Assessing the impacts of climate change and dams on floodplain inundation and wetland connectivity in the wet–dry tropics of northern Australia

Karim, Fazlul; Dutta, Dushmanta; Marvanek, Steve; Petheram, Cuan; Ticehurst, Catherine; Lerat, Julien; Kim, Shaun; Yang, Ang

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.12.005

Cited by 71 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This finding is consistent with the idea that the hydraulic geometry of a reach-both channel and valley-bottom morphology-directly affects the distribution of flow extent and depth for any given discharge (Leopold and Maddock 1953). As functions of streamflow regimes, inundation regimes result from complex, multi-scalar interactions among biophysical attributes (Woltemade 1994, Woltemade and Potter 1994, Baker and Wiley 2009, Fryirs and Brierley 2013 and anthropogenic impacts on hydrology via direct regulation (e.g., Karim et al 2015, Stone et al 2017), land use (e.g., Foufoula-Georgiou et al 2015), and engineered structures in the floodplain (e.g., Munoz et al 2018). Our results support the notion that valley morphology, a meso-scale physical constraint, plays a key role in modulating biophysical interactions across scales, ultimately impacting how inundation patterns are manifested in the river-floodplain valley and the development of valley landforms (Nanson and Croke 1992, Miller 1995, Jain et al 2008, Fryirs and Brierley 2010, Thayer and Ashmore 2016, Cienciala and Pasternack 2017.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…As functions of streamflow regimes, inundation regimes result from complex, multi‐scalar interactions among biophysical attributes (Woltemade , Woltemade and Potter , Baker and Wiley , Fryirs and Brierley ) and anthropogenic impacts on hydrology via direct regulation (e.g., Karim et al. , Stone et al. ), land use (e.g., Foufoula‐Georgiou et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent applications of 2D hydraulic models have described how flooding regimes may shift in response to direct anthropogenic regulation of hydrology, climatic forcings, and their interactions (Karim et al. , Whipple ), including changes in mass fluxes between the channel and floodplain (Stone et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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River‐valley morphology, basin size, and flow‐event magnitude interact to produce wide variation in flooding dynamics

2019

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Inundation dynamics are a key driver of ecosystem form and function in river-valley bottoms.Inundation itself is an outcome of multi-scalar interactions and can vary strongly within and among river reaches. As a result, establishing to what degree and how inundation dynamics vary spatially both within and among river reaches can be challenging. The objective of this study was to understand how river-valley morphology, basin size, and flow-event magnitude interact to affect inundation dynamics in river-valley bottoms. We used 2D hydraulic models to simulate inundation in four river reaches from Maryland's Piedmont physiographic province, and qualitatively and quantitatively summarized within-and amongreach patterns of inundation extent, duration, depth, shear stress, and wetting frequencies. On average, reaches from confined valley settings experienced less extensive flooding, shorter durations and shallower depths, stronger gradients of maximum shear stress, and relatively infrequent wetting compared to reaches from unconfined settings. These patterns were generally consistent across flow-event magnitudes. Patterns of within-reach flooding across event magnitudes revealed complex interactions between hydrology and surface topography. We concluded that valley morphology had a greater impact on flooding patterns than basin size: Inundation patterns were more consistent across reaches of similar morphology than similar basin size, but absolute values of inundation characteristics varied between large and small basins. Our results showed that the manifestation of out-of-bank flows in valley floors can vary widely depending on geomorphic context, even within a single physiographic province, which suggests that hydrologic and hydraulic conditions experienced on the valley floor may not be well represented by existing hydrologic metrics derived from discharge data alone. We thus support the notion that 2D hydraulic models can be useful hydrometric tools for cross-scale investigations of floodplain ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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River‐valley morphology, basin size, and flow‐event magnitude interact to produce wide variation in flooding dynamics

2019

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“…For example, wetland restoration efforts require quantitative knowledge of hydrological connectivity in delta systems [10]. Moreover, in shallow lake-wetlands, the rate, duration and magnitude of water exchange between depressions and the adjacent main lake also have major influences on the water quality, aquatic habitat, organic matter and organisms, since movement of chemical constituents and biota are often associated with water flow [11][12][13]. Therefore, hydrological connectivity and water exchange are especially important considerations for shallow lake-wetlands [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal Water Exchanges between China’s Poyang Lake and Its Saucer-Shaped Depressions on River Deltas

Liu

2017

Water

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Abstract:The saucer-shaped depressions located at the river deltas of Poyang Lake are typical floodplain shallow sub-lakes subject to river-lake connection or isolation. The hydrological connectivity between these depressions and the main lake has a major influence on the hydrologic function and ecological integrity of the lake-floodplain and associated wetland habitats. This study explored the water level fluctuations and water exchange processes between the Poyang Lake and three typical saucer-shaped depressions, using a 30-min temporal resolution of water level observations during 2015-2016. Our results showed that the water level correlation and hydrological connectivity between the main lake and its depressions displayed a strong seasonal and spatial signal. Temporally, the rainfall significantly influences the seasonality and frequency of water level fluctuations both in the main lake and the depressions. The correlation coefficient of the water level ordered from high to low occurred during the high-water period, the rising-water period, the falling-water period and the low-water period, respectively. Spatially, depressions with a shorter connection duration to the main lake are located at higher local elevation and at larger geographical distance from the main lake. Finally, we also discussed the implications of these findings and possible factors that could have caused these particular water regime characteristics and water exchange processes.

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“…These include water applied to the crop, evaporation from the reservoir, crop yield, crop gross margin, and most importantly NPV results presented at the scheme and farm scale. Because the underlying framework uses a whole of catchment Source river model the results could be (Karim et al 2015) and an assessment of the impacts on downstream users of different scheme area and crop area decision combinations.…”

Section: Applicability Of Methods and Sources Of Uncertaintymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Method for comprehensively Assessing Economic Trade-Offs of New Irrigation Developments

Petheram

Hughes

McKellar

et al. 2016

Water Resour Manage

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To meet the anticipated increase in global demand for food and fibre products, large areas of land around the world are being cleared and infrastructure constructed to enable irrigation, referred to herein as 'greenfield irrigation'. One of the challenges in assessing the profitability of a greenfield irrigation development is understanding the impact of variability in climate and water availability and the trade-offs with scheme size, cost and the sensitivity of crop yield to water stress. For example, is it more profitable to irrigate a small area of land most years or a large area once every few years? And, is it more profitable to partially or fully water the crop? This paper presents a new method for efficiently linking a river system model and an agricultural production model to explore the financial trade-offs of different management choices, thereby enabling the optimal scheme area and most appropriate level of farmer risk to be identified. The method is demonstrated for a hypothetical but plausible greenfield irrigation development based around a large dam in the Flinders catchment, northern Australia. It was found that a dam and irrigation development paid for and operated by the same entity is not, under the conditions examined in this analysis, economically sustainable. The method could also be Water Resour Manage (2016) used to explore the impact of different management strategies on the agricultural production and profitability of existing irrigation schemes within a whole of river system context.

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Assessing the impacts of climate change and dams on floodplain inundation and wetland connectivity in the wet–dry tropics of northern Australia

Cited by 71 publications

References 41 publications

River‐valley morphology, basin size, and flow‐event magnitude interact to produce wide variation in flooding dynamics

River‐valley morphology, basin size, and flow‐event magnitude interact to produce wide variation in flooding dynamics

Seasonal Water Exchanges between China’s Poyang Lake and Its Saucer-Shaped Depressions on River Deltas

A Method for comprehensively Assessing Economic Trade-Offs of New Irrigation Developments

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