Abstract. An increase in extreme precipitation is projected for many areas worldwide in the coming decades. To assess the impact of increased precipitation intensity on water security, we applied a regional-scale hydrological and soil erosion model, forced with regional climate model projections. We specifically considered the impact of climate change on the distribution of water between soil (green water) and surface water (blue water) compartments. We show that an increase in precipitation intensity leads to a redistribution of water within the catchment, where water storage in soil decreases and reservoir inflow increases. This affects plant water stress and the potential of rainfed versus irrigated agriculture, and increases dependency on reservoir storage, which is potentially threatened by increased soil erosion. This study demonstrates the crucial importance of accounting for the fact that increased precipitation intensity leads to water redistribution between green and blue water, increased soil erosion, and reduced water security. Ultimately, this has implications for design of climate change adaptation measures, which should aim to increase the water holding capacity of the soil (green water) and to maintain the storage capacity of reservoirs (blue water), benefiting rainfed and irrigated agriculture.

[1] Alternate bars in rivers and streams develop as a result of differences in length scales involved in the adjustment of flow and sediment transport to irregularities of the bed. The amount of field evidence supporting theoretical insights is highly limited. Here, we present results from a large-scale field experiment in a 600 m long straight reach. Over a period of almost 3 years, the channel was allowed to evolve autogenously from initially flat bed conditions, subject to discharge variation. Alternate bars developed within 8 months from the start of the experiment. The initial stages of bar development included bar growth, both in wavelength and amplitude, and bar migration. The latter was too limited to classify the bars as being migrating bars; therefore, we classify the bars as nonmigrating bars. Toward the end of the experiment, the regular alternate bar pattern evolved into an irregular pattern and bar amplitude started to decrease. From the start of the experiment we observed a declining channel slope, from 1.8 m km 21 initially to 0.9 m km 21 halfway the experiment, after which it stabilized. We applied two bar theories to establish their predictive capacity. Both bar theories predicted the development of alternate bars under the constructed channel conditions. In response to the declining channel slope, both theories predicted a decreasing likelihood for the development of alternate bars. Our study shows that under field conditions, the applied bar theories may predict the initial stages of bed development.Citation: Eekhout, J. P. C., A. J. F. Hoitink, and E. Mosselman (2013), Field experiment on alternate bar development in a straight sand-bed stream, Water Resour. Res., 49,[8357][8358][8359][8360][8361][8362][8363][8364][8365][8366][8367][8368][8369]

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Abstract.With the aim to establish and understand morphological changes in response to channel reconstruction, a detailed monitoring plan was implemented in a lowland stream called Lunterse Beek, located in the Netherlands. Over a period of almost 2 years, the monitoring programme included serial morphological surveys, continuous discharge and water level measurements, and riparian vegetation mapping, from photographs and field surveys. Morphological processes occurred mainly in the initial period, before riparian vegetation developed. The initial period was largely dominated by upstream sediment supply, which was associated with channel incision upstream from the study area. Herbaceous vegetation started to develop approximately 7 months after channel reconstruction. The monitoring period included two growing seasons. A clear increase of riparian vegetation cover from first to the second year was observed. Detailed morphological and hydrological data show a marked difference in morphological behaviour between the pre-vegetation and post-vegetation stage. A linear regression procedure was applied to relate morphological activity to time-averaged Shields stress. In the initial stage after channel reconstruction, with negligible riparian vegetation, channel morphology adjusted, showing only a weak response to the discharge hydrograph. In the subsequent period, morphological activity in the channel showed a clear relation with discharge variation. The two stages of morphological response to the restoration measures may be largely associated with the upstream sediment supply in the initial period. Riparian vegetation may have played a substantial role in stabilizing the channel banks and floodplain area, gradually restricting the morphological adjustments to the channel bed.

Stream restoration efforts often aim at creating new unconstrained meandering channels without weirs and bank revetments. In reconstructed streams, the initial morphological response of the new streams is often rapid, until a dynamic equilibrium is reached. Here we report on a chute cutoff that occurred within 3 months after realization of a stream restoration project, caused by a plug bar that formed in response to a backwater effect. The temporal evolution of the morphology of both the new and the old channels was monitored over a period of nearly 8 months, including precutoff conditions. The observations can be separated into three stages. Stage 1 is the initial period leading to cutoff vulnerability, stage 2 is the actual cutoff, and stage 3 is the morphological adjustment in response to the cutoff. In stage 1, a plug bar was deposited in one of the channel bends. Hydrodynamic model results show the location of the plug bar coincides with a region where bed shear stress decreased in downstream direction due to backwater. Longitudinal channel bed profiles show that the channel slope decreased soon after channel reconstruction. Hence, sediment from upstream was available to form the plug bar. After the plug bar was deposited, an embayment formed in the floodplain at a location where the former channel was located (stage 2). The former channel was filled with sediment prior to channel construction. It is likely that the sediment at this location was less consolidated, and therefore, prone to erosion. The chute channel continued to incise and widen into the floodplain and, after 6 months, acted as the main channel, conveying the discharge during the majority of time (stage 3). The cutoff channel gradually continued to fill with sediment, from the moment the plug bar formed until the chute channel incised into the floodplain. Sedimentary successions of the deposited material show upward fining, which is in agreement with observations of chute cutoffs in rivers. Although the artificial setting limits the degree in which the observed processes can be projected on natural rivers, the observations prompt to investigate the role of backwater effects in natural chute cutoff initiation.

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Abstract:The parameterization of crop coefficients (kc) is critical for determining a water balance. We used satellite-based and literature-based methods to derive kc values for a distributed hydrologic model. We evaluated the impact of different kc parametrization methods on the water balance and simulated hydrologic response at the basin and sub-basin scale. The hydrological model SPHY was calibrated and validated for a period of 15 years for the upper Segura basin (~2500 km 2 ) in Spain, which is characterized by a wide range of terrain, soil, and ecosystem conditions. The model was then applied, using six kc parameterization methods, to determine their spatial and temporal impacts on actual evapotranspiration, streamflow, and soil moisture. The parameterization methods used include: (i) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) observations from MODIS; (ii) seasonally-averaged NDVI patterns, cell-based and landuse-based; and (iii) literature-based tabular values per land use type. The analysis shows that the influence of different kc parametrization methods on basin-level streamflow is relatively small and constant throughout the year, but it has a bigger effect on seasonal evapotranspiration and soil moisture. In the autumn especially, deviations can go up to about 15% of monthly streamflow. At smaller, sub-basin scale, deviations from the NDVI-based reference run can be more than 30%. Overall, the study shows that modeling of future hydrological changes can be improved by using remote sensing information for the parameterization of crop coefficients.

Abstract. An increase of extreme precipitation is projected for many areas worldwide in the coming decades. To assess the impact of increased precipitation intensity on water security, we applied a regional scale hydrological and soil erosion model, forced with Regional Climate Model projections. We specifically considered the impact of climate change on the distribution of water between soil (green water) and surface water (blue water) compartments. We show that an increase in precipitation intensity leads to a redistribution of water within the catchment, where water storage in soil decreases and reservoir inflow 5 increases. This affects plant water stress and the potential of rainfed versus irrigated agriculture, and increases dependency on reservoir storage, that is increasingly threatened by an increase of soil erosion. This study demonstrates the crucial importance of accounting for the fact that increased precipitation intensity leads to water redistribution between green and blue water, increased soil erosion, and reduced water security.