Base flow separation: A comparison of analytical and mass balance methods

Lott, Darline A.; Stewart, Mark T.

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.01.063

Cited by 101 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In spite of its importance, estimations of low flow volume and separation of base flow from other flow components are still difficult and controversial [Gonzales et al, 2009;Lott and Stewart, 2016] because of several difficulties involved in low flow analysis including (1) definition of a time origin for the base flow analysis [Nathan and McMahon, 1990;Brutsaert, 2005];…”

Section: Recession Analysis For Revealing Fundamental Changes In Watementioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the impacts of vegetation changes on catchment storage‐discharge dynamics using paired‐catchment data

Cheng

Zhang

Chiew

et al. 2017

Water Resources Research

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It is widely recognized that vegetation changes can significantly affect the local water availability. Methods have been developed to predict the effects of vegetation change on water yield or total streamflow. However, it is still a challenge to predict changes in base flow following vegetation change due to limited understanding of catchment storage‐discharge dynamics. In this study, the power law relationship for describing catchment storage‐discharge dynamics is reformulated to quantify the changes in storage‐discharge relationship resulting from vegetation changes using streamflow data from six paired‐catchment experiments, of which two are deforestation catchments and four are afforestation catchments. Streamflow observations from the paired‐catchment experiments clearly demonstrate that vegetation changes have led to significant changes in catchment storage‐discharge relationships, accounting for about 83–128% of the changes in groundwater discharge in the treated catchments. Deforestation has led to increases in groundwater discharge (or base flow) but afforestation has resulted in decreases in groundwater discharge. Further analysis shows that the contribution of changes in groundwater discharge to the total changes in streamflow varies greatly among experimental catchments ranging from 12% to 80% with a mean of 38 ± 22% (μ ± σ). This study proposed a new method to quantify the effects of vegetation changes on groundwater discharge from catchment storage and will improve our predictability about the impacts of vegetation changes on catchment water yields.

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Section: Recession Analysis For Revealing Fundamental Changes In Watementioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the impacts of vegetation changes on catchment storage‐discharge dynamics using paired‐catchment data

Cheng

Zhang

Chiew

et al. 2017

Water Resources Research

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“…Due to the unavailability of direct measurements of base flow, standard approaches of validation do not apply to base flow separation techniques. Therefore, as recommended in previous studies (e.g., Gonzales et al, ; Halford & Mayer, ; Lott & Stewart, ), we tested the proposed automatic calibration procedure in three ways: Check the consistency and plausibility of the parameter values obtained for several gauging stations corresponding to nested watersheds. Compare the computed parameter values with those derived from a standard graphical approach. Compare the base flow estimates with a reference base flow computed by more elaborate methods: the tracer method CMB that incorporates supplementary real‐world observations (conductance measurements) and controlled numerical simulations using the physically based HGS model. …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Assessment Of the Automatic Calibration Procedures Of The Rdfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical Note: An Operational Implementation of Recursive Digital Filter for Base Flow Separation

Rammal

Archambeau

Erpicum

et al. 2018

Water Resources Research

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Base flow estimation is of overwhelming importance in hydrological modeling and water resource management. One of the widely used techniques to derive base flow from measured streamflow is the recursive digital filter (RDF). Yet its application still raises methodological issues related to the determination of its parameters. In this study, we propose a practical and automatic procedure to calibrate the RDF with respect to the measured streamflow. The method operationality and robustness are first demonstrated on three gauging stations in the Ourthe catchment (Belgium). The calibrated parameters compare well with those obtained by a standard graphical approach. Next, the proposed approach is compared to the technique of conductance mass balance for two gauging stations in the Hoyoux catchment (Belgium). A fair agreement between the results of the two techniques is obtained, suggesting that the proposed automatic calibration procedure of RDF takes the base flow separation process to a higher level of practicality and transparency.

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“…Although it is impossible to perform an absolute evaluation of a hydrograph separation method -since baseflow cannot be measured and compared with a simulated value -several comparative studies have challenged results from various methods. Chemicophysical and non-calibrated graphical/empirical algorithms -i.e., without parameters or whose parameters are determined a priori and do not vary between catchments -have given very different results (Kronholm and Capel (2015); 20 Miller et al (2015); Lott and Stewart (2016)). It is therefore difficult to use non-calibrated empirical or graphical hydrograph separation methods as general-purpose analysis tools.…”

Section: Elements Of Comparison and Coupling Between Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrograph separation: an impartial parametrization for an imperfect method

Pelletier¹,

Andréassian²

2019

Preprint

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Abstract. This paper presents a new method for hydrograph separation. It is well-known that all hydrological methods aiming at separating streamflow into baseflow and quickflow present large imperfections, and we do not claim to provide here a perfect solution. However, the method described here is at least (i) impartial in the determination of its two parameters (a quadratic reservoir capacity and a response time), (ii) coherent in time (as assessed by a split-sample test) and (iii) geologically coherent (an exhaustive validation on 1,664 French catchments shows a good match with what we know of France's hydrogeology). Last, an R package is provided to ensure reproducibility of the results presented.

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Base flow separation: A comparison of analytical and mass balance methods

Cited by 101 publications

References 42 publications

Quantifying the impacts of vegetation changes on catchment storage‐discharge dynamics using paired‐catchment data

Quantifying the impacts of vegetation changes on catchment storage‐discharge dynamics using paired‐catchment data

Technical Note: An Operational Implementation of Recursive Digital Filter for Base Flow Separation

Hydrograph separation: an impartial parametrization for an imperfect method

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