Pre-event water contributions and streamwater residence times in different land use settings of the transboundary mesoscale Lužická Nisa catchment

Abstract

Abstract:The objective of the study was to evaluate the spatial distribution of peakflow pre-event water contributions and streamwater residence times with emphasis on land use patterns in 38 subcatchments within the 687 km 2 large mesoscale transboundary catchment Lužická Nisa. Mean residence times between 8 and 27 months and portions of preevent water between 10 and 97% on a storm event peakflow were determined, using 18 O data in precipitation and streamwater from a weekly monitoring of nearly two years. Only a small tracer variation buffering effect of the lowland tributaries on the main stem was observed, indicating the dominant impact on the mountainous headwaters on the runoff generation. Longest mean streamwater residence times of 27 months were identified in the nearly natural headwaters of the Jizera Mountains, revealing no ambiguous correlation between the catchment area and altitude and the mean residence time of streamwater. Land use control on the pre-event water portions were determined for three land use categories with percentage of urban areas from 0 to 10%, 10 to 20% and more than 20%. The fraction of pre-event water in the first category decreases from 97% to 65% with the increasing percentage of forest from 76% to 100%, revealing that forests may provide only a limited infiltration of precipitation due to leaf interception and soil water use for transpiration. Fractions of pre-event water of 39-87% in the second (agricultural catchments) and of 10-35% in the third (urbanized catchments) category increase with percentage of non-urban areas.

High-Resolution, In Situ Monitoring of Stable Isotopes of Water Revealed Insight into Hydrological Response Behavior

“…Shanley et al [2] noted that event water contribution correlated positively with catchment size and open land cover. Šanda et al [3] addressed the influence of land use on pre-event water contribution. They found that the pre-event water contribution decreased with increasing forest cover, particularly due to the retention of water via interception and transpiration losses of soil water.…”

Springs Connect People and Landscapes – Environmental Education and Cooperation in the Region Liberec-Zittau

“…Less abundant cation is the sum of Na + and K + and the less abundant anion is SO 4 2-. Mg 2+ and the sum of NO 3 -and Cl -are present only marginally. This is a typical pristine water type originating in carbonate rocks, with potential of drinking water use.…”

“…The abundant surface water and groundwater resources in the region Liberec-Zittau and its surroundings have been recently addressed by several transboundary projects [1], [2], [3]. These studies have dominantly addressed the groundwater and surface water hydrology and/or their links to the land use and human activities.…”

Isotopic response of run‐off to forest disturbance in small mountain catchments

“…Several years of data are recommended to justify the MTT (Herrmann & Stichler, ). However, the presented formula has been called the “sine curve approach” and applied in shorter term studies (e.g., Reddy, Schuster, Kendall, & Reddy, ; Šanda et al, ; Soulsby, Malcolm, Ferrier, Helliwell, & Jenkins, ). Here, we used one hydrological year of data to get a first approximation of the MTT in our catchments.…”