Effect of rainfall uncertainty on the performance of physically based rainfall–runoff models

This paper analyses the effect of rain data uncertainty on the performance of two hydrological models with different spatial structures: a semidistributed and a fully distributed model. The study is performed on a small catchment of 19.6 km² located in the north‐west of Spain, where the arrival of low pressure fronts from the Atlantic Ocean causes highly variable rainfall events. The rainfall fields in this catchment during a series of storm events are estimated using rainfall point measurements. The uncertainty of the estimated fields is quantified using a conditional simulation technique. Discharge and rain data, including the uncertainty of the estimated rainfall fields, are then used to calibrate and validate both hydrological models following the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) methodology. In the storm events analysed, the two models show similar performance. In all cases, results show that the calibrated distribution of the input parameters narrows when the rain uncertainty is included in the analysis. Otherwise, when rain uncertainty is not considered, the calibration of the input parameters must account for all uncertainty in the rainfall–runoff transformation process. Also, in both models, the uncertainty of the predicted discharges increase in similar magnitude when the uncertainty of rainfall input increase.     

Dissolved organic matter in surface runoff in the Loess Plateau of China: The role of rainfall events and land-use

Exploring the chemical characterization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is important for understanding the fate of laterally transported organic matter in watersheds. We hypothesized that differences in water-extractable organic matter (WEOM) in soils of varying land uses and rainfall events may significantly affect the quality and the quantity of stream DOM. To test our hypotheses, characteristics of rainfall-runoff DOM and WEOM of source materials (topsoil from different land uses and gullies, as well as typical vegetation) were investigated at two adjacent catchments in the Loess Plateau of China, using ultraviolet–visible absorbance and excitation emission matrix fluorescence with parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). Results indicated that land-use types may significantly affect the chemical composition of soil WEOM, including its aromaticity, molecular weight, and degree of humification. The PARAFAC analysis demonstrated that the soils and stream water were dominated by terrestrial/allochthonous humic-like substances and microbial transformable humic-like fluorophores. Shifts in the fluorescence properties of stream DOM suggested a pronounced change in the relative proportion of allochthonous versus autochthonous material under different rainfall patterns and land uses. For example, high proportions of forestland could provide more allochthonous DOM input. This study highlights the relevance of soils and hydrological dynamics on the composition and fluxes of DOM issuing from watersheds. The composition of DOM in soils was influenced by land-use type. Precipitation patterns influenced the proportion of terrestrial versus microbial origins of DOM in surface runoff. Contributions of allochthonous, terrestrially derived DOM inputs were highest from forested landscapes.     

Spatial and temporal variations of albedo on nine glaciers in western China from 2000 to 2011

This research demonstrates the spatiotemporal variations of albedo on nine glaciers in western China during 2000–2011, by the albedo derived from two types of datasets: Landsat TM/ETM + images and MOD10A1 product. Then, the influence factors of glacier albedo and its relationship with glacier mass balance are also analyzed by the correlation approach, which is frequently used in geostatistics. The paper finds that there are different spatiotemporal variations over the glaciers in western China: (1) For a single glacier, the albedo varies gently with altitude on its tongue and increases fast in the middle part, while in the accumulation zones, the albedo value appears in the form of fluctuation. This could provide a quantitative method to retrieve the snowline by determining the threshold albedo value of snowpack and bare ice. (2) For the glaciers in western China, the albedo decreases with distance to the center of Tibetan Plateau (TP). This may relate to the elevation of glacier, for the speed of glacier retreat highly depends on air temperature. (3) In the summer period, albedo on most glaciers declines over the last 12 years, and it decreases much faster in southeastern TP than other regions, for which air temperature overwhelms the black carbon concentration. In addition, the trend of glacier albedo in summer is greatly correlated with that of measured glacier mass balance, which implies that the long‐term albedo datasets by remote sensing technology could be used to monitor and predict the change of glacier mass balance in the future. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Supraglacial weathering crust dynamics inferred from cryoconite hole hydrology

Water levels in cryoconite holes were monitored at high resolution over a 3‐week period on Austre Brøggerbreen (Svalbard). These data were combined with melt and energy balance modelling, providing insights into the evolution of the glacier's near‐surface hydrology and confirming that the hydrology of the near‐surface, porous ice known as the ‘weathering crust’ is dynamic and analogous to a shallow‐perched aquifer. A positive correlation between radiative forcing of melt and drainage efficiency was found within the weathering crust. This likely resulted from diurnal contraction and dilation of interstitial pore spaces driven by variations in radiative and turbulent fluxes in the surface energy balance, occasionally causing ‘sudden drainage events’. A linear decrease in water levels in cryoconite holes was also observed and attributed to cumulative increases in near‐surface ice porosity over the measurement period. The transport of particulate matter and microbes between cryoconite holes through the porous weathering crust is shown to be dependent upon weathering crust hydraulics and particle size. Cryoconite holes therefore yield an indication of the hydrological dynamics of the weathering crust and provide long‐term storage loci for cryoconite at the glacier surface. This study highlights the importance of the weathering crust as a crucial component of the hydrology, ecology and biogeochemistry of the glacier ecosystem and glacierized regions and demonstrates the utility of cryoconite holes as natural piezometers on glacier surfaces. Copyright © 2015 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.