Adjustment of self-formed bankfull channel geometry of meandering rivers: modelling study

We consider the evolution of the hydraulic geometry of sand-bed meandering rivers. We study the difference between the timescale of longitudinal river profile adjustment and that of channel width and depth adjustment. We also study the effect of hydrological regime alteration on the evolution of bankfull channel geometry. To achieve this, a previously developed model for the spatiotemporal co-evolution of bankfull channel characteristics, including bankfull discharge, bankfull width, bankfull depth and down-channel bed slope, is used. In our modelling framework, flow variability is considered in terms of a specified flow duration curve. Taking advantage of this unique feature, we identify the flow range responsible for long-term bankfull channel change within the specified flow duration curve. That is, the relative importance of extremely high short-duration flows compared to moderately high longer duration flows is examined. The Minnesota River, MN, USA, an actively meandering sand-bed stream, is selected for a case study. The longitudinal profile of the study reach has been in adjustment toward equilibrium since the end of the last glaciation, while its bankfull cross-section is rapidly widening due to hydrological regime change in the last several decades. We use the model to demonstrate that the timescale for longitudinal channel profile adjustment is much greater than the timescale for cross-sectional profile adjustment due to a lateral channel shift. We also show that hydrological regime shift is responsible for the recent rapid widening of the Minnesota River. Our analysis suggests that increases in the 5–25% exceedance flows play a more significant role in recent bankfull channel enlargement of the Minnesota River than increase in either the 0.1% exceedance flow or the 90% exceedance flow. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

生态最相关水文指标的优选及其在洞庭湖环境流量估算中的应用

水文改变指标(IHA)能够较为全面地描述水文状况,在评估水文情势改变及其生态系统影响方面具有广泛的应用.尽管该指标体系较为完善,但是数量众多的水文变量仍然存在信息冗余问题.根据洞庭湖城陵矶水文站1955-2014年的径流量数据,采用主成分分析(PCA)筛选了生态最相关水文指标(ERHIs),结合ERHIs改进了用于估算环境流量的变化范围法(RVA),并将其应用在洞庭湖出口的环境流量估算中.基于PCA选取了年最大90日流量、年最小3日流量、年最小流量出现时间、3月流量、6月流量、流量逆转次数和低流量年内平均历时7个变量作为洞庭湖出口的ERHIs.纵向和横向的对比分析都表明选取的ERHIs是合理的.ERHIs不仅有效缓解了IHA的冗余性问题,还有利于抓住最关键的生态水文变量.根据ERHIs改进的RVA方法在设定洞庭湖出口环境流量时,极大地简化原来的众多管理目标,对生态水文研究、水资源管理和生态保护都具有重要的参考价值和借鉴意义.     

Improved fuzzy weighted optimum curve-fitting method for estimating the parameters of a Pearson Type-III distribution

ABSTRACT

The objective of the curve-fitting method is to determine the optimal distribution by parameter estimation. The selection of the parameter estimation methods and the determination of the parameter estimation results may vary according to the different aims of the curve fitting, as well as the different accuracies and positions of the points. To solve the problem, the fuzzy weighted optimum curve-fitting method (FWOCM) was used to deal with the characters. The deficiencies of the original FWOCM were analysed, and it was found that the membership function and nomograph were unable to effectively deal with the curve fitting. An improved method and its indexes were evaluated, using effectiveness and unbiasedness as the assessment criteria, while scoring and percentage methods were chosen to comprehensively assess the statistical results. Compared with FWOCM, the results showed greater effectiveness and unbiasedness in the improved method.     

Very slow erosion rates and landscape preservation across the southwestern slope of the Ladakh Range,India

Erosion rates are key to quantifying the timescales over which different topographic and geomorphic domains develop in mountain landscapes. Geomorphic and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) methods were used to determine erosion rates of the arid, tectonically quiescent Ladakh Range, northern India. Five different geomorphic domains are identified and erosion rates are determined for three of the domains using TCN ¹⁰Be concentrations. Along the range divide between 5600 and 5700 m above sea level (asl), bedrock tors in the periglacial domain are eroding at 5.0 ± 0.5 to 13.1 ± 1.2 meters per million years (m/m.y.)., principally by frost shattering. At lower elevation in the unglaciated domain, erosion rates for tributary catchments vary between 0.8 ± 0.1 and 2.0 ± 0.3 m/m.y. Bedrock along interfluvial ridge crests between 3900 and 5100 m asl that separate these tributary catchments yield erosion rates <0.7 ± 0.1 m/m.y. and the dominant form of bedrock erosion is chemical weathering and grusification. Erosion rates are fastest where glaciers conditioned hillslopes above 5100 m asl by over‐steepening slopes and glacial debris is being evacuated by the fluvial network. For range divide tors, the long‐term duration of the erosion rate is considered to be 40–120 ky. By evaluating measured ¹⁰Be concentrations in tors along a model ¹⁰Be production curve, an average of ~24 cm is lost instantaneously every ~40 ky. Small (<4 km²) unglaciated tributary catchments and their interfluve bedrock have received very little precipitation since ~300 ka and the long‐term duration of their erosion rates is 300–750 ky and >850 ky, respectively. These results highlight the persistence of very slow erosion in different geomorphic domains across the southwestern slope of the Ladakh Range, which on the scale of the orogen records spatial changes in the locus of deformation and the development of an orogenic rain shadow north of the Greater Himalaya. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Riparian responses to reduced flood flows: comparing and contrasting narrowleaf and broadleaf cottonwoods

Abstract

To enable assessment of risks of water management to riparian ecosystems at a regional scale, we developed a quantile-regression model of abundance of broadleaf cottonwoods (Populus deltoides and P. fremontii) as a function of flood flow attenuation. To test whether this model was transferrable to narrowleaf cottonwood (Populus angustifolia), we measured narrowleaf abundance along 39 river reaches in northwestern Colorado, USA. The model performed well for narrowleaf in all 32 reaches where reservoir storage was <75% of mean annual flow. Field data did not fit the model at four of seven reaches where reservoir storage was >90% of mean annual flow. In these four reaches, narrowleaf was abundant despite peak flow attenuation of 45–61%. Poor model performance in these four reaches may be explained in part by a pulse of narrowleaf cottonwood expansion as a response to channel narrowing and in part by differences between narrowleaf and broadleaf cottonwood response to floods and drought.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor M. Acreman

Citation Wilding, T.K., Sanderson, J.S., Merritt, D.M., Rood, S.B., and Poff, N.L., 2014. Riparian responses to reduced flood flows: comparing and contrasting narrowleaf and broadleaf cottonwoods. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 605–617.     

季节性冻土区水文特性及模型研究进展

简要评述了寒区冻土水文的研究进展情况,在分析季节性冻土的冻融水文过程和特点的基础上,系统归纳与总结了季节性冻融土壤条件下的融雪径流的产流模型、入渗规律及预报模型、对非寒区水文模型改进后应用到寒区的探讨及定量研究冻土水分迁移运动的数值模拟方法,并提出未来研究方向:开发更加逼近真实情况的水文水利模型;野外大田实验数据的监测采集并确定水文模型的参数;将水文模型与冻土水分迁移模型的完善结合.     

基于TRMM卫星雷达降雨的流域陆面水文过程

利用热带降雨观测计划(TRMM)卫星雷达降雨数据驱动分布式陆面水文模型,研究流域尺度陆面水文过程,评估该数据在水文模拟与预报等研究领域的性能。通过与实测雨量资料比较,验证TRMM卫星雷达降雨数据的质量。分别将TRMM卫星雷达降雨与观测降雨作为耦合模型的气象输入,模拟和研究淮河流域1998~2003年的陆面水文过程时空变化。结果表明,TRMM卫星雷达降雨数据能够很好地描述降雨的时空分布,利用TRMM降雨模拟的结果与利用观测降雨模拟的结果精度相当;模拟流量与实测资料基本吻合。卫星雷达降雨数据在陆面水文过程研究中具有广泛的应用前景。     

SWAT模型及其应用研究进展

SWAT（Soil and Water Assessment Tool）模型是近几年发展迅速、影响较大的水文模型,主要用于模拟预测各种管理措施及气候变化对水资源供给的影响,评价流域非点源污染等。本文通过对SWAT模型的发展历史及该模型在水文、气候变化、非点源污染和输入参数对模拟结果的影响等几个主要方面的研究,总结了模型的优势,以及在使用该模型时需要注意的主要问题。SWAT 模型在国内的应用主要侧重于水文及非点源污染研究,研究多是以模型作为手段,改进工作不多,建议今后根据研究区域的需要,对模型作相应的改进,以更好地服务于研究项目。     

Compared performance of a conceptual and a mechanistic hydrologic models of a green roof

In order to investigate the hydrologic response of a green roof system within the urban environment, a monitoring campaign is carried out at the green roof site of the University of Genova (Italy). Experimental data confirm that the green roof is able to significantly mitigate the generation of runoff with median values of retained volume and peak reduction, respectively, equal to 94 and 98%. A conceptual linear reservoir and a simple mechanistic (Hydrus‐1D) models are implemented to simulate the hydrologic behaviour of the system; each model is calibrated and validated based on experimental data collected at the green roof site. The hydrographs simulated with both hydrologic models reproduce with acceptable matching capabilities the experimental measurements, as confirmed by the Nash‐Sutcliffe Efficiency index generally greater than 0·60. Although the relative percentage differences evaluated for the selected hydrograph variables (the total effluent volume, the peak flow rate and the hydrograph centroid) demonstrate that the mechanistic model is more accurate, prediction errors of the conceptual model are generally limited when compared with the observed hydrologic performance. Results of the present comparison are useful in supporting conceptual model selection in case the hydrologic response is addressed for hydrologic performance assessment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of elevated air temperatures on soil thermal and hydrologic processes in the active layer in an alpine meadow ecosystem of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

In this study,effects of elevated air temperatures on thermal and hydrologic process of the shallow soil in the active layer were investigated. Open-top chambers(OTCs)were utilized to increase air temperatures 1-2℃ in OTC-1 and 3-5℃ in OTC-2 in the alpine meadow ecosystem on the Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau.Results show that the annual air temperatures under OTC-1 and OTC-2 were 1.21℃ and 3.62℃ higher than the Control,respectively.The entirely-frozen period of shallow soil in the active layer was shortened and the fully thawed period was prolonged with temperature increase.The maximum penetration depth and duration of the negative isotherm during the entirely-frozen period decreased, and soil freezing was retarded in the local scope of the soil profile when temperature increased.Meanwhile, the positive isotherm during the fully-thawed period increased,and the soil thawing was accelerated.Soil moisture under different manipulations decreased with the temperature increase at the same depth. During the early freezing period and the early fully- thawed period,the maximum soil moisture under the Control manipulation was at 0.2 m deep,whereas under OTC-1 and OTC-2 manipulations,the maximum soil moisture were at 0.4-0.5 m deep. These results indicate that elevated temperatures led to a decrease of the moisture in the surface soil.The coupled relationship between soil temperature and moisture was significantly affected by the temperature increase.During the freezing and thawing processes, the soil temperature and moisture under different manipulations fit the regression model given by the equationθV=a/{1+exp[b(TS+c)]}+d.