Sensitivity of hydrological connectivity in a semiarid basin with a high-density reservoir network

Toledo, Cristian Epifanio; Alcântara, Nayra Rodrigues de

doi:10.4136/ambi-agua.2367

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This region is characterized by shallow soils formed on crystalline bedrock, with a minimum contribution of baseflow from deeper groundwater to the surface flow. For instance, the semiarid region has a mean annual precipitation of less than 600 mm, with great spatiotemporal variability (Silva et al, 2018; Toledo & Alcantara, 2019), characteristics that are associated with aridity and seasonality, attributes found to be highly connected to hydrological connectivity. The effective precipitation ( P − ET) is larger than the surface runoff in losing water catchments (negative ECI) and therefore contributes to the subsurface flow, which may not return as baseflow in the same draining catchment (Figure 6).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Brazilian catchments gaining or losing water? The effective area of tropical catchments

Schwamback

Gesualdo

Sone

et al. 2022

Hydrological Processes

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Similar to most countries, the Brazilian water resources management considers topographically delineated catchment as a territorial unit for policy implementation. Yet, previous studies have shown that catchments are not hydrologically isolated, and topographic limits often neglect the groundwater boundaries. Thus, studies on effective catchment areas are promising for shedding light on inter‐catchment groundwater flow. Here, we investigated the deviation between the topographic and effective areas across Brazil. We applied the effective catchment area index (ECI) to 733 Brazilian catchments and identified the most influencing attributes on the ECI by using principal component and random forest analyses (PCA and RFA, respectively). Further analysis was carried out by contrasting the ECI values against the expected range of the Budyko curve, considering both topographic and effective catchment areas (classic and adjusted framework, respectively). We noted that nearly 32% of the Brazilian catchments presented more than 30% of difference between the effective area and its topographic boundaries. In general, the more arid biomes in Brazil—the Cerrado and Caatinga—are prone to have smaller effective areas while larger effective areas were mostly found in the Atlantic Forest biome, a humid tropical region with a higher mean elevation. Our findings indicate that the aridity index was the main driving factor and negatively correlated with ECI followed by mean slope, precipitation seasonality, and mean elevation. We highlight the potential of adopting a pooling of catchments based on their interconnectivity to minimize management costs while maximizing synergies and lessening trade‐offs between ecosystem functioning and water transfer processes. Our results contribute to a better country‐wide understanding of hydrological connectivity among catchments and highlight the need to consider the effective catchment area to overcome water‐food‐energy security challenges on multiple scales.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Brazilian catchments gaining or losing water? The effective area of tropical catchments

Schwamback

Gesualdo

Sone

et al. 2022

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This region is characterized by shallow soils formed on crystalline bedrock with a minimum contribution of baseflow from deeper groundwater to the surface flow. Moreover, the semiarid has great spatiotemporal variability of precipitation, with a mean annual amount of less than 600 mm (Silva, Santos, and Santos, 2018;Toledo & Alcantara, 2019). The effective precipitation (P-ET) is larger than the surface runoff in losing water catchments (negative ECI) and therefore contributes to the subsurface flow, which may not return as baseflow in the same draining catchment (Figure 6).…”

Section: The Eci Most Influencing Attributesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Brazilian Catchments Gaining or Losing Water? The Effective Area of Tropical Catchments

Schwamback¹,

Gesualdo²,

Sone³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Similar to most countries, the Brazilian water resources management considers topographically delineated catchment as a territorial unit for policy implementation. Yet, previous studies have shown that catchments are not hydrologically isolated, and topographic limits often neglect the groundwater boundaries. Thus, studies on effective catchment area are promising for shedding light on inter-catchment groundwater flow. Here, we investigated the deviation between the topographic and effective areas across Brazil. We applied the Effective Catchment Area index (ECI) to 733 Brazilian catchments and identified the most influencing attributes on the ECI by using Principal Component and Random Forest Analyses (PCA and RFA, respectively). Further analysis of consistency was carried out by contrasting the ECI values against the expected range of the Budyko curve considering both topographic and effective catchment areas (classic and adjusted framework). Considering the studied catchments, 15% and 16% of their effective areas were respectively smaller than half (strong losing water condition) and larger than double (strong gaining water condition) of their corresponding topographic areas. The aridity index was the main driving factor and negatively correlated with ECI followed by mean slope, precipitation seasonality, and mean elevation. In general, the more arid biomes in Brazil — the Cerrado and Caatinga — are prone to have smaller effective areas while larger effective areas were mostly found in the Atlantic Forest biome, a humid tropical region with a higher mean elevation. We highlight the potential of adopting a pooling of catchments based on their interconnectivity to minimize management costs while maximizing synergies and lessening trade-offs of water transfer processes. Our results contribute to a better country-scale understanding of hydrological connectivity among catchments and highlight the need to consider the effective catchment area to overcome water-food-energy security challenges on multiple scales.

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“…reservoirs present a low hydrological connectivity most of the time, which is why the precipitation on incremental drainage areas is more important for water supply to the reservoir than the precipitation on the total upstream area. Only when the reservoir volume reaches the capacity of the reservoir and spillway overflow occurs does hydrological connectivity occur (Lima Neto et al 2011, De Toledo et al 2014, De Toledo and Alcantara 2019. In that case, Capitão Mor is hydrologically connected to Serafim Dias, and Trapiá II becomes hydrologically connected to Patu.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of a reservoir network on drought propagation in a semi-arid catchment in Brazil

Langen

Costa

Neto

et al. 2021

Hydrological Sciences Journal

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Building reservoirs is a response to cope with drought in drylands. However, this human modification to the landscape may trigger both positive and negative effects. Here, we investigate how a network of reservoirs influences the propagation of meteorological drought (MD) into hydrological drought (HD) in a large semi-arid catchment in Brazil. We applied 12-month standardized indices to classify droughts. Then, the drought series were compared to each other. The downstreamness concept was used to describe the spatial water distribution. The onset of reservoir drought (RD) was much later than MD, but the delay between MD and RD peaks was even longer. Streamflow drought started with a small delay after MD, but it transformed into a similar RD. RD was initially more severe downstream. When the drought severity was at its highest, upstream and downstream RD equalized. The perceptual model of drought propagation may help in developing reservoir management systems in drylands.

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Sensitivity of hydrological connectivity in a semiarid basin with a high-density reservoir network

Cited by 3 publications

References 28 publications

Are Brazilian catchments gaining or losing water? The effective area of tropical catchments

Are Brazilian catchments gaining or losing water? The effective area of tropical catchments

Are Brazilian Catchments Gaining or Losing Water? The Effective Area of Tropical Catchments

Effect of a reservoir network on drought propagation in a semi-arid catchment in Brazil

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