Water Stewardship Information Sources
| ID | 1574 |
|---|---|
| Citation | Schneider, J. 2008. Impacts of climate change on catchment storage, stream flow recession and summer low flow. Thesis, University of Freiburg. |
| Organization | University of Freiburg |
| URL | http://www.hydrology.uni-freiburg.de/abschluss/Schneider_J_2008_DA.pdf |
| Abstract/Description or Keywords | Climate has changed since the industrial revolution as a consequence of increasing emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As a result of rising temperatures and changes in precipitation, the hydrological regimes will change as well. In British Columbia, Canada, there have been concerns recently that global warming causes an earlier and diluted spring peak flow, and extended summer low flow periods. The proceeding climate change will worsen these effects, so that it is to be expected that low flows will become hazards to ecosystems and water management schemes. Low flows are important for water-supply, the maintenance of quantity and quality of water for irrigation as well as for stream flow ecology and wildlife conservation. In this thesis a low parameterized water balance model was created which is based on a nonlinear transfer-function approach that transforms a distributed effective water input into a characteristic regime at the outlet of the catchment. This input is derived from a gridded 30- year mean monthly precipitation and temperature data, disaggregated to a daily resolution with respect to a simple approach of evapotranspiration and a degree-day snow accumulation and snowmelt model. The two parameters of the transfer-function routine were calibrated to the characteristic hydrograph of a set of 15 gauged catchments with different, geographical positions, size, elevations, climate and hydrological regimes. The application of two commonly used delta-changes climate scenarios confirms the expected earlier and diluted spring peak flow for all catchments. The degree of significant changes during summer low flow periods depends on the characteristic catchment delta-changes as well as on the catchment geology. Whereas catchments dominated by sedimentary rocks and enough effective water input tend to be less sensitive to changes in climatic inputs, catchments dominated by bedrock show more significant changes during low flow periods. Keywords: Low Flows, Rainfall-Runoff-modeling, Recession Analysis, Climate Change, British Columbia |
| Information Type | thesis |
| Regional Watershed | All |
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| Project status | complete |
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