network very rapidly and the scale at which the break happens is determined by the interplay among rainfall duration, hillslope overland flow velocity, and channel flow velocity.     

Forecast-skill-based simulation of streamflow forecasts

Streamflow forecasts are updated periodically in real time, thereby facilitating forecast evolution. This study proposes a forecast-skill-based model of forecast evolution that is able to simulate dynamically updated streamflow forecasts. The proposed model applies stochastic models that deal with streamflow variability to generate streamflow scenarios, which represent cases without forecast skill of future streamflow. The model then employs a coefficient of prediction to determine forecast skill and to quantify the streamflow variability ratio explained by the forecast. By updating the coefficients of prediction periodically, the model efficiently captures the evolution of streamflow forecast. Simulated forecast uncertainty increases with increasing lead time; and simulated uncertainty during a specific future period decreases over time. We combine the statistical model with an optimization model and design a hypothetical case study of reservoir operation. The results indicate the significance of forecast skill in forecast-based reservoir operation. Shortage index reduces as forecast skill increases and ensemble forecast outperforms deterministic forecast at a similar forecast skill level. Moreover, an effective forecast horizon exists beyond which more forecast information does not contribute to reservoir operation and higher forecast skill results in longer effective forecast horizon. The results illustrate that the statistical model is efficient in simulating forecast evolution and facilitates analysis of forecast-based decision making.     

新疆树木年轮水文研究对比分析

分析新疆地区现已取得的树轮水文学研究成果,选取基于树轮宽度重建的阿尔泰山、天山、昆仑山和塔里木河流域等区域共14条河流径流量序列,对各序列的水文历史变化特征进行对比和讨论,并对进一步开展新疆地区树轮水文学研究提出了建议和展望。研究结果表明:(1)水分是各流域树木径向生长的主要限制因子,且树木径向生长与河流径流量之间普遍存在正相关关系。(2)对新疆5个区域的河流径流量重建序列进行相关分析,发现阿尔泰山区域重建序列间的相关性较高,天山北坡次之,天山南坡最低。阿尔泰山与天山北坡径流量重建序列间亦存在较好的相关性。(3)14条河流径流量重建序列经31 a滑动平均处理后,结果显示同一区域内河流径流量序列丰枯变化的一致性相对较好。(4)5个区域内部径流量重建序列存在相同的极值年份,且重建序列的部分极值年份与历史记录的气候水文灾害相吻合。(5)新疆地区径流量重建序列的周期变化在高频上较为一致,均存在2～7 a的短周期,其径流量变化可能受到海陆大尺度气候振荡的影响。