Analysis of baseflow index based hydrological model in Upper Wei River basin on the Loess Plateau in China

Abstract

Abstract. The baseflow is the drainage from the groundwater and soil water to the streamflow. As one important source of the streamflow, the baseflow could be the main source of the streamflow in the dry season. The Wei River, located in the semi-arid region of the Loess Plateau which is overlain by deep and loose soil, is the largest tributary of the Yellow River. According to former research, most of the streamflow in the dry season in the headwater of the Yellow River is baseflow. For the whole Yellow River basin, the baseflow is an important component of the streamflow, and accounts for about 44% of the annual runoff. Physically-based distributed hydrological models can simulate the runoff components separately, and are important tools to analyse the runoff components. Given the importance of the baseflow in the dry season for drought relief to support the ecological water requirement and irrigation, especially in the Wei River, the baseflow is analysed in this study. To investigate the baseflow in the Upper Wei River basin, a semi-distributed hydrological model based on a Representative Elementary Watershed approach (THREW) is employed to investigate the runoff generation process. To compare the results, an automatic baseflow separation method proposed by Arnold is used to separate the baseflow from the daily streamflow at Beidao hydrological station in Upper Wei River basin from 2001 to 2004. Based on the hydrological modelling and the Arnold separation method, the average annual baseflow index, i.e. the ratio of baseflow to the total runoff, is estimated as in the range of 0.30–0.36. The average intra-annual monthly baseflow index represents the seasonality of the baseflow due to the seasonality of the precipitation and evapotranspiration, and is also analysed.

The Effect of Landscape Interventions on Groundwater Flow and Surface Runoff in a Watershed in the Upper Reaches of the Blue Nile

“…Moreover, many factors affect the baseflow calculation such as intra-storm variability of isotopic concentration, elevation effect on the isotopic composition of rain, chemical reactions during runoff formation, and the mixing of components. Calculating the volume of baseflow components using hydrological methods has shown to be an effective alternative to isotope analysis [11,49,50]. The Parameter Efficient Distributed (PED) model was selected for separating baseflow and surface runoff because it needs a minimum input parameter, thereby minimizing equifinality difficulties [51,52].…”

“…Groundwater flow generally constitutes a large portion of the discharge in most rivers [9,10]. For example, baseflow contributed up to 44% of the annual flow in Yellow River [11]. Similarly, 56% of the streamflow in the Upper Colorado River basin comes from the recession flow [12].…”

Modeling of Continuous and Extreme Hydrological Processes Using Spatially Distributed Models MERCEDES, VICAIR and VISHYR in a Mediterranean Watershed

“…The enhanced precipitation will affect the runoff and alter the hydrological behavior within the watershed. Similarly to climate, groundwater has an important role in understanding the runoff generation processes and for predicting the water quantities, including floods and basal flows [Gonzales et al 2009;Liu et al 2015]. For this reason, the groundwater in the Oued Laou watershed has a very significant impact on the runoff, mostly during the dry season.…”

Impacts of Land‐Use Change on the Hydrology of Lake Tana Basin, Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

“…[ 19 ] Human activities alter hydrology, and the flow of water through ecosystems alteration over time. [ 15 , 20 , 21 ] indicated that changes in land use eventually change the rainfall route to runoff by changing essential elements of hydrology, such as recharge of groundwater, surface runoff, interception, infiltration, evaporation, and percolation. There are several methods for determining the hydrological impacts of changing climate and land use.…”