Understanding and prediction of low-flow conditions are fundamental for efficient water resources planning and management as well as for identification of water-related environmental problems. This is problematic especially in view of water use in economic sectors (e.g., tourism) where water-use peaks usually coincide with low-flow conditions in the summer time. In our study, we evaluated various low-flow characteristics at 11 water stations in the non-homogenous Ljubljanica river catchment in Slovenia. Approximately 90% of the catchment is covered by karst with a diverse subsurface, consisting of numerous karst caves. The streams in the remaining part of the catchment have mainly torrential characteristics. Based on daily discharge data we calculated and analyzed values of 5 low-flow indices. In addition, by analyzing hydrograph recession curves, recession constants were determined to assess the catchment’s responsiveness to the absence of precipitation. By using various calculation criteria, we analyzed the influence of individual criteria on the values of low-flow recession constants. Recession curves are widely used in different fields of hydrology, for example in hydrological models, baseflow studies, for low-flow forecasting, and in assessing groundwater storages which are crucial in view of assessing water availability for planning water resources management. Moreover, in the study we also investigated the possible impact of projected climate change (scenario RCP4.5) on low-flow conditions in two sub-catchments of the Ljubljanica river catchment. For the evaluation we used the lumped conceptual hydrological model implemented in the R package airGR. For periods 2011-2040, 2041-2070, and 2071-2100 low-flow conditions were evaluated based on flow duration curves compared with the 1981-2010 period. The lowest discharges at all water stations in the Ljubljanica river catchment occur mostly during the summer months. Our results for the future show that we can expect a decrease of the lowest low-flows in the first two 30-year periods, while in the last one low-flows could increase by approx. 15%. However, the uncertainty/variability of the results is very high and as such should be taken into account when interpreting and using the results. This study demonstrates that evaluation of several low-flow characteristics is needed for a comprehensive and holistic overview of low-flow dynamics. In non-homogeneous catchments with a high karstic influence, the hydrogeological conditions of rivers should also be taken into account in order to adequately interpret the results of low-flow analyses. This proved to be important even in case of neighboring water stations.
Water resources of the Mississippi embayment; Low-flow characteristics of streams in the Mississippi embayment in northern Arkansas and in Missouri, with a section on quality of the water