Defining a network of benchmark catchments for the UK

Bradford, R. B.; Marsh, Terry

doi:10.1680/wame.2003.156.2.109

Cited by 44 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Similar responses in flood peaks have been reported elsewhere (e.g. Bree and Cunnane, 1979;Bailey and Bree, 1981;Lynn, 1981). Likewise, Wilcock and Wilcock (1995) examined the impacts of arterial drainage on the river Maine in Northern Ireland and found systematic increases in high flows.…”

Section: Arterial and Field Drainagesupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Contemporary surface water abstraction within the Boyne catchment upstream from Slane Castle, as estimated by EPA (2009), is ∼ 8 % of the 1952-2009 Q95 (flow equalled or exceeded for 95 % of the time) and is therefore considered too insignificant to impact the natural flow regime (Bradford and Marsh, 2003). Change in potential evapotranspiration (PET) (WH 9) was also assessed using estimated PET derived for Dublin Airport, which is the closest synoptic station (38 km south-east of Slane Castle streamflow gauging station) with data covering the period of study.…”

Section: Overview Of Potential Drivers Of Hydrological Changementioning

confidence: 99%

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Attribution of detected changes in streamflow using multiple working hypotheses

Harrigan

Murphy

Hall

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. This paper revisits a widely cited study of the Boyne catchment in east Ireland that attributed greater streamflow from the mid-1970s to increased precipitation linked to a shift in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Using the method of multiple working hypotheses we explore a wider set of potential drivers of hydrological change. Rainfallrunoff models are used to reconstruct streamflow to isolate the effect of climate, taking account of both model structure and parameter uncertainty. The Mann-Kendall test for monotonic trend and Pettitt change point test are applied to explore signatures of change. Contrary to earlier work, arterial drainage and simultaneous onset of field drainage in the 1970s and early 1980s are now invoked as the predominant drivers of change in annual mean and high flows within the Boyne. However, a change in precipitation regime is also present in March, thereby amplifying the effect of drainage. This new explanation posits that multiple drivers acting simultaneously were responsible for the observed change, with the relative contribution of each driver dependant on the timescale investigated. This work demonstrates that valuable insights can be gained from a systematic application of the method of multiple working hypotheses in an effort to move towards more rigorous attribution, which is an important part of managing emerging impacts on hydrological systems.

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Section: Arterial and Field Drainagesupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Overview Of Potential Drivers Of Hydrological Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Attribution of detected changes in streamflow using multiple working hypotheses

Harrigan

Murphy

Hall

et al. 2014

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…River flow influences water temperatures, so it is important to be able to discount the effect of human activities such as water abstractions or heated discharges from power stations for example. In the UK, truly ‘pristine’ catchments are extremely rare, but the benchmark catchments have only minimal influence of human disturbance on their flow regimes (Bradford and Marsh, ). As such, any river temperature trends in benchmark catchments are unlikely to be the result of direct human‐induced modification of flow regimes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From the 2773 sites, we selected a subset of 231 sites (predominantly spot sampled) located within 63 ‘benchmark catchments’. These catchments are subject to only minimal impacts on the flow regime, and there have been no known major land use changes that might cause systematic hydrological changes (Bradford and Marsh, ; Hannaford and Marsh, , ). The benchmark catchments cover most of the country and are representative of the range of rivers across England and Wales.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting changing river temperatures in England and Wales

Orr

Simpson

Clers

et al. 2014

Hydrological Processes

113

100

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Abstract:Changes in water temperature can have important consequences for aquatic ecosystems, with some species being sensitive even to small shifts in temperature during some or all of their life cycle. While many studies report increasing regional and global air temperatures, evidence of changes in river water temperature has, thus far, been site specific and often from sites heavily influenced by human activities that themselves could lead to warming. Here we present a tiered assessment of changing river water temperature covering England and Wales with data from 2773 locations. We use novel statistical approaches to detect trends in irregularly sampled spot measurements taken between 1990 and 2006. During this 17-year period, on average, mean water temperature increased by 0.03°C per year (±0.002°C), and positive changes in water temperature were observed at 2385 (86%) sites. Examination of catchments where there has been limited human influence on hydrological response shows that changes in river flow have had little influence on these water temperature trends. In the absence of other systematic influences on water temperature, it is inferred that anthropogenically driven climate change is driving some of this trend in water temperature.

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“…Although these two catchments are the most affected, many of the other catchments are also subject to varying degrees of human influence. However, 31 of the catchments are part of the so called benchmark network (Bradford and Marsh 2003) and are relatively undisturbed.…”

Section: Data and Catchment Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal river flow forecasts for the United Kingdom using persistence and historical analogues

Svensson

2015

Hydrological Sciences Journal

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Seasonal river flow forecasting methods are currently being developed for country-wide application in the United Kingdom, using several different techniques. In this paper, methods based on persistence and historical flow analogues are presented. New 1-and 3-month forecasts are made each month using monthly river flows at 93 stations with records at least 30 years long. The method that performs best is selected for each separate month, catchment and forecast duration. The forecasts based on persistence of the previous month's flow generally outperform the analogues approach, particularly for slowly responding catchments (mainly in the southeast) with large underground water storage in aquifers. Historical analogues make a useful contribution to the forecasts in the northwest of the country. Correlations between hindcasts and observations that exceed 0.23 and are significant at the 5% level for a one-sided test are found for 81% (70%) of the station-month combinations for the 1-month (3-month) forecast. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Defining a network of benchmark catchments for the UK

Cited by 44 publications

References 7 publications

Attribution of detected changes in streamflow using multiple working hypotheses

Attribution of detected changes in streamflow using multiple working hypotheses

Detecting changing river temperatures in England and Wales

Seasonal river flow forecasts for the United Kingdom using persistence and historical analogues

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