| Resource Name |
Trends and variability in the hydrological regime of the Mackenzie River Basin |
| Unique File Number |
78 |
| Information Type |
Applied research |
| Surface Water |
A |
| Aquatic Ecosystem |
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| Groundwater |
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| Groundwater & Surface Water |
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| Management for Natural & Industrial Hazards |
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| Strengths |
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| Limitations |
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| Outstanding Research Questions |
Further analysis should be conducted to unequivocally attribute the observed trends to climate change. For example, the relationship between the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the various hydrological variables could be explored as this could help to provide a better explanation of the trends experienced in numerous hydrological variables. Research into the attribution of trends should be pursued, perhaps employing water balance modelling to relate trends in the inputs (i.e. precipitation and temperature) to trends in the outputs (i.e. streamflow) for the water balance of catchments. Data for more hydrometric stations from the northern part of the basin should be incorporated to obtain a better assessment of the climatic effects for this portion of the basin. |
| Outstanding Research Questions |
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| Information Subtype |
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| Organization |
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| Resource Name |
Abdul Aziz, OI and Burn, DH. 2006. Trends and variability in the hydrological regime of the Mackenzie River Basin. Journal of Hydrology 319: 282-294. |
| Resource Purpose |
Abstract
Trends and variability in the hydrological regime were analyzed for the Mackenzie River Basin in northern Canada. The procedure utilized the Mann–Kendall non-parametric test to detect trends, the Trend Free Pre-Whitening (TFPW) approach for correcting time-series data for autocorrelation and a bootstrap resampling method to account for the cross-correlation structure of the data. A total of 19 hydrological and six meteorological variables were selected for the study. Analysis was conducted on hydrological data from a network of 54 hydrometric stations and meteorological data from a network of 10 stations. The results indicated that several hydrological variables exhibit a greater number of significant trends than are expected to occur by chance. Noteworthy were strong increasing trends over the winter month flows of December to April as well as in the annual minimum flow and weak decreasing trends in the early summer and late fall flows as well as in the annual mean flow. An earlier onset of the spring freshet is noted over the basin. The results are expected to assist water resources managers and policy makers in making better planning decisions in the Mackenzie River Basin. |
| Type of Information |
article |
| How does this help decision making? |
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| Program Status |
complete |
| NE Coverage |
NE BC and Mackenzie basin |
| Drinking Water |
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| Ecosystem |
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| Fish |
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| Groundwater |
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| Public Safety |
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| SW Quality |
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| SW Quantity |
Y |
| Link |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022169405003665 |
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