Suspended sediment and total dissolved solid yield patterns at the headwaters of Urumqi River,northwestern China: a comparison between glacial and non‐glacial catchments

In order to understand the differences in the suspended sediment and total dissolved solid (TDS) yield patterns between the glacial and non‐glacial catchments at the headwaters of Urumqi River, northwestern China, water samples were collected from a glacier catchment and an empty cirque catchment within the region, during three melting seasons from 2006 to 2008. These samples were analyzed to estimate suspended sediment and TDS concentrations, fluxes and erosion rates in the two adjoining catchments. There were remarked differences in suspended sediment and TDS yield patterns between the two catchments. Suspended sediment concentrations were controlled mainly by the sediment source, whereas TDS concentrations were primarily related to the hydrologic interaction with soil minerals. Generally, the glacial catchment had much higher suspended sediment and TDS yields, together with higher denudation rates, than the non‐glacial catchment. Overall, glacial catchment was mainly dominated by physical denudation process, whereas the non‐glacial catchment was jointly influenced by physical and chemical denudation processes. The observed differences in material delivery patterns were mainly controlled by the runoff source and the glacial processes. The melting periods of glacier and snow were typically the most important time for the suspended sediment and TDS yields. Meanwhile, episodic precipitation events could generate disproportionately large yields. Subglacial hydrology dynamics, glaciers pluck and grind processes could affect erodibility, and the large quantities of dust stored on the glacier surface provided additional sources for suspended sediment transport in the glacial catchment. These mechanisms imply that, in response to climate change, the catchment behaviour will be modified significantly in this region, in terms of material flux. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Soil cracking effects on hydrological and erosive processes: a study case in Mediterranean cultivated vertisols

Shrink–swell soils, such as those in a Mediterranean climate regime, can cause changes in terms of hydrological and erosive responses because of the changing soil water storage conditions. Only a limited number of long‐term studies have focused on the impacts on both hydrological and erosive responses and their interactions in an agricultural environment. In this context, this study aims to document the dynamics of cracks, runoff and soil erosion within a small Mediterranean cultivated catchment and to quantify the influence of crack processes on the water and sediment supplied to a reservoir located at the catchment outlet using water and sediment measurements at a cultivated field outlet as baseline. Detailed monitoring of the presence of topsoil cracks was conducted within the Kamech catchment (ORE OMERE, Tunisia), and runoff and suspended sediment loads were continuously measured over a long period of time (2005–2012) at the outlets of a field (1.32 ha) and a catchment (263 ha). Analysis of the data showed that topsoil cracks were open approximately half of the year and that the rainfall regime and water table level conditions locally control the seasonal cracking dynamics. Topsoil cracks appeared to seriously affect the generation of runoff and sediment concentrations and, consequently, sediment yields, with similar dynamics observed at the field and catchment outlets. A similar time lag in the seasonality between water and sediment delivery was observed at these two scales: although the runoff rates were globally low during the presence of topsoil cracks, most sediment transport occurred during this period associated with very high sediment concentrations. This study underlines the importance of a good prediction of runoff during the presence of cracks for reservoir siltation considerations. In this context, the prediction of cracking effects on runoff and soil erosion is a key factor for the development of effective soil and water management strategies and downstream reservoir preservation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing the effectiveness of imperviousness on stormwater runoff in micro urban catchments by model simulation

Imperviousness, considered as a critical indicator of the hydrologic impacts of urbanization, has gained increasing attention both in the research field and in practice. However, the effectiveness of imperviousness on rainfall–runoff dynamics has not been fully determined in a fine spatiotemporal scale. In this study, 69 drainage subareas <1 ha of a typical residential catchment in Beijing were selected to evaluate the hydrologic impacts of imperviousness, under a typical storm event with a 3‐year return period. Two metrics, total impervious area (TIA) and effective impervious area (EIA), were identified to represent the impervious characteristics of the selected subareas. Three runoff variables, total runoff depth (TR), peak runoff depth (PR), and lag time (LT), were simulated by using a validated hydrologic model. Regression analyses were developed to explore the quantitative associations between imperviousness and runoff variables. Then, three scenarios were established to test the applicability of the results in considering the different infiltration conditions. Our results showed that runoff variables are significantly related to imperviousness. However, the hydrologic performances of TIA and EIA were scale dependent. Specifically, with finer spatial scale and the condition heavy rainfall, TIA rather than EIA was found to contribute more to TR and PR. EIA tended to have a greater impact on LT and showed a negative relationship. Moreover, the relative significance of TIA and EIA was maintained under the different infiltration conditions. These findings may provide potential implications for landscape and drainage design in urban areas, which help to mitigate the runoff risk. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rainfall–runoff responses on Arctic hillslopes underlain by continuous permafrost,North Slope,Alaska, USA

The Arctic hydrologic cycle is intensifying, as evidenced by increased rates of precipitation, evapotranspiration, and riverine discharge. However, the controls on water fluxes from terrestrial to aquatic systems in upland Arctic landscapes are poorly understood. Upland landscapes account for one third of the Arctic land surface and are often drained by zero‐order geomorphic flowpath features called water tracks. Previous work in the region attributed rapid runoff response at larger stream orders to water tracks, but models suggest water tracks are hydrologically disconnected from the surrounding hillslope. To better understand the role of water tracks in upland landscapes, we investigated the surface and subsurface hydrologic responses of 6 water tracks and their hillslope watersheds to natural patterns of rainfall, soil thaw, and drainage. Between storms, both water track discharge and the water table in the hillslope watersheds exhibited diel fluctuations that, when lagged by 5 hr, were temporally correlated with peak evapotranspiration rate. Water track soils remained saturated for more of the summer season than soils in their surrounding hillslope watersheds. When rainfall occurred, the subsurface response was nearly instantaneous, but the water tracks took significantly longer than the hillslopes to respond to rainfall, and longer than the responses previously observed in nearby larger order Arctic streams. There was also evidence for antecedent soil water storage conditions controlling the magnitude of runoff response. Based on these observations, we used a broken stick model to test the hypothesis that runoff production in response to individual storms was primarily controlled by rainfall amount and antecedent water storage conditions near the water track outlet. We found that the relative importance of the two factors varied by site, and that water tracks with similar watershed geometries and at similar landscape positions had similar rainfall–runoff model relationships. Thus, the response of terrestrial water fluxes in the upland Arctic to climate change depends on the non‐linear interactions between rainfall patterns and subsurface water storage capacity on hillslopes. Predicting these interactions across the landscape remains an important challenge.     

Revised runoff curve number for runoff prediction in the Loess Plateau of China

The soil conservation service (now Natural Resources Conservation Service) Curve Number (SCS-CN), one of the most commonly used methods for surface runoff prediction. The runoff calculated by this method was very sensitive to CN values. In this study, CN values were calculated by both arithmetic mean (CN_C) and least square fit method (CN_F) using observed rainfall-runoff data from 43 sites in the Loess Plateau region, which are considerably different from the CN₂ values obtained from the USDA-SCS handbook table (CN_T). The results showed that using CN_C instead of CN_T for each watershed produce little improvement, while replacing CN_T with CN_F improves the performance of the original SCS-CN method, but still performs poorly in most study sites. This is mainly due to the SCS-CN method using a constant CN value and discounting of the temporal variation in rainfall-runoff process. Therefore, three factors—soil moisture, rainfall depth and intensity—affecting the surface runoff variability are considered to reflect the variation of CN in each watershed, and a new CN value was developed. The reliability of the proposed method was tested with data from 38 watersheds, and then applied to the remaining five typical watersheds using the optimized parameters. The results indicated that the proposed method, which boosted the model efficiencies to 81.83% and 74.23% during calibration and validation cases, respectively, performed better than the original SCS-CN and the Shi and Wang (2020b) method, a modified SCS-CN method based on tabulated CN value. Thus, the proposed method incorporating the influence of the temporal variability of soil moisture, rainfall depth, and intensity factors suggests an accurate runoff prediction for general applications under different hydrological and climatic conditions on the Loess Plateau region.     

Changes in potential evapotranspiration and surface runoff in 1981–2010 and the driving factors in Upper Heihe River Basin in Northwest China

Changes in potential evapotranspiration and surface runoff can have profound implications for hydrological processes in arid and semiarid regions. In this study, we investigated the response of hydrological processes to climate change in Upper Heihe River Basin in Northwest China for the period from 1981 to 2010. We used agronomic, climatic and hydrological data to drive the Soil and Water Assessment Tool model for changes in potential evapotranspiration (ET₀) and surface runoff and the driving factors in the study area. The results showed that increasing autumn temperature increased snow melt, resulting in increased surface runoff, especially in September and October. The spatial distribution of annual runoff was different from that of seasonal runoff, with the highest runoff in Yeniugou River, followed by Babaohe River and then the tributaries in the northern of the basin. There was no evaporation paradox at annual and seasonal time scales, and annual ET₀ was driven mainly by wind speed. ET₀ was driven by relative humidity in spring, sunshine hour duration in autumn and both sunshine hour duration and relative humility in summer. Surface runoff was controlled by temperature in spring and winter and by precipitation in summer (flood season). Although surface runoff increased in autumn with increasing temperature, it depended on rainfall in September and on temperature in October and November. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

气象、农业和水文干旱之间关联性分析

干旱具有发生频率高、持续时间长、波及范围广的特点。而干旱预报为科学地进行防旱抢险提供了决策支持。选取反映不同类型干旱的指标,即标准化降雨指标(SPI)、标准化土壤湿度指标(SSWI)和标准化径流指标(SRI),通过SWAT模型和带有时滞的灰色关联判断了各干旱之间的时滞。以陆浑水库控制流域为例进行了分析,结果表明:SWAT模型在该流域有很好的适用性,1975—2009年间发生各类干旱的次数在增加,且变率上从气象干旱、农业干旱到水文干旱有所增加,同时不同类型干旱之间表现出了一定的时滞关系,气象干旱对农业干旱的响应时间为1个月;水文干旱对气象干旱的响应时间为4个月;水文干旱对农业干旱的响应时间为2个月。     

变化环境下渭河流域水文干旱演变特征剖析

环境变化影响区域水资源的可持续开发利用,导致水文过程出现非平稳特征,需发展非平稳水文干旱评估方法。选取渭河流域为研究区,依据流域内2个水文站、62个雨量站和24个气象站1961-2013年数据,基于可变下渗容量模型定量分离气候变化和人类活动对径流衰减的贡献;采用标准化径流指数（Standardized Runoff Index, SRI）剖析水文干旱时空演变特征;提出多种SRI参数化方案,对比评定各方案表征非平稳干旱的合理性以及环境变化对干旱演变的影响作用。结果表明:自1991年以来渭河流域年径流量呈显著衰减趋势,人类活动是径流演变的主要因素,对咸阳和华县站径流量变化的贡献率分别为-66.7%和-71.0%;时变参数方案计算的干旱指数能合理重建历史水文干旱序列;人类活动是渭河流域1991年以来短历时水文干旱发生的主导因素,气候变化主要影响长历时旱涝的演变趋势。     

陕北风沙区含砾石工程堆积体坡面产流产沙试验

采用室内人工模拟降雨方法,研究了陕北风沙区含砾石工程堆积体边坡的产流产沙过程。结果表明:①砾石存在改变了坡面入渗速率,径流系数受入渗速率的影响,随砾石含量的增加先线性递减后线性递增,并在10%砾石含量处存在阈值;径流系数随降雨强度的增加线性递增。②含砾石堆积体坡面流速较纯土堆积体降低,且随雨强增大,砾石延缓径流流动的作用越显著;雨强对径流流速的影响随砾石含量增加持续减弱。③土壤剥蚀率在产流24~33 min后显著增加,砾石主要对显著增加后的平均剥蚀率产生影响。④雨强1.0 mm/min时,砾石存在促进降雨侵蚀,产沙量增大;雨强大于1.0 mm/min时,砾石具有显著的减沙效应。     

水库群供调水系统实时调度研究

以大连市复杂水库群供、调水系统为背景,在对系统特性分析的基础上,提出了系统实时调度框架及二层耦合结构模式,设计了以"总量控制、耦合嵌套、多维决策、滚动修正"为核心的实时调度流程。在径流预报方面,提出了基于超越概率的水库群供、调水系统长期入库径流预报方法,结合中期GFS(Global Forecasting System)数值预报技术对不同时段入库径流进行滚动预报。在调度模型方面,采用基于动态规划的建模求解新方法和常规调度方法,为调度决策提供参考。实例研究表明,建立的实时调度系统实现了滚动预报和滚动调度,具备了实时性;实现了宏观总控与局部调整相结合的调度目标,具备了调度决策不同时间尺度耦合嵌套特性,证明了系统的适用性。研究成果对于同类系统实时调度具有重要参考价值。