Comparing flow regime,channel hydraulics,and biological communities to infer flow–ecology relationships in the Mara River of Kenya and Tanzania

Abstract

Equatorial rivers of East Africa exhibit unusually complex seasonal and inter-annual flow regimes, and aquatic and adjacent terrestrial organisms have adapted to cope with this flow variability. This study examined the annual flow regime over the past 40 years for three gauging stations on the Mara River in Kenya and Tanzania, which is of international importance because it is the only perennial river traversing the Mara-Serengeti ecoregion. Select environmental flow components were quantified and converted to ecologically relevant hydraulic variables. Vegetation, macroinvertebrates, and fish were collected and identified at target study sites during low and high flows. The results were compared with available knowledge of the life histories and flow sensitivities of the riverine communities to infer flow–ecology relationships. Management implications are discussed, including the need to preserve a dynamic environmental flow regime to protect ecosystems in the region. The results for the Mara may serve as a useful model for river basins of the wider equatorial East Africa region.

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

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.     

The changing role of ecohydrological science in guiding environmental flows

Abstract

The term “environmental flows” is now widely used to reflect the hydrological regime required to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems, and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on them. The definition suggests a central role for ecohydrological science to help determine a required flow regime for a target ecosystem condition. Indeed, many countries have established laws and policies to implement environmental flows with the expectation that science can deliver the answers. This article provides an overview of recent developments and applications of environmental flows on six continents to explore the changing role of ecohydrological sciences, recognizing its limitations and the emerging needs of society, water resource managers and policy makers. Science has responded with new methods to link hydrology to ecosystem status, but these have also raised fundamental questions that go beyond ecohydrology, such as who decides on the target condition of the ecosystem? Some environmental flow methods are based on the natural flow paradigm, which assumes the desired regime is the natural “unmodified” condition. However, this may be unrealistic where flow regimes have been altered for many centuries and are likely to change with future climate change. Ecosystems are dynamic, so the adoption of environmental flows needs to have a similar dynamic basis. Furthermore, methodological developments have been made in two directions: first, broad-scale hydrological analysis of flow regimes (assuming ecological relevance of hydrograph components) and, second, analysis of ecological impacts of more than one stressor (e.g. flow, morphology, water quality). All methods retain a degree of uncertainty, which translates into risks, and raises questions regarding trust between scientists and the public. Communication between scientists, social scientists, practitioners, policy makers and the public is thus becoming as important as the quality of the science.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz

Citation Acreman, M.C., Overton, I.C., King, J., Wood, P., Cowx, I.G., Dunbar, M.J., Kendy, E., and Young, W., 2014. The changing role of ecohydrological science in guiding environmental flows. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 433–450     

Environmental water quantity projections under market-driven and sustainability-driven future scenarios in the Narew basin,Poland

Abstract

The aim of this article is to assess the impact of four scenarios combining possible changes in climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide, land use and water use by 2050, on the specific set of ecologically relevant flow regime indicators that define environmental flow requirements in a semi-natural river basin in Poland. This aim is presented through a modelling case study using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Indicators show both positive and negative responses to future changes. Warm projections from the IPSL-CM4 global climate model combined with sustainable land- and water-use projections (SuE) produce the most negative changes, while warm and wet projections from the MIROC3.2 model combined with market-driven projections (EcF) gave the most positive changes. Climate change overshadows land- and water-use change in terms of the magnitude of projected flow alterations. The future of environmental water quantity is brighter under the market-driven rather than the sustainability-driven scenario, which shows that sustainability for terrestrial ecosystems (e.g. more forests and grasslands) can be at variance with sustainability for riverine and riparian ecosystems (requiring sufficient amount and proper timing of river flows).

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis

Citation Piniewski, M., Okruszko, T., and Acreman, M.C., 2014. Environmental water quantity projections under market-driven and sustainability-driven future scenarios in the Narew basin, Poland. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 916–934.     

Delivering environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia)—legal and governance aspects

Abstract

The hydrology of water-dependent ecosystems around the world has been altered as a result of flow regulation and extraction for a variety of purposes including agricultural and urban water supply. The flow regime of the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia is no exception, with attendant impacts on the health of the environment. Restoration of parts of the flow regime is a key feature of environmental flow delivery. However, environmental flow delivery in a system that is managed primarily to provide a secure and stable supply for irrigation presents challenges for managers seeking to return more natural flow variability in line with ecosystem requirements. The institutional arrangements governing releases of water from storage can influence the ability of managers to respond to natural cues, such as naturally rising flows in a river. As such, the legal and governance aspects of environmental flow delivery are likely to be important influences on the outcomes achieved.

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

Citation Banks, S.A. and Docker, B.B., 2014. Delivering environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia)—legal and governance aspects. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 688–699.     

Environmental flows in India: towards sustainable water management

Abstract

The strong wet and dry seasons of tropical monsoon hydrology in India necessitate development of storage and flow diversion schemes for utilization of water to meet various social and economic needs. However, the river valley schemes may cause adverse flow-related impacts due to storage, flow diversion, tunnelling and spoil disposal. There may be critical reaches in which altered flows are not able to sustain the river channel ecology and riparian environment that existed prior to implementation of the storage and diversion schemes. In the past, environmental flows in India have usually been understood as the minimum flow to be released downstream from a dam as compensation for riparian rights, without considering the impacts on the river ecosystem. Rivers in India have been significantly influenced by anthropogenic activities over the past 60 years and have great social and religious significance to the vast population. This paper explores various aspects of past, present and future environmental flow assessment (EFA) in India highlighted by case studies from rivers across the nation. It demonstrates that multidisciplinary studies requiring expertise from a range of fields are needed for EFA, and that environmental flows are necessary for aquatic ecosystems to remain in a healthy state and for the sustainable use of water resources. The major focus areas for the development of EFA research in India are the creation of a shareable database for hydrological, ecological and socioeconomic data, developing hydrology–ecology relationships, evaluation of ecosystem services, addressing pollution due to anthropogenic activities and promotion of research on EFA. At the same time, efforts will be needed to develop new methods or refine existing methods for India.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Guest editor M. Acreman

Citation Jain, S.K. and Kumar, P., 2014. Environmental flows in India: towards sustainable water management. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 751–769.     

A new approach to rapid,desktop-level,environmental flow assessments for rivers in South Africa

Abstract

An approach is presented for desktop-level environmental flow requirement (EFR) determination that is aligned with the Habitat Flow–Stressor Response (HFSR) method which evolved in South Africa over recent years. The HFSR method integrates hydrological, hydraulic and ecological habitat data, involves ecological and hydraulic specialists and is data-intensive and time-consuming. The revised desktop method integrates hydrological information with estimates of channel hydraulic cross-sectional characteristics to generate habitat-type frequencies under changing flow conditions. This information is used with the expected natural habitat requirements to determine acceptable habitat availability under different levels of ecological protection, which is then used with the hydraulic data to define flow regime characteristics that meet the ecological objectives. The paper describes the model components, discusses the assumptions, data requirements and limitations and presents some example results. The revised desktop approach uses approaches that are aligned with the more complex methods and generates results that are similar.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Guest editor M. Acreman

Citation Hughes, D.A., Desai, A.Y., Birkhead, A.L., and Louw, D., 2014. A new approach to rapid, desktop-level, environmental flow assessments for rivers in South Africa. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59 (3–4), 673–687.     

Sampling efficiency in Monte Carlo based uncertainty propagation strategies: Application in seawater intrusion simulations

The implementation of Monte Carlo simulations (MCSs) for the propagation of uncertainty in real-world seawater intrusion (SWI) numerical models often becomes computationally prohibitive due to the large number of deterministic solves needed to achieve an acceptable level of accuracy. Previous studies have mostly relied on parallelization and grid computing to decrease the computational time of MCSs. However, another approach which has received less attention in the literature is to decrease the number of deterministic simulations by using more efficient sampling strategies. Sampling efficiency is a measure of the optimality of a sampling strategy. A more efficient sampling strategy requires fewer simulations and less computational time to reach a certain level of accuracy. The efficiency of a sampling strategy is highly related to its space-filling characteristics.This paper illustrates that the use of optimized Latin hypercube sampling (OLHS) strategies instead of the widely employed simple random sampling (SRS) and Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) strategies, can significantly improve sampling efficiency and hence decrease the simulation time of MCSs. Nine OLHS strategies are evaluated including: improved Latin hypercube sampling (IHS); optimum Latin hypercube (OLH) sampling; genetic optimum Latin hypercube (GOLH) sampling; three sampling strategies based on the enhanced stochastic evolutionary (ESE) algorithm namely φ_p-ESE which employs the φ_p space-filling criterion, CLD-ESE which utilizes the centered L₂-discrepancy (CLD) space-filling criterion, and SLD-ESE which uses the star L₂-discrepancy (SLD) space-filling criterion; and three sampling strategies based on the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm namely φ_p-SA which employs the φ_p criterion, CLD-SA which uses the CLD criterion, and SLD-SA which utilizes the SLD criterion. The study applies SRS, LHS and the nine OLHS strategies to MCSs of two synthetic test cases of SWI. The two test cases are the Henry problem and a two-dimensional radial representation of SWI in a circular island. The comparison demonstrates that the CLD-ESE strategy is the most efficient among the evaluated strategies. This paper also demonstrates how the space-filling characteristics of different OLHS designs change with variations in the input arguments of their optimization algorithms.     

永年地震台水管加速N倾异常分析

永年水管倾斜 NS 分量2012年9月出现加速 N 倾异常,从洞室环境、仪器系统、供电系统、环境干扰等方面进行调查和分析,采用三维集中荷载模型,计算采石场、挖土场等荷载变化对水管倾斜观测影响的理论值,采用定性与定量相结合的方法,判定此项异常应为周围环境干扰造成的荷载变化所致。     

近地表大气环境变化对地壳形变观测的影响研究

近地表大气环境变化主要包括近地表气象因素（大气压强、温度、降雨）变化及台风、日食活动等。利用小波分析方法对2003—2013年湖北省数字化地壳形变潮汐分钟值资料进行处理后发现,近地表大气环境因素对形变观测数据具有不同频段上的特征变化影响。大气压强和温度对形变观测的响应频段主要集中在较低频段（64—128分钟）;降雨的影响主要集中在0-全日波（0—32分钟）范围内且存在高频、非潮汐成份。而台风在较高频段上有明显响应,频段分布在1—4秒和2—4分钟之间。黄梅台应变观测对2009年日食事件在128—256分钟低频段上有响应。