scholarly journals Liquid water storage in snow and ice in 86 Eastern Alpine basins and its changes from 1970–97 to 1998–2006

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (72) ◽  
pp. 11-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Kuhn ◽  
Kay Helfricht ◽  
Martin Ortner ◽  
Johannes Landmann ◽  
Wolfgang Gurgiser
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Distributed Model ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
Snow And Ice

ABSTRACTThe retention and release of liquid water in glacierized basins was modelled with a conceptual, semi-distributed model of the water and ice balance designed for long-term averages with monthly resolution for 100 m elevation bands. Here we present the components of the liquid water balance of 86 mostly glacierized basins on either side of the main Alpine divide between 10 and 13°E in the period 1998–2006 and compare them with the records of 30 basins monitored from 1970 to 1997. Basin average of liquid water retention has maxima in excess of 100 mm per month in May, often followed by maximum release when the retaining snow matrix melts. Glacier storage peaks in August partly due to ice melt and the ensuing filling of the englacial reservoirs and partly on account of a precipitation maximum. These two components combined to a common maximum of storage in summer in the first period 1970–97 and developed two distinct maxima in the warmer period 1998–2006. A further maximum of liquid water storage that was often found in October is most likely due to a peak in precipitation in the southern part of the study region.

scholarly journals Estimation of Water Storage Changes in Small Endorheic Lakes in Northern Kazakhstan; The Effect of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Influences 

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim Yapiyev ◽  
Kanat Samarkhanov ◽  
Dauren Zhumabayev ◽  
Nazym Tulegenova ◽  
Saltanat Jumassultanova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Climatic Data

Both climate change and anthropogenic activities contribute to the deterioration of terrestrial water resources and ecosystems worldwide. Central Asian endorheic basins are among the most affected regions through both climate and human impacts. Here, we used a digital elevation model, digitized bathymetry maps and Landsat images to estimate the areal water cover extent and volumetric storage changes in small terminal lakes in Burabay National Nature Park (BNNP), located in Northern Central Asia (CA), for the period of 1986 to 2016. Based on the analysis of long-term climatic data from meteorological stations, short-term hydrometeorological network observations, gridded climate datasets (CRU) and global atmospheric reanalysis (ERA Interim), we have evaluated the impacts of historical climatic conditions on the water balance of BNNP lake catchments. We also discuss the future based on regional climate model projections. We attribute the overall decline of BNNP lakes to long-term deficit of water balance with lake evaporation loss exceeding precipitation inputs. Direct anthropogenic water abstraction has a minor importance in water balance. However, the changes in watersheds caused by the expansion of human settlements and roads disrupting water drainage may play a more significant role in lake water storage decline. More precise water resources assessment at the local scale will be facilitated by further development of freely available higher spatial resolution remote sensing products. In addition, the results of this work can be used for the development of lake/reservoir evaporation models driven by remote sensing and atmospheric reanalysis data without the direct use of ground observations.

scholarly journals Evapotranspiration and Runoff Patterns Across California's Sierra Nevada

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Rungee ◽  
Qin Ma ◽  
Michael L. Goulden ◽  
Roger Bales
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Statistical Model ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
Subsurface Water ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Growing Season Length ◽  
Basin Scale ◽  
Leave One Out

Spatially resolved annual evapotranspiration was calculated across the 14 main river basins draining into California's Central Valley, USA, using a statistical model that combined satellite greenness, gridded precipitation, and flux-tower measurements. Annual evapotranspiration across the study area averaged 529 mm. Average basin-scale annual precipitation minus evapotranspiration was in good agreement with annual runoff, with deviations in wet and dry years suggesting withdrawal or recharge of subsurface water storage. Evapotranspiration peaked at lower elevations in the colder, northern basins, and at higher elevations in the southern high-Sierra basins, closely tracking the 12.3°C mean temperature isocline. Precipitation and evapotranspiration are closely balanced across much of the study region, and small shifts in either will cause disproportionate changes in water storage and runoff. The majority of runoff was generated below the rain-snow transition in northern basins, and originated in snow-dominated elevations in the southern basins. Climate warming that increases growing season length will increase evapotranspiration and reduce runoff across all elevations in the north, but only at higher elevations in the south. Feedback mechanisms in these steep mountain basins, plus over-year subsurface storage, with their steep precipitation and temperature gradients, provide important buffering of the water balance to change. Leave-one-out cross validation revealed that the statistical model for annual evapotranspiration is sensitive to the number and distribution of measurement sites, implying that additional strategically located flux towers would improve evapotranspiration predictions. Leave-one-out with individual years was less sensitive, implying that longer records are less important. This statistical top-down modeling of evapotranspiration provides an important complement to constraining water-balance measurements with gridded precipitation and unimpaired runoff, with applications such as quantifying water balance following forest die-off, management or wildfire.

Perched Peatlands: insights into eco-hydrologic roles of peatlands in water limited boreal environments

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin J Devito ◽  
Lindsay M James ◽  
Daniel S Alessi ◽  
Kelly Hokanson ◽  
Nick Kettridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
High Intensity ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Water Sources ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Wetland Complex ◽  
Boreal Landscapes

<p>Peatlands are integral to sustaining landscape eco-hydrological function in water-limited boreal landscapes and serve as important water sources for headwater streams and surrounding forests, and recently for mega-scale watershed construction associated with resource extraction. Despite the regional moisture deficit of the Boreal plains, peatlands and margin swamps exist on topographic highs where low permeability (clogging) layers occur proximal to the surface and are apparently isolated from surface water and local and regional groundwater inputs. The <span>water generating mechanisms (</span>external water sources, internal feedback mechanisms) that<span> enable peatland formation with such </span>delicate water balances<span> in these </span>unique hydrogeologic settings are not well known, and have large implications for understanding the eco-hydrologic role of natural peatlands as well as direct peatland construction in drier boreal landscapes.</p><p>A multi-year sampling campaign was conducted to collect hydrometric, geochemical (DOC, pH, major cations and anions), and isotopic (D/H, <sup>18</sup>O/<sup>16</sup>O) data from a small isolated peatland-margin swamp complex. We explored the relative roles of margin swamps in buffering water loss and generating perched groundwater, shading and wind protection from adjacent forests, snow redistribution in and around the peatland, and wetland feedbacks on maintenance of peatland moisture and ecosystem function. Long-term (18 year) records of water table gradients between the peatland and an adjacent forest combined with 3 year high intensity <!-- Not sure if you mean to separate the long term data from the high intensity data from Lindsey’s project -->water balance calculations show the peatland to be a source of water to adjacent forests during this period and illustrate the dominance of autogenic wetland feedbacks over allogenic controls (external sources) in peatland development at this location. Contrasts in water storage due to the morphometry <!-- Morphometry? -->of the clogging layer appear to the dominant determinants of peatland and swamp form and function. Layers of decomposed peat and fine textured mineral soils in margin swamps with low water storage potential promoted frequent soil saturation and anoxia, limiting forest vegetation growth and water uptake, further enhancing wetland vegetation, water conservation and generation within the wetland complex. Shading and wind protection from adjacent forests appear to influence soil frost duration and atmospheric demand to further reduce evapotranspiration losses contributing to a slight moisture surplus in the wetland complex relative to the adjacent forest. Understanding the water balance and moisture surplus controls in isolated peatlands sheds light on the relative role of allogenic and autogenic controls on peatlands with implications for: 1) assessing regional eco-hydrological roles of peatland and forestland covers, 2) predicting landscape-scale response to environmental change and land use, and 3) directing landscape scale reclamation or large reconstruction projects over a range of geologic settings in water-limited boreal regions.</p>

scholarly journals The relevance of glacier melt in the water cycle of the Alps: the example of Austria

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 2039-2048 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Koboltschnig ◽  
W. Schöner
Keyword(s):  
River Runoff ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Statistical Interpretation ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
Glacier Melt ◽  
Precipitation Increase ◽  
The Mean

Abstract. This paper quantifies the contribution of glacier melt to river runoff from compilation and statistical interpretation of data from available studies based on observations or glacio- hydrological modelling for the region of Austria (Austrian Salzach and Inn river basin). A logarithmic fit between the glacier melt contribution and the relative glacierized area was found not only for the long-term mean glacier contributions but also for the glacier melt contribution during the extreme hot an dry summer of 2003. Interestingly, the mean contributions of glacier melt to river runoff do not exceed 15 % for both river catchments and are uncorrelated to glacierization for glacierization values >10 %. This finding, however, has to be seen in the light of the general precipitation increase with altitude for the study region which levels out the increase of absolute melt with glacierization thus resulting in the rather constant value of glacier melt contribution. In order to qualitatively proof this finding another approach has been applied by calculating the quotient qA03 of the mean monthly August runoff in 2003 and the long-term mean August runoff for 38 gauging stations in Austria. The extreme summer 2003 was worth to be analysed as from the meteorological and glaciological point of view an extraordinary situation was observed. During June and July nearly the entire snow-cover melted and during August mainly bare ice melt of glaciers contributed to runoff. The qA03 quotients were calculated between 0.32 for a non-glacierized and 2.0 for a highly glacierized catchment. Using the results of this study the mean and maximum possible glacier melt contribution of catchments can be estimated based on the relative glacierized area. It can also be shown that the found correlation of glacierized area and glacier melt contribution is applicable for the Drau basin where yet no results of modelled glacier melt contributions are available.

scholarly journals Reconstructing Terrestrial Water Storage Variations from 1980 to 2015 in the Beishan Area of China

Geofluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenjie Yin ◽  
Litang Hu ◽  
Shin-Chan Han ◽  
Menglin Zhang ◽  
Yanguo Teng
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Balance Method ◽  
Disposal Site ◽  
Terrestrial Water Storage ◽  
Water Balance Method ◽  
Terrestrial Water ◽  
Beishan Area

Terrestrial water storage (TWS) is a key element in the global and continental water cycle. Since 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has provided a highly valuable dataset, which allows the study of TWS over larger river basins worldwide. However, the lifetime of GRACE is too short to demonstrate long-term variability in TWS. In the Beishan area of northwestern China, which is selected as the most prospective site for high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) disposal, the assessment of long-term TWS changes is crucial to understand disposal safety. Monthly and annual TWS changes during the past 35 years are reconstructed using GRACE data, other remote sensing products, and the water balance method. Hydrological flux outputs from multisource remote sensing products are analyzed and compared to select appropriate data sources. The results show that a decreasing trend is found for GRACE-filtered and Center for Space Research (CSR) mascon solutions from 2003 to 2015, with slopes of −2.30 ± 0.52 and −1.52 ± 0.24 mm/year, respectively. TWS variations independently computed from the water balance method also show a similar decreasing trend with the GRACE observations, with a slope of −0.94 mm/year over the same period. Overall, the TWS anomalies in the Beishan area change seasonally within 10 mm and have been decreasing since 1980, keeping a desirable dry condition as a HLRW disposal site.

Physically Based Modeling of the Long-Term Dynamics of Water Balance and Snow Water Storage Components in the Ob–Irtysh River Basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Gusev ◽  
O. N. Nasonova ◽  
E. A. Shurkhno ◽  
L. Ya. Dzhogan ◽  
G. V. Aizel’
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Physically Based Modeling ◽  
Physically Based ◽  
Snow Water ◽  
Irtysh River

scholarly journals Ubiquitous Fractal Scaling and Filtering Behavior of Hydrologic Fluxes and Storages from A Mountain Headwater Catchment

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 613
Author(s):  
Ravindra Dwivedi ◽  
John F. Knowles ◽  
Christopher Eastoe ◽  
Rebecca Minor ◽  
Nathan Abramson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Actual Evapotranspiration ◽  
Soil Water Storage ◽  
Water Balance Components ◽  
Fractal Scaling ◽  
Wetting Properties ◽  
Soil Wetting

We used the weighted wavelet method to perform spectral analysis of observed long-term precipitation, streamflow, actual evapotranspiration, and soil water storage at a sub-humid mountain catchment near Tucson, Arizona, USA. Fractal scaling in precipitation and the daily change in soil water storage occurred up to a period of 14 days and corresponded to the typical duration of relatively wet and dry intervals. In contrast, fractal scaling could be observed up to a period of 0.5 years in streamflow and actual evapotranspiration. By considering long-term observations of hydrologic fluxes and storages, we show that, in contrast to previous findings, the phase relationships between water balance components changed with component period and were not perfectly in or out of phase at all periods. Self-averaging behavior was apparent, but the temporal scales over which this behavior was applicable differed among the various water balance components. Conservative tracer analysis showed that this catchment acted as a fractal filter by transforming white noise in the precipitation input signal to a 1/f flicker in the streamflow output signal by means of both spatial and temporal subsurface advection and dispersion processes and soil wetting properties. This study provides an improved understanding of hydrological filtering behavior in mountain critical zones that are critical sources of water and ecosystem services throughout the world.

scholarly journals Long-Term Impact of Cover Crop and Reduced Disturbance Tillage on Soil Pore Size and Soil Water Storage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Negusse Araya ◽  
Jeffrey P. Mitchell ◽  
Jan W. Hopmans ◽  
Teamrat Afewerki Ghezzehei
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Cover Crop ◽  
Soil Structure ◽  
Water Retention ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Field Capacity ◽  
Cover Cropping ◽  
Long Term Impact

Abstract. Using laboratory measurements and numerical simulations, we studied the long-term impact of contrasting tillage and cover cropping systems on soil structure and soil hydraulic properties. Complete water retention and conductivity curves for top (0–5 cm) and subsurface (20–25 cm) samples were characterized and contrasted. Plot-level properties of water storage and retention were evaluated using numerical simulations in HYDRUS-2D software. Soils under no-till (NT) and cover cropping (CC) systems showed an improved soil structure in terms of pore size distribution (PSD) and the hydraulic conductivity (K) under these systems led to increased infiltration rate and water retention. The conventional measurement of water content at field capacity (water content at −33 kPa suction) and the associated plant available water (PAW) showed that NT and CC plots had lower water content at field capacity and lower PAW compared to standard-till (ST) and plots without cover crop (NO). The numerical simulations, however, showed that NT and CC plots have higher profile-level water storage (albeit marginal in magnitude) and water availability following irrigation. Because the numerical simulations consider retention and conductivity functions simultaneously and dynamically through time, they allow the capture of hydraulic properties that are arguably more relevant to crops. The changes in PSD, water conductivity, and water storage associated with NT and CC systems observed in this study suggest that these systems are beneficial to general soil health and improve water retention at the plot scale.

Evaluating water balance components for forested headwater catchment undergoing environmental changes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Mikesova ◽  
Michal Dohnal ◽  
Jana Votrubova ◽  
Tomas Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Catchment Scale ◽  
Water Balance Components ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Interception Loss ◽  
Headwater Catchment

<p>Evaluating seasonal and long-term variations in water balance at catchment scale can be useful for assessing the current status and trends in water resources availability. Components of water balance reflect meteorological and climate variability, and vegetation cover development.</p><p>The experimental catchment Uhlířská is a small forested headwater catchment in the Jizera Mountains, Czech Republic. The catchment was extensively deforested in the 80´s. Damaged trees long exposed to the effects of air pollutants were poorly resistant to wind and pests. In the 90´s, new spruce forest was planted. The catchment has been subject to long-term monitoring. The 19-year series of data including air temperature, rain and snow precipitation, discharge, groundwater levels, wind velocity, and air humidity, is examined.</p><p>Our study provides basic analysis of directly measured components of water balance (precipitation and discharge, annual and seasonal runoff coefficients). The study further deals with the evaluation of the unmeasured components of the water balance (evapotranspiration and water storage). An interception model was employed to calculate the interception loss. Potential evaporation and transpiration during vegetation seasons were estimated by Penman and Penman-Monteith methods. Snow sublimation was estimated in the winter seasons. Effect of the forest development during the period of interest was considered.</p><p>The catchment water balance equation suggests significant changes of the water storage over the observation period, implying its decrease in recent years. However, baseflow and deep water storage seem to be unchanged. This discrepancy could be partly attributed to the decrease in shallow water storage and/or more pronounced transpiration reduction in recent vegetation seasons.</p><p>The research is supported by the Czech Science Foundation Project No. 20-00788S.</p>

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