scholarly journals Snowmelt rate and continuity determine the intra-annual variability and magnitude of streamflow in three alpine watersheds in the western U.S.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohua Chen ◽  
Guoping Tang ◽  
Tao Chen ◽  
Xiangyu Niu
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Peak Discharge ◽  
Regional Warming ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Ecological Simulation ◽  
Alpine Watersheds

In semiarid to arid regions of the western U. S., the availability and variability of river flow are highly subject to shifts in snow accumulation and ablation in alpine watersheds. This study aims to examine how shifts in snowmelt rate (SMR) and snow continuity, an indicator of the consistent existence of snow on the ground, affect snow-driven streamflow dynamics in three alpine watersheds in the U.S. Great Basin. To achieve this end, the coupled hydro-ecological simulation system (CHESS) is used to simulate river flow dynamics and multiple snow metrics are calculated to quantify the variation of snowmelt rate and snow continuity, the latter of which is measured, respectively, by snow persistence (SP), snow residence time (SRT) and snow season length (SSL). Then, a new approach is proposed to partition streamflow into snow-driven and rain-driven streamflow. The statistical analyses indicate that the three alpine watersheds experienced a downward trend in SP, SRT, SSL and SMR during the study period of 1990-2016 due to regional warming. As a result, the decrease in SMR and the decline in snow continuity shifted the day of 25% and 50% of the snow-driven cumulative discharge as well as peak discharge toward an earlier occurrence. Besides, the magnitudes of snow-driven annual streamflow, summer baseflow and peak discharge also decreased due to the declined snow continuity and the reduced snowmelt rate. Overall, by using multiple snow and flow metrics as well as by partitioning streamflow into snow-driven and rain-driven flow via the newly proposed approach, we found that snowmelt rate and snow continuity determine the streamflow hydrographs and magnitudes in the three alpine watersheds. This has important implications for water resource management in the snow-dominated region facing future climate warming given that warming can significantly affect snow dynamics in alpine watersheds in semiarid to arid regions.

Water Resources Management in the Semi-Arid Central Valley of California

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 97-106
Author(s):  
J. J. Vasconcelos
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Ground Water ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Ground Water Resource ◽  
Semi Arid

Hater resource managers in semi-arid regions are faced with some unique problems. The wide variations in precipitation and stream flows in semi-arid regions increase man's dependence on the ground water resource for an ample and reliable supply of water. Proper management of the ground water resource is absolutely essential to the economic well being of semi-arid regions. Historians have discovered the remains of vanished advanced civilizations based on irrigated agriculture which were ignorant of the importance of proper ground water resource management. In the United States a great deal of effort is presently being expended in the study and control of toxic discharges to the ground water resource. What many public policy makers fail to understand is that the potential loss to society resulting from the mineralization of the ground water resource is potentially much greater than the loss caused by toxic wastes discharges, particularly in developing countries. Appropriations for ground water resource management studies in developed countries such as the United States are presently much less than those for toxic wastes management and should be increased. It is the reponsibility of the water resource professional to emphasize to public policy makers the importance of ground water resource management. Applications of ground water resource management models in the semi-arid Central Valley of California are presented. The results demonstrate the need for proper ground water resource management practices in semi-arid regions and the use of ground water management models as a valuable tool for the water resource manager.

scholarly journals Hot and cold flavors of southern California’s Santa Ana winds: their causes, trends, and links with wildfire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Gershunov ◽  
Janin Guzman Morales ◽  
Benjamin Hatchett ◽  
Kristen Guirguis ◽  
Rosana Aguilera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
High Amplitude ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Burned Area ◽  
Rossby Wave Breaking ◽  
Santa Ana ◽  
Santa Ana Winds

AbstractSanta Ana winds (SAWs) are associated with anomalous temperatures in coastal Southern California (SoCal). As dry air flows over SoCal’s coastal ranges on its way from the elevated Great Basin down to sea level, all SAWs warm adiabatically. Many but not all SAWs produce coastal heat events. The strongest regionally averaged SAWs tend to be cold. In fact, some of the hottest and coldest observed temperatures in coastal SoCal are linked to SAWs. We show that hot and cold SAWs are produced by distinct synoptic dynamics. High-amplitude anticyclonic flow around a blocking high pressure aloft anchored at the California coast produces hot SAWs. Cold SAWs result from anticyclonic Rossby wave breaking over the northwestern U.S. Hot SAWs are preceded by warming in the Great Basin and dry conditions across the Southwestern U.S. Precipitation over the Southwest, including SoCal, and snow accumulation in the Great Basin usually precede cold SAWs. Both SAW flavors, but especially the hot SAWs, yield low relative humidity at the coast. Although cold SAWs tend to be associated with the strongest winds, hot SAWs tend to last longer and preferentially favor wildfire growth. Historically, out of large (> 100 acres) SAW-spread wildfires, 90% were associated with hot SAWs, accounting for 95% of burned area. As health impacts of SAW-driven coastal fall, winter and spring heat waves and impacts of smoke from wildfires have been recently identified, our results have implications for designing early warning systems. The long-term warming trend in coastal temperatures associated with SAWs is focused on January–March, when hot and cold SAW frequency and temperature intensity have been increasing and decreasing, respectively, over our 71-year record.

scholarly journals Forcing the SURFEX/Crocus snow model with combined hourly meteorological forecasts and gridded observations in southern Norway

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanneke Luijting ◽  
Dagrun Vikhamar-Schuler ◽  
Trygve Aspelien ◽  
Mariken Homleid
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Snow Depth ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Snow Melt ◽  
Grid Spacing ◽  
Snow Covered Area ◽  
Covered Area ◽  
Southern Norway

Abstract. In Norway, thirty percent of the annual precipitation falls as snow. Knowledge of the snow reservoir is therefore important for energy production and water resource management. The land surface model SURFEX with the detailed snowpack scheme Crocus (SURFEX/Crocus) has been run with a grid spacing of approximately 1 km over an area in southern Norway for two years (01 September 2014–31 August 2016), using two different forcing data sets: 1) hourly meteorological forecasts from the operational weather forecast model AROME MetCoOp (2.5 km grid spacing), and 2) gridded hourly observations of temperature and precipitation (1 km grid spacing) in combination with the meteorological forecasts from AROME MetCoOp. We present an evaluation of the modeled snow depth and snow cover, as compared to point observations of snow depth and to MODIS satellite images of the snow-covered area. The evaluation focuses on snow accumulation and snow melt. The results are promising. Both experiments are capable of simulating the snow pack over the two winter seasons, but there is an overestimation of snow depth when using only meteorological forecasts from AROME MetCoOp, although the snow-covered area throughout the melt season is better represented by this experiment. The errors, when using AROME MetCoOp as forcing, accumulate over the snow season, showing that assimilation of snow depth observations into SURFEX/Crocus might be necessary when using only meteorological forecasts as forcing. When using gridded observations, the simulation of snow depth is significantly improved, which shows that using a combination of gridded observations and meteorological forecasts to force a snowpack model is very useful and can give better results than only using meteorological forecasts. There is however an underestimation of snow ablation in both experiments. This is mainly due to the absence of wind-induced erosion of snow in the SURFEX/Crocus model, underestimated snow melt and biases in the forcing data.

scholarly journals An improved framework to predict river flow time series data

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafiza Mamona Nazir ◽  
Ijaz Hussain ◽  
Ishfaq Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Faisal ◽  
Ibrahim M. Almanjahie
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Flow Time ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Percentage Error ◽  
Empirical Bayesian ◽  
Noise Characteristics

Due to non-stationary and noise characteristics of river flow time series data, some pre-processing methods are adopted to address the multi-scale and noise complexity. In this paper, we proposed an improved framework comprising Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise-Empirical Bayesian Threshold (CEEMDAN-EBT). The CEEMDAN-EBT is employed to decompose non-stationary river flow time series data into Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs). The derived IMFs are divided into two parts; noise-dominant IMFs and noise-free IMFs. Firstly, the noise-dominant IMFs are denoised using empirical Bayesian threshold to integrate the noises and sparsities of IMFs. Secondly, the denoised IMF’s and noise free IMF’s are further used as inputs in data-driven and simple stochastic models respectively to predict the river flow time series data. Finally, the predicted IMF’s are aggregated to get the final prediction. The proposed framework is illustrated by using four rivers of the Indus Basin System. The prediction performance is compared with Mean Square Error, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). Our proposed method, CEEMDAN-EBT-MM, produced the smallest MAPE for all four case studies as compared with other methods. This suggests that our proposed hybrid model can be used as an efficient tool for providing the reliable prediction of non-stationary and noisy time series data to policymakers such as for planning power generation and water resource management.

scholarly journals Anomalies and trends of high river flow under temperate climatic conditions in north-eastern Romania

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ionuț Minea ◽  
Oana Elena Chelariu
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource Management ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
High Flow ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Pi Index ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Management Plans ◽  
High River Flow

Abstract Regional water resource management plans include various scenarios related to the anomalies and trends of hydro-climatic parameters. Two methods are used for the identification of the anomalies and trends associated with high flow (annual and seasonal) of the rivers in Eastern Romania, namely the quantile perturbation method (QPM) and the partial trend method (PMT). These methods were selected due to the fact that they are suitable for data sets which do not rely on restrictive statistical assumption as common parametric and nonparametric trend tests do. For six of the nine stations analyzed, the decreasing trend in high extremes for annual high flow based on the PTM is the same as the annual trend obtained with the QPM. Using the PI index (associated with PTM) for the estimation of trend intensity, values between −2.280 and −9.015 m3/s were calculated for the decreasing trend of the annual high flow and between +1,633 m3/s (in autumn) and −9.940 m3/s (in summer) for the seasonal high flow. The results obtained on the anomalies and trends of high river flow may represent a starting point in the analysis of the evolution of water resources and their effective management.

Managing river flow in arid regions with matrix analytic methods

2010 ◽  
Vol 382 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 128-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.J. Fisher ◽  
D.A. Green ◽  
A.V. Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
Arid Regions ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Matrix Analytic Methods ◽  
Analytic Methods

scholarly journals Numerical Approaches for Estimating Daily River Leakage from Arid Ephemeral Streams

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leilei Min ◽  
Peter Yu. Vasilevskiy ◽  
Ping Wang ◽  
Sergey P. Pozdniakov ◽  
Jingjie Yu
Keyword(s):  
Arid Regions ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Resource Planning ◽  
Regulated River ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Ephemeral Streams ◽  
Riparian Ecosystems ◽  
Runoff Volume ◽  
Total Runoff

Despite the significance of river leakage to riparian ecosystems in arid/semi-arid regions, a true understanding and the accurate quantification of the leakage processes of ephemeral rivers in these regions remain elusive. In this study, the patterns of river infiltration and the associated controlling factors in an approximately 150-km section of the Donghe River (lower Heihe River, China) were revealed using a combination of field investigations and modelling techniques. The results showed that from 21 April 2010 to 7 September 2012, river water leakage accounted for 33% of the total river runoff in the simulated segments. A sensitivity analysis showed that the simulated infiltration rates were most sensitive to the aquifer hydraulic conductivity and the maximum evapotranspiration (ET) rate. However, the river leakage rate, i.e., the ratio of the leakage volume to the total runoff volume, of a single runoff event relies heavily on the total runoff volume and river flow rate. In addition to the hydraulic parameters of riverbeds, the characteristics of ET parameters are equally important for quantifying the flux exchange between arid ephemeral streams and underlying aquifers. Coupled surface/groundwater models, which aim to estimate river leakage, should consider riparian zones because these areas play a dominant role in the formation of leakage from the river for recharging via ET. The results of this paper can be used as a reference for water resource planning and management in regulated river basins to help maintain riparian ecosystems in arid regions.

scholarly journals Application of the radionuclide 210Pb in glaciology – an overview

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (257) ◽  
pp. 447-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz W. Gäggeler ◽  
Leonhard Tobler ◽  
Margit Schwikowski ◽  
Theo M. Jenk
Keyword(s):  
Half Life ◽  
Arid Regions ◽  
Noble Gas ◽  
Radioactive Decay ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Glacier Flow

Abstract210Pb is an environmental radionuclide with a half-life of 22.3 years, formed in the atmosphere via radioactive decay of radon (222Rn). 222Rn itself is a noble gas with a half-life of 3.8 days and is formed via radioactive decay of uranium (238U) contained in the Earth crust from where it constantly emanates into the atmosphere. 210Pb atoms attach to aerosol particles, which are then deposited on glaciers via scavenging with fresh snow. Due to its half-life, ice cores can be dated with this radionuclide over roughly one century, depending on the initial 210Pb activity concentration. Optimum 210Pb dating is achieved for cold glaciers with no – or little – influence by percolating meltwater. This paper presents an overview which not only includes dating of cold glaciers but also some special cases of 210Pb applications in glaciology addressing temperate glaciers, glaciers with negative mass balance, sublimation processes on glaciers in arid regions, determination of annual net snow accumulation as well as glacier flow rates.

scholarly journals Study on the Transport of Terrestrial Dissolved Substances in the Pearl River Estuary Using Passive Tracers

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1235
Author(s):  
Bo Hong ◽  
Guangyu Wang ◽  
Hongzhou Xu ◽  
Dongxiao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource Management ◽  
River Flow ◽  
River Estuary ◽  
Pearl River Estuary ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Pearl River ◽  
Transport Time ◽  
The Pearl River Estuary ◽  
Passive Tracers ◽  
The Pearl River

Highly populated river deltas are experiencing marine environment degradation resulting from the tremendous input of terrestrial dissolved substances (TeDS). The Pearl River Delta is one of the deltas with degradation of the water quality and ecological condition. The Pearl River Estuary (PRE) was investigated to reveal the fate and transport timescales of TeDS in order to provide guidance on water resource management and pollutant transport prediction. By using passive tracers in a calibrated 3D numerical model, the TeDS transports from five different outlet groups were investigated systematically. The TeDS transport time was computed by using the concept of water age, which is a measure of the time that has elapsed since the tracer was transported from the upstream boundary to the downstream concerned area. The tracer impacted area was defined by the area with tracer concentrations > 0.2 (arbitrary unit). The domains that were impacted by the tracer coming from each outlet group were identified separately. In the wet season, the impacted area was larger than in other seasons. The most prominent variations appeared in the Jiaomen–Hengmen–Hongqili (JHH) and Modaomen (MD) outlets. The hydrodynamic conditions controlled the offshore spreading of the TeDS. Assuming the TeDS were conservative, it took approximately 10–20 days for the TeDS to be transported from the head water to the entrance of the outlet. For the TeDS coming from the head water of the Humen outlet, it took approximately 40 (80) days for the TeDS to be transported out of the mouth of the Lingding Bay during the wet (dry) season. For the case of the TeDS coming from the head water of the JHH outlets, it took approximately 20 (40) days for the TeDS to be transported out of the Lingding Bay during the wet (dry) season. For the MD, Jiti and Yamen–Hutiao outlets, it usually took approximately 10 days for the TeDS to be transported from the head water to the inner shelf. The correlation coefficient between the river flow and tracer concentrations was 0.78, and between the river flow and transport time it was −0.70 at a station in the lower Lingding Bay. At the estuary mouth, the impacts of other forcing fields got stronger.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document