scholarly journals Elevation-dependent compensation effects in snowmelt in the Rhine River Basin upstream gauge Basel

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erwin Rottler ◽  
Klaus Vormoor ◽  
Till Francke ◽  
Michael Warscher ◽  
Ulrich Strasser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
River Runoff ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Rhine River ◽  
Warming Climate ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In snow-dominated river basins, floods often occur during early summer, when snowmelt-induced runoff superimposes with rainfall-induced runoff. An earlier onset of seasonal snowmelt as a consequence of a warming climate is often expected to shift snowmelt contribution to river runoff and potential flooding to an earlier date. Against this background, we assess the impact of rising temperatures on seasonal snowpacks and quantify changes in timing, magnitude and elevation of snowmelt. We analyse in situ snow measurements, conduct snow simulations and examine changes in river runoff at key gauging stations. With regard to snowmelt, we detect a threefold effect of rising temperatures: snowmelt becomes weaker, occurs earlier and forms at higher elevations. Due to the wide range of elevations in the catchment, snowmelt does not occur simultaneously at all elevations. Results indicate that elevation bands melt together in blocks. We hypothesise that in a warmer world with similar sequences of weather conditions, snowmelt is moved upward to higher elevation. The movement upward the elevation range makes snowmelt in individual elevation bands occur earlier, although the timing of the snowmelt-induced runoff stays the same. Meltwater from higher elevations, at least partly, replaces meltwater from elevations below.

scholarly journals Impact of urbanized landscapes on the river flow in Europe

2019 ◽  
pp. 78-87
Author(s):  
N. I. Koronkevich ◽  
K. S. Melnik
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
River Runoff ◽  
River Flow ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Annual Runoff ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Urbanized Areas ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Moscow River

Global urban landscapes were growing rapidly during last decades. The impact of this growth on annual river runoff of foreign European and Russian river basins was shown in this article. Calculations for Moscow river basin were taken as a basis for computations. The performed calculations show, that 1% of urbanization area increase also enhances total river runoff at 1%. At the same time 1% growth of watertight territories (included in urbanized landscapes) leads to an increase in runoff by 2–3%. The growth of urbanized areas led to a smaller increase in runoff (2–3 times) in the past (in comparison with current period) due to a less established system of diversion from urbanized landscapes. Calculations were made for Spree, Thames, Seine river basins in comparison Moscow River basin. Impact of capitals landscapes (Berlin, London, Paris, and Moscow) on river runoff was estimated initially, and then the influence of other urbanized areas located in river basins. As a result, the general influence of all urbanized territories was defined. According to results of conducted calculations, modern urbanized areas led to an increase of annual river runoff by more than 9% in Spree river basin, more than 20% of the Thames, over 11% of the Seine and 10% in the basin of Moscow River in comparison with changes during the period of norm calculation (from the end of 19th century till the beginning of the 1960s of the 20th century). According to the results of conducted calculations, modern total annual runoff increase is 2.2–4.5% for Europe and 0.2–0.3% for the Russian Federation in comparison with changes during the period of norm calculation, and in relation to the runoff from the most populated their parts is 3.5-6.9% and 1-2%, respectively. In addition, it can be expressed in km3 with following values: 44.9–89.8 (for foreign Europe) and 7.2–14.3 (for the Russian Federation). For the whole Europe (including European territory of Russia), the runoff increases by 50–100 km3 (or by 2–4%) per year. Actually, this is not so much in percentage terms, though in terms of volume – these values are close to annual runoff of such river as Neva.

scholarly journals Seasonal Rainfall Forecasts for the Yangtze River Basin in the Extreme Summer of 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip E. Bett ◽  
Gill M. Martin ◽  
Nick Dunstone ◽  
Adam A. Scaife ◽  
Hazel E. Thornton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Linear Regression ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Yangtze River Basin ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Lead Times ◽  
Seasonal Forecasts ◽  
June July ◽  
The Impact

AbstractSeasonal forecasts for Yangtze River basin rainfall in June, May–June–July (MJJ), and June–July–August (JJA) 2020 are presented, based on the Met Office GloSea5 system. The three-month forecasts are based on dynamical predictions of an East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) index, which is transformed into regional-mean rainfall through linear regression. The June rainfall forecasts for the middle/lower Yangtze River basin are based on linear regression of precipitation. The forecasts verify well in terms of giving strong, consistent predictions of above-average rainfall at lead times of at least three months. However, the Yangtze region was subject to exceptionally heavy rainfall throughout the summer period, leading to observed values that lie outside the 95% prediction intervals of the three-month forecasts. The forecasts presented here are consistent with other studies of the 2020 EASM rainfall, whereby the enhanced mei-yu front in early summer is skillfully forecast, but the impact of midlatitude drivers enhancing the rainfall in later summer is not captured. This case study demonstrates both the utility of probabilistic seasonal forecasts for the Yangtze region and the potential limitations in anticipating complex extreme events driven by a combination of coincident factors.

scholarly journals Unravelling the impact of harvesting pressure on canopy-forming macroalgae

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doriane Stagnol ◽  
Renaud Michel ◽  
Dominique Davoult
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Characteristics ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variability ◽  
Macrobenthic Assemblages ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Commercial Species ◽  
Canopy Removal ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Relevant Finding

Canopy-forming macroalgae create a specific surrounding habitat (the matrix) with their own ecological properties. Previous studies have shown a wide range of responses to canopy removal. Magnitude and strength of the effects of harvesting are thought to be context-dependent, with the macroalgal matrix that can either soften or exacerbate the impact of harvesting. We experimentally examined in situ the effect of harvesting on targeted commercial species, and how these potential impacts might vary in relation to its associated matrix. We found that patterns of recovery following the harvesting disturbance were variable and matrix specific, suggesting that local factors and surrounding habitat characteristics mediated the influence of harvesting. The greatest and longest effects of harvesting were observed for the targeted species that created a dominant and monospecific canopy on their site prior to the disturbance. Another relevant finding was the important natural spatiotemporal variability of macrobenthic assemblages associated with canopy-forming species, which raises concern about the ability to discriminate the natural variability from the disturbance impact. Finally, our results support the need to implement ecosystem-based management, assessing both the habitat conditions and ecological roles of targeted commercial species, in order to insure the sustainability of the resource.

scholarly journals Climate-dependent propagation of precipitation uncertainty into the water cycle

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Fallah ◽  
Sungmin O ◽  
Rene Orth
Keyword(s):  
Hydrological Model ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Rain Gauge ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Current State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Conceptual Hydrological Model

Abstract. Precipitation is a crucial variable for hydro-meteorological applications. Unfortunately, rain gauge measurements are sparse and unevenly distributed, which substantially hampers the use of in-situ precipitation data in many regions of the world. The increasing availability of high-resolution gridded precipitation products presents a valuable alternative, especially over gauge-sparse regions. Nevertheless, uncertainties and corresponding differences across products can limit the applicability of these data. This study examines the usefulness of current state-of-the-art precipitation datasets in hydrological modelling. For this purpose, we force a conceptual hydrological model with multiple precipitation datasets in > 200 European catchments. We consider a wide range of precipitation products, which are generated via (1) interpolation of gauge measurements (E-OBS and GPCC V.2018), (2) combination of multiple sources (MSWEP V2) and (3) data assimilation into reanalysis models (ERA-Interim, ERA5, and CFSR). For each catchment, runoff and evapotranspiration simulations are obtained by forcing the model with the various precipitation products. Evaluation is done at the monthly time scale during the period of 1984–2007. We find that simulated runoff values are highly dependent on the accuracy of precipitation inputs, and thus show significant differences between the simulations. By contrast, simulated evapotranspiration is generally much less influenced. The results are further analysed with respect to different hydro-climatic regimes. We find that the impact of precipitation uncertainty on simulated runoff increases towards wetter regions, while the opposite is observed in the case of evapotranspiration. Finally, we perform an indirect performance evaluation of the precipitation datasets by comparing the runoff simulations with streamflow observations. Thereby, E-OBS yields the best agreement, while furthermore ERA5, GPCC V.2018 and MSWEP V2 show good performance. In summary, our findings highlight a climate-dependent propagation of precipitation uncertainty through the water cycle; while runoff is strongly impacted in comparatively wet regions such as Central Europe, there are increasing implications on evapotranspiration towards drier regions.

scholarly journals A Community-Based Vulnerability Assessment of Terrestrial Flooding in the South Oropouche River Basin After Tropical Storm Bret

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Don Charles
Keyword(s):  
Trinidad And Tobago ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Vulnerability Assessment ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Tropical Storm ◽  
The South ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The year 2017 had a very active season for hurricanes and extreme weather conditions. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria did damage to several Caribbean islands. Even Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), a country which rarely experiences extreme weather conditions, was affected by Tropical Storm Bret. Tropical Storm Bret caused flooding in T&T, especially in the low lying South Oropouche River Basin.There is a dearth of research conducted in T&T about the impact of extreme weather conditions and flooding on communities and families. Thus, this study sought to conduct a community base vulnerability assessment (CBVA) of the impact of the Tropical Storm Bret induced flooding upon the residents of the South Oropouche River Basin.Primary data was collected via semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to conduct the CBVA. Furthermore, this study introduced a Modal Community Based Vulnerability Assessment Index (MCBVAI) to help determine which factors the residents South Oropouche River Basin are most vulnerable to.This study found that the most vulnerable residents were vulnerable largely to their building of structures at locations unsuitable for housing. Moreover, the most vulnerable residents also built structures that were not resilient to flooding and was elevated less than 4 feet (ft) off the ground. The appropriate policy response for the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (GORTT) would be to i) establish building codes, ii) develop a comprehensive spatial planning strategy which prohibits people from building structures in unsuitable areas, and iii) implement disaster risk reduction programmes which focus on improving pre-event disaster preparedness, improving the national and local response, and promoting educational awareness.

scholarly journals Land Drainage Development Processes and Changes in the Context of Runoff Change in Northern Lithuania

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasa Stankevičienė ◽  
Oksana Survilė
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
River Runoff ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Annual Runoff ◽  
Land Drainage ◽  
Runoff Change ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Annual Runoff Distribution ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Drainage Development

The impact of the drainage of excessively wet land on river runoff has so far been assessed differently and very carefully because of its complexity and diversity. The article analyses changes of drained land areas and runoff in the river basins of Mūša, Lėvuo Tatula and Nemunėlis. Wet land areas in the Mūša, Lėvuo and Nemunėlis rivers basins account for more than 70% from the total basins area and in the Tatula about 90%. Increase of drained land areas in the studied river basins has no significant influence on the change of river runoff. Studies have shown that the change in drained land areas did not affect the change in runoff height. Drainage does not have a significant effect on changes in the annual runoff distribution of the studied rivers.

Satellite-derived shorelines reveal fascinating dynamics for the last three decades on Danube Delta coast

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florin Tatui ◽  
Georgiana Anghelin ◽  
Sorin Constantin
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Images ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Danube Delta ◽  
Dune System ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sentinel 2

<p>Shoreline, as the interface between the upper shoreface and the beach-dune system, is sensitive to all changes from both the underwater and sub-aerial parts of the beach at a wide range of temporal scales (seconds to decades), making it a good indicator for coastal health. While more traditional techniques of shoreline monitoring present some shortcomings (low temporal resolution for photointerpretation, reduced spatial extension for video-based techniques, high costs for DGPS in-situ data acquisition), freely available satellite images can provide information for large areas (tens/hundreds of km) at very good temporal scales (days).</p><p>We employed a shoreline detection workflow for the dynamic environment of the Danube Delta coast (Black Sea). We focused on an index-based approach using the Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI). A fully automated procedure was deployed for data processing and the waterline was estimated at sub-pixel level with an adapted image thresholding technique. For validation purposes, 5 Sentinel-2 and 5 Landsat based results were compared with both in-situ (D)GPS measurements and manually digitized shoreline positions from very high-resolution satellite images (Pleiades – 0.5 m and Spot 7 – 1.5 m). The overall accuracy of the methodology, expressed as mean absolute error, was found to be of approximately 7.5 m for Sentinel-2 and 4.7 m for Landsat data, respectively.</p><p>More than 200 Landsat (5 and 8) and Sentinel-2 images were processed and the corresponding satellite-derived shorelines between 1990 and 2020 were analysed for the whole Romanian Danube Delta coast (130 km). This high number of shorelines allowed us the discrimination of different patterns of coastline dynamic and behaviour which could not have been possible using usual surveying techniques: the extent of accumulation areas induced by the 2005-2006 historical river floods, the impact of different high-energy storms and the subsequent beach recovery after these events, the alongshore movement of erosional processes in accordance with the dominant direction of longshore sediment transport, multi-annual differences in both erosional and accumulation trends. Moreover, a very important result of our analysis is the zonation of Danube Delta coast based on multi-annual trends of shoreline dynamics at finer alongshore spatial resolution than before. This has significant implications for future studies dealing with different scenarios of Danube Delta response to projected sea level rise and increased storminess.</p><p>The presented approach and resulting products offer optimal combination of data availability, accuracy and frequency necessary to meet the monitoring and management needs of the increasing number of stakeholders involved in the coastal zone protection activities.</p>

scholarly journals A Novel Method for Evaluation of Flood Risk Reduction Strategies: Explanation of ICPR FloRiAn GIS-Tool and Its First Application to the Rhine River Basin

Geosciences ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Schmid-Breton ◽  
Gesa Kutschera ◽  
Ton Botterhuis ◽  
The ICPR Expert Group ‘Flood Risk Analysis’ (EG HIRI)
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Rhine River ◽  
Culture Heritage ◽  
Flood Risk Reduction ◽  
The Impact

To determine the effects of measures on flood risk, the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR), supported by the engineering consultant HKV has developed a method and a GIS-tool named “ICPR FloRiAn (Flood Risk Analysis)”, which enables the broad-scale assessment of the effectiveness of flood risk management measures on the Rhine, but could be also applied to other rivers. The tool uses flood hazard maps and associated recurrence periods for an overall damage and risk assessment for four receptors: human health, environment, culture heritage, and economic activity. For each receptor, a method is designed to calculate the impact of flooding and the effect of measures. The tool consists of three interacting modules: damage assessment, risk assessment, and measures. Calculations using this tool show that the flood risk reduction target defined in the Action Plan on Floods of the ICPR in 1998 could be achieved with the measures already taken and those planned until 2030. Upon request, the ICPR will provide this tool and the method to other river basin organizations, national authorities, or scientific institutions. This article presents the method and GIS-tool developed by the ICPR as well as first calculation results.

scholarly journals Estimation of bubble-mediated air–sea gas exchange from concurrent DMS and CO<sub>2</sub> transfer velocities at intermediate–high wind speeds

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (14) ◽  
pp. 9019-9033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Bell ◽  
Sebastian Landwehr ◽  
Scott D. Miller ◽  
Warren J. de Bruyn ◽  
Adrian H. Callaghan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Gas Exchange ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gas Transfer ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2 ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Simultaneous air–sea fluxes and concentration differences of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were measured during a summertime North Atlantic cruise in 2011. This data set reveals significant differences between the gas transfer velocities of these two gases (Δkw) over a range of wind speeds up to 21 m s−1. These differences occur at and above the approximate wind speed threshold when waves begin breaking. Whitecap fraction (a proxy for bubbles) was also measured and has a positive relationship with Δkw, consistent with enhanced bubble-mediated transfer of the less soluble CO2 relative to that of the more soluble DMS. However, the correlation of Δkw with whitecap fraction is no stronger than with wind speed. Models used to estimate bubble-mediated transfer from in situ whitecap fraction underpredict the observations, particularly at intermediate wind speeds. Examining the differences between gas transfer velocities of gases with different solubilities is a useful way to detect the impact of bubble-mediated exchange. More simultaneous gas transfer measurements of different solubility gases across a wide range of oceanic conditions are needed to understand the factors controlling the magnitude and scaling of bubble-mediated gas exchange.

scholarly journals Estimating the Effect of Deforestation on Runoff in Small Mountainous Basins in Slovakia

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3113
Author(s):  
Michaela Danáčová ◽  
Gabriel Földes ◽  
Marija Mihaela Labat ◽  
Silvia Kohnová ◽  
Kamila Hlavčová
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Scenario ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Measured Time ◽  
Forested Areas ◽  
Design Floods ◽  
Map Data ◽  
The Impact

The paper aims to assess the impact of deforestation due to windstorms on runoff in small mountain river basins. In the Boca and Ipoltica River basins, changes in forested areas were assessed from available historical and current digital map data. Significant forest losses occurred between 2004 and 2012. During the whole period of 1990–2018, forested areas in the Boca river decreased from 83% to 47% and in the Ipoltica River basin from 80% to 70%. Changes in runoff conditions were assessed based on an assessment of changes in the measured time series of the hydrometeorological data for the years 1981–2016. An empirical hydrological model was used to determine the design peak discharges before and after significant windstorms were estimated for different rain intensities and return periods. The regional climate scenario for the period 2070–2100 was used to assess the current impact of climate change and river basin deforestation on predicted changes in design floods in the coming decades. The effect of deforestation became evident in the extreme discharges, especially in future decades. In the Boca River basin, the estimated design floods increased by 59%, and in the Ipoltica River basin by 172% in the case of the 100-year return period.

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