Long-term water balance partitioning explained by physical and ecological characteristics in world river basins

Ecohydrology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. e2072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Mercado-Bettín ◽  
Juan F. Salazar ◽  
Juan Camilo Villegas
2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 2717-2762 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Flint ◽  
A. L. Flint ◽  
B. J. Stolp ◽  
W. R. Danskin

Abstract. The coastal-plain aquifer that underlies the San Diego City metropolitan area in southern California is a groundwater resource. The understanding of the region-wide water balance and the recharge of water from the high elevation mountains to the east needs to be improved to quantify the subsurface inflows to the coastal plain in order to develop the groundwater as a long term resource. This study is intended to enhance the conceptual understanding of the water balance and related recharge processes in this arid environment by developing a regional model of the San Diego region and all watersheds adjacent or draining to the coastal plain, including the Tijuana River basin. This model was used to quantify the various components of the water balance, including semi-quantitative estimates of subsurface groundwater flow to the coastal plain. Other approaches relying on independent data were used to test or constrain the scoping estimates of recharge and runoff, including a reconnaissance-level groundwater model of the San Diego River basin, one of three main rivers draining to the coastal plain. Estimates of subsurface flow delivered to the coastal plain from the river basins ranged from 12.3 to 28.8 million m3 yr−1 from the San Diego River basin for the calibration period (1982–2009) to 48.8 million m3 yr−1 from all major river basins for the entire coastal plain for the long-term period 1940–2009. This range of scoping estimates represents the impact of climatic variability and realistically bounds the likely groundwater availability, while falling well within the variable estimates of regional recharge. However, the scarcity of physical and hydrologic data in this region hinders the exercise to narrow the range and reduce the uncertainty.


2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (6) ◽  
pp. 1165-1175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Manaka ◽  
Souya Otani ◽  
Akihiko Inamura ◽  
Atsushi Suzuki ◽  
Thura Aung ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 155 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-308
Author(s):  
I. G. Bryndina ◽  
N. N. Vasilieva ◽  
Yu. A. Krivonogova ◽  
V. M. Baranov

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 666-675
Author(s):  
O. N. Nasonova ◽  
Ye. M. Gusev ◽  
E. E. Kovalev ◽  
G. V. Ayzel ◽  
M. K. Chebanova

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2877-2898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Müller Schmied ◽  
Linda Adam ◽  
Stephanie Eisner ◽  
Gabriel Fink ◽  
Martina Flörke ◽  
...  

Abstract. When assessing global water resources with hydrological models, it is essential to know about methodological uncertainties. The values of simulated water balance components may vary due to different spatial and temporal aggregations, reference periods, and applied climate forcings, as well as due to the consideration of human water use, or the lack thereof. We analyzed these variations over the period 1901–2010 by forcing the global hydrological model WaterGAP 2.2 (ISIMIP2a) with five state-of-the-art climate data sets, including a homogenized version of the concatenated WFD/WFDEI data set. Absolute values and temporal variations of global water balance components are strongly affected by the uncertainty in the climate forcing, and no temporal trends of the global water balance components are detected for the four homogeneous climate forcings considered (except for human water abstractions). The calibration of WaterGAP against observed long-term average river discharge Q significantly reduces the impact of climate forcing uncertainty on estimated Q and renewable water resources. For the homogeneous forcings, Q of the calibrated and non-calibrated regions of the globe varies by 1.6 and 18.5 %, respectively, for 1971–2000. On the continental scale, most differences for long-term average precipitation P and Q estimates occur in Africa and, due to snow undercatch of rain gauges, also in the data-rich continents Europe and North America. Variations of Q at the grid-cell scale are large, except in a few grid cells upstream and downstream of calibration stations, with an average variation of 37 and 74 % among the four homogeneous forcings in calibrated and non-calibrated regions, respectively. Considering only the forcings GSWP3 and WFDEI_hom, i.e., excluding the forcing without undercatch correction (PGFv2.1) and the one with a much lower shortwave downward radiation SWD than the others (WFD), Q variations are reduced to 16 and 31 % in calibrated and non-calibrated regions, respectively. These simulation results support the need for extended Q measurements and data sharing for better constraining global water balance assessments. Over the 20th century, the human footprint on natural water resources has become larger. For 11–18% of the global land area, the change of Q between 1941–1970 and 1971–2000 was driven more strongly by change of human water use including dam construction than by change in precipitation, while this was true for only 9–13 % of the land area from 1911–1940 to 1941–1970.


2014 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 47-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Jia Mi ◽  
Zhihong Song ◽  
Juan Yan ◽  
Jianqiang Li ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1741-1782 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Clulow ◽  
C. S. Everson ◽  
M. G. Mengistu ◽  
C. Jarmain ◽  
G. P. W. Jewitt ◽  
...  

Abstract. The contribution of freshwater supply from the Mfabeni Mire to Lake St. Lucia during dry periods is important to the survival of certain plant and animal species in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. This freshwater supply is mainly dependent on the variability of the major components of the water balance, namely rainfall and total evaporation (ET). Attempts to quantify the water balance have been limited through uncertainties in quantifying ET from the Mfabeni Mire. Despite advances in evaporation measurement and modelling from wetlands, there still exists some doubt as to which methods are best suited to characterise wetland ET with most authors suggesting a combination of methods. In this study, the surface renewal (SR) method was successfully used to determine the long-term ET (12 months) from the Mfabeni Mire with calibration using eddy covariance during two window periods of approximately one week each. The SR method was found to be inexpensive, reliable and with low power requirements for unattended operation. The annual ET was lower (900 mm yr−1) than expected, due to cloud cover in summer and low atmospheric demand throughout the year, despite the available water and high windspeeds. Daily ET estimates were compared to the Priestley-Taylor results and a site specific calibration α = 1.0 was obtained for the site. The Priestley-Taylor results agreed well with the actual ET from the surface renewal technique (R2 = 0.96) throughout the 12 month period. A monthly crop factor (Kc) was determined for the standardised FAO-56 Penman-Monteith. However, Kc was variable in some months and should be used with caution for daily ET modelling. These results represent not only some of the first long-term measurements of ET from a wetland in Southern Africa, but also one of the few studies of actual ET in a subtropical peatland in the Southern Hemisphere. The study provides wetland ecologists and hydrologists with guidelines for the use of two internationally applied models for the estimation of wetland ET within a coastal, subtropical environment.


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