Landscape-scale water balance monitoring with an iGrav superconducting gravimeter in a field enclosure

Abstract. In spite of the fundamental role of the landscape water balance for the Earth's water and energy cycles, monitoring the water balance and its components beyond the point scale is notoriously difficult due to the multitude of flow and storage processes and their spatial heterogeneity. Here, we present the first field deployment of an iGrav superconducting gravimeter (SG) in a minimized enclosure for long-term integrative monitoring of water storage changes. Results of the field SG on a grassland site under wet–temperate climate conditions were compared to data provided by a nearby SG located in the controlled environment of an observatory building. The field system proves to provide gravity time series that are similarly precise as those of the observatory SG. At the same time, the field SG is more sensitive to hydrological variations than the observatory SG. We demonstrate that the gravity variations observed by the field setup are almost independent of the depth below the terrain surface where water storage changes occur (contrary to SGs in buildings), and thus the field SG system directly observes the total water storage change, i.e., the water balance, in its surroundings in an integrative way. We provide a framework to single out the water balance components actual evapotranspiration and lateral subsurface discharge from the gravity time series on annual to daily timescales. With about 99 and 85 % of the gravity signal due to local water storage changes originating within a radius of 4000 and 200 m around the instrument, respectively, this setup paves the road towards gravimetry as a continuous hydrological field-monitoring technique at the landscape scale.

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Landscape-scale water balance monitoring with an iGrav superconducting gravimeter in a field enclosure

10.5194/hess-2017-103 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andreas Güntner ◽

Marvin Reich ◽

Michal Mikolaj ◽

Benjamin Creutzfeldt ◽

Stephan Schroeder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Water Balance ◽

Water Storage ◽

Superconducting Gravimeter ◽

Landscape Scale ◽

Temperate Climate ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

The Road ◽

Field Deployment

Abstract. In spite of the fundamental role of the landscape water balance for the Earth’s water and energy cycles, monitoring the water balance and its components beyond the point scale is notoriously difficult due to the multitude of flow and storage processes and their spatial heterogeneity. Here, we present the first field deployment of an iGrav superconducting gravimeter (SG) in a minimized enclosure for long-term integrative monitoring of water storage changes. Results of the field SG on a grassland site under wet-temperate climate conditions were compared to data provided by a nearby SG located in the controlled environment of an observatory building. The field system proves to provide gravity time series that are similarly precise as those of the observatory SG. At the same time, the field SG is more sensitive to hydrological variations than the observatory SG. We demonstrate that the gravity variations observed by the field setup are almost independent of the depth below the terrain surface where water storage changes occur (contrary to SGs in buildings), and thus the field SG system directly observes the total water storage change, i.e., the water balance, in its surroundings in an integrative way. We provide a framework to single out the water balance components actual evapotranspiration and lateral subsurface discharge from the gravity time series on annual to daily time scales. With about 99 % and 85 % of the gravity signal due to local water storage changes originating within a radius of 4000 and 200 meter around the instrument, respectively, this setup paves the road towards gravimetry as a continuous hydrological field monitoring technique at the landscape scale.

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Estimating the water balance and uncertainty bounds in a highly groundwater-dependent and data-scarce areas: An example for the upper Citarum basin

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9943 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Steven Reinaldo Rusli ◽

Albrecht Weerts ◽

Victor Bense

Keyword(s):

Water Balance ◽

Water Storage ◽

Total Water ◽

Groundwater Abstraction ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Groundwater Storage ◽

Actual Evaporation ◽

Basin Scale ◽

Basin Water ◽

Storage Change

In this study, we estimate the water balance components of a highly groundwater-dependent and hydrological data-scarce basin of the upper reaches of the Citarum river in West Java, Indonesia. Firstly, we estimate the groundwater abstraction volumes based on population size and a review of literature (0.57mm/day). Estimates of other components like rainfall, actual evaporation, discharge, and total water storage changes are derived from global datasets and are simulated using a distributed hydrological wflow_sbm model which yields additional estimates of discharge, actual evaporation, and total water storage change. We compare each basin water balance estimate as well as quantify the uncertainty of some of the components using the Extended Triple Collocation (ETC) method.The ETC application on four different rainfall estimates suggests a preference of using the CHIRPS product as the input to the water balance components estimates as it delivers the highest r2&#160; and the lowest RMSE compared to three other sources. From the different data sources and results of the distributed hydrological modeling using CHIRPS as rainfall forcing, we estimate a positive groundwater storage change between 0.12 mm/day - 0.60 mm/day. These results are in agreement with groundwater storage change estimates based upon GRACE gravimetric satellite data, averaged at 0.25 mm/day. The positive groundwater storage change suggests sufficient groundwater recharge occurs compensating for groundwater abstraction. This conclusion seems in agreement with the observation since 2005, although measured in different magnitudes. To validate and narrow the estimated ranges of the basin water storage changes, a devoted groundwater model is necessary to be developed. The result shall also aid in assessing the current and future basin-scale groundwater level changes to support operational water management and policy in the Upper Citarum basin.

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Modeling the changes in water balance components of the highly irrigated western part of Bangladesh

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-22-4213-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (8) ◽

pp. 4213-4228 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

A. T. M. Sakiur Rahman ◽

M. Shakil Ahmed ◽

Hasnat Mohammad Adnan ◽

Mohammad Kamruzzaman ◽

M. Abdul Khalek ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Water Balance ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Time Series Data ◽

Arima Model ◽

Series Data ◽

Discrete Wavelet ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Mk Test ◽

Periodic Components

Abstract. The objectives of the present study were to explore the changes in the water balance components (WBCs) by co-utilizing the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and different forms of the Mann–Kendall (MK) test and develop a wavelet denoise autoregressive integrated moving average (WD-ARIMA) model for forecasting the WBCs. The results revealed that most of the potential evapotranspiration (PET) trends (approximately 73 %) had a decreasing tendency from 1981–1982 to 2012–2013 in the western part of Bangladesh. However, most of the trends (approximately 82 %) were not statistically significant at a 5 % significance level. The actual evapotranspiration (AET), annual deficit, and annual surplus also exhibited a similar tendency. The rainfall and temperature exhibited increasing trends. However, the WBCs exhibited an inverse trend, which suggested that the PET changes associated with temperature changes could not explain the change in the WBCs. Moreover, the 8-year (D3) and 16-year (D4) periodic components were generally responsible for the trends found in the original WBC data for the study area. The actual data was affected by noise, which resulted in the ARIMA model exhibiting an unsatisfactory performance. Therefore, wavelet denoising of the WBC time series was conducted to improve the performance of the ARIMA model. The quality of the denoising time series data was ensured using relevant statistical analysis. The performance of the WD-ARIMA model was assessed using the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) coefficient and coefficient of determination (R2). The WD-ARIMA model exhibited very good performance, which clearly demonstrated the advantages of denoising the time series data for forecasting the WBCs. The validation results of the model revealed that the forecasted values were very close to actual values, with an acceptable mean percentage error. The residuals also followed a normal distribution. The performance and validation results indicated that models can be used for the short-term forecasting of WBCs. Further studies on different combinations of wavelet analysis are required to develop a superior model for the hydrological forecasting in the context of climate change. The findings of this study can be used to improve water resource management in the highly irrigated western part of Bangladesh.

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Improving continental scale hydrological model performance and stability under variable climate conditions in order to improve the assessment of future water resources

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9284 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Wendy Sharples ◽

Andrew Frost ◽

Ulrike Bende-Michl ◽

Ashkan Shokri ◽

Louise Wilson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

Water Balance ◽

Hydrological Model ◽

Model Performance ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Water Balance Component ◽

Multi Objective ◽

Model Parameterization ◽

The Future

Ensuring future water security in a changing climate is becoming a top priority for Australia, which is already dealing with the ongoing socio-economic and environmental impacts from record-breaking bushfires, infrastructure damage from recent flash flooding events, and the prospect of continuing compromised water sources in both regional towns and large cities into the future. In response to these significant impacts the Australian Bureau of Meteorology is providing a hydrological projections service, using their national operational hydrological model (The Australian Water Resources Assessment model: AWRA-L, www.bom.gov.au/water/landscape), to project future hydrological fluxes and states using downscaled meteorological inputs from an ensemble of curated global climate models and emissions scenarios at a resolution of 5km out to the end of this century.Continental model calibration using a long record of Australian observational data has been employed across components of the water balance, to tune the model parameters to Australia's varied hydro-climate, thereby reducing uncertainty associated with inputs and hydrological model structure. This approach has been shown to improve the accuracy of simulated hydrological fields, and the skill of short term and seasonal forecasts. However, in order to improve model performance and stability for use in hydrological projections, it is desirable to choose a model parameterization which produces reasonable hydrological responses under conditions of climate variability as well as under historical conditions. To this end we have developed a two-stage approach: Firstly, a variance based sensitivity analysis for water balance components (e.g. ephemeral flow, average to high flow, recharge, soil moisture and evapotranspiration) is performed, to rank the most influential parameters affecting water balance components. Parameters which are insensitive across components are then fixed to a previously optimized value, decreasing the number of calibratable parameters in order to decrease dimensionality and uncertainty in the calibration process. Secondly, a model configured with reduced calibratable parameters is put through a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (Borg MOEA, www.borgmoea.org), to capture the tradeoffs between the water balance component performance objectives under climate variable conditions (e.g. wet, dry and historical) and across climate regions derived from the natural resource management model (https://nrmregionsaustralia.com.au/).The decreased dimensionality is shown to improve the stability and robustness of the existing calibration routine (shuffled complex evolution) as well as the multi-objective routine. Upon examination of the tradeoffs between the water balance component objective functions and in-situ validation data under historical, wet and dry periods and across different Australian climate regions, we show there is no one size fits all parameter set continentally, and thus some concessions need to be made in choosing a suitable model parameterization. However, future work could include developing a set of parameters which suit specific regions or climate conditions in Australia. The approach outlined in this study could be employed to improve confidence in any hydrological model used to simulate the future impacts of climate change.&#160;

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

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22254 ◽

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

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 water generating mechanisms (external water sources, internal feedback mechanisms) that enable peatland formation with such delicate water balances in these 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.A multi-year sampling campaign was conducted to collect hydrometric, geochemical (DOC, pH, major cations and anions), and isotopic (D/H, 18O/16O) 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 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 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.

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Transferability of monthly water balance models under changing climate conditions in an arid catchment

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8552 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zana Topalovic ◽

Andrijana Todorovic ◽

Jasna Plavsic

Keyword(s):

Water Balance ◽

Model Performance ◽

Subjective Assessment ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Changing Climate ◽

Statistical Measures ◽

Water Balance Models ◽

Model Components ◽

Monthly Water Balance

Assessment of climate change impact on water resources is often based on hydrologic projections developed using monthly water balance models (MWBMs) forced by climate projections. These models are calibrated against historical data but are expected to provide accurate flow simulations under changing climate conditions. However, an evaluation of these models&#8217; performance is needed to explore their applicability under changing climate conditions, assess uncertainties and eventually indicate model components that should be improved. This should be done in a comprehensive evaluation framework specifically tailored to evaluate applicability of MWBMs in changing climatic conditions.&#160;In this study, we evaluated performance of four MWBMs (abcd, Budyko, GR2M and WASMOD) used for hydrologic simulations in the arid Wimmera River catchment in Australia. This catchment is selected as a challenge for model application because it was affected by the Millennium drought, characterised by a decrease in precipitation and a dramatic drop in runoff. The model evaluation within the proposed framework starts with dividing the complete record period into five non-overlapping sub-periods, calibration and cross-validation (i.e., transfers) of the models. The Kling-Gupta efficiency coefficient is used for the calibration in each sub-period. Consistency in model performance, parameter estimates and simulated water balance components across the sub-periods is analysed. Model performance is quantified with statistical performance measures and errors in hydrological signatures. Because the relatively short monthly hydrologic series can lead to biased numerical performance indicators, the framework also includes subjective assessment of model performance and transferability.&#160;&#160;The results show that model transfer between climatically contrasted sub-periods affect all statistical measures of model performance and some hydrologic signatures: standard deviation of flows, high flow percentile and percentage of zero flows. While some signatures are reproduced well in all transfers (baseflow index, lag 1 and lag 12 autocorrelations), suggesting their low informativeness about MWBM performance, many signatures are consistently poorly reproduced, even in the calibrations (seasonal distribution, most flow percentiles, streamflow elasticity). This means that good model performance in terms of statistical measures does not imply good performance in terms of hydrologic signatures, probably because the models are not conditioned to reproduce them. Generally, the greatest drop in performance of all the models is obtained in transfers to the driest period, although abcd and Budyko slightly outperformed GR2M and WASMOD. Subjective assessment of model performance largely corresponds to the numerical indicators.&#160;Simulated water balance components, especially soil and groundwater storages and baseflow, significantly vary across the simulation periods. These results suggest that the model components and the parameters that control them are sensitive to the calibration period. Therefore, improved model conceptualisations (particularly partitioning of fast and slow runoff components) and enhanced calibration strategies that put more emphasis on parameters related to slow runoff are needed. More robust MWBM structures or calibration strategies should advance transferability of MWBMs, which is a prerequisite for effective water resources management under changing climate conditions.

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General procedure to initialize the cyclic soil water balance by the Thornthwaite and Mather method

Scientia Agricola ◽

10.1590/s0103-90162010000100013 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 87-95 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Durval Dourado-Neto ◽

Quirijn de Jong van Lier ◽

Klaas Metselaar ◽

Klaus Reichardt ◽

Donald R. Nielsen

Keyword(s):

Water Balance ◽

Soil Water ◽

General Procedure ◽

Water Storage ◽

Dry Season ◽

Soil Water Balance ◽

Soil Water Storage ◽

Wet Season ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Semi Arid

The original Thornthwaite and Mather method, proposed in 1955 to calculate a climatic monthly cyclic soil water balance, is frequently used as an iterative procedure due to its low input requirements and coherent estimates of water balance components. Using long term data sets to establish a characteristic water balance of a location, the initial soil water storage is generally assumed to be at field capacity at the end of the last month of the wet season, unless the climate is (semi-) arid when the soil water storage is lower than the soil water holding capacity. To close the water balance, several iterations might be necessary, which can be troublesome in many situations. For (semi-) arid climates with one dry season, Mendonça derived in 1958 an equation to quantify the soil water storage monthly at the end of the last month of the wet season, which avoids iteration procedures and closes the balance in one calculation. The cyclic daily water balance application is needed to obtain more accurate water balance output estimates. In this note, an equation to express the water storage for the case of the occurrence of more than one dry season per year is presented as a generalization of Mendonça's equation, also avoiding iteration procedures.

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Application of a technique for scenario prediction of climate change impact on the water balance components of northern river basins

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics ◽

10.2478/johh-2014-0025 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 197-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Yeugeniy M. Gusev ◽

Olga N. Nasonova

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Time Series ◽

Water Balance ◽

River Basin ◽

General Circulation ◽

General Circulation Models ◽

River Basins ◽

Surface Model ◽

Water Balance Components ◽

Northern River

Abstract The scenario forecasting technique for assessing changes of water balance components of the northern river basins due to possible climate change was developed. Three IPCC global emission scenarios corresponding to different possible scenarios for economic, technological, political and demographic development of the human civilization in the 21st century were chosen for generating climate change projections by an ensemble of 16 General Circulation Models with a high spatial resolution. The projections representing increments of monthly values of meteorological characteristics were used for creating 3-hour meteorological time series up to 2063 for the Northern Dvina River basin, which belongs to the pan-Arctic basin and locates at the north of the European part of Russia. The obtained time series were applied as forcing data to drive the land surface model SWAP to simulate possible changes in the water balance components due to different scenarios of climate change for the Northern Dvina River basin

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Estimation of future groundwater recharge using climatic analogues and Hydrus-1D

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/hessd-9-1389-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 1389-1410 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

B. Leterme ◽

D. Mallants ◽

D. Jacques

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Water Balance ◽

Groundwater Recharge ◽

Balance Model ◽

Temperate Climate ◽

Subtropical Climate ◽

Climate Data ◽

Near Surface ◽

The Impact ◽

Hydrus 1D

Abstract. The impact of climate change on groundwater recharge is simulated using climatic analogue stations, i.e. stations presently under climatic conditions corresponding to a given climate state. The study was conducted in the context of a safety assessment of a future near-surface disposal facility for low and intermediate level short-lived radioactive waste in Belgium; this includes estimating groundwater recharge for the next millennia. Groundwater recharge was simulated using the Richard's based soil water balance model Hydrus-1D and meteorological time series from analogue stations. Water balance calculations showed that transition from a temperate oceanic to a warmer subtropical climate without rainfall seasonality is expected to yield a decrease in groundwater recharge (−12% for the chosen representative analogue station of Gijon, Northern Spain). Based on a time series of 24 yr of daily climate data, the long-term average annual recharge decreased from 314 to 276 mm, although total rainfall was higher (947 mm) in the warmer climate compared to the current temperate climate (899 mm). This is due to a higher soil evaporation (233 mm versus 206 mm) and higher plant transpiration (350 versus 285 mm) under the warmer climate.

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Survival of the Qaidam mega-lake system under mid-Pliocene climates and its restoration under future climates

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-24-3835-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (7) ◽

pp. 3835-3850 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dieter Scherer

Keyword(s):

Water Balance ◽

Qaidam Basin ◽

Water Storage ◽

Present Climate ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Lake System ◽

Annual Water Balance ◽

The Mean ◽

Annual Water ◽

Near Future

Abstract. The Qaidam Basin in the north of the Tibetan Plateau has undergone drastic environmental changes during the last millions of years. During the Pliocene, the Qaidam Basin contained a freshwater mega-lake system although the surrounding regions showed increasingly arid climates. With the onset of the Pleistocene glaciations, lakes began to shrink and finally disappeared almost completely. Today, hyperarid climate conditions prevail in the low-altitude parts of the Qaidam Basin. The question of how the mega-lake system was able to withstand the regional trend of aridification for millions of years has remained enigmatic so far. This study reveals that the mean annual water balance, i.e. the mean annual change in terrestrial water storage in the Qaidam Basin, is nearly zero under present climate conditions due to positive values of net precipitation in the high mountain ranges and shows positive annual values during warmer, less dry years. This finding provides a physically based explanation for how mid-Pliocene climates could have sustained the mega-lake system and that near-future climates not much different from present conditions could cause water storage in reservoirs, raising lake levels and expanding lake areas, and may even result in restoration of the mega-lake system over geological timescales. The study reveals that a region discussed as being an analogue to Mars due to its hyperarid environments is at a threshold under present climate conditions and may switch from negative values of long-term mean annual water balance that have prevailed during the last 2.6 million years to positive ones in the near future.

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