Summary of hydrologic modeling for the Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER)

Williamson, Tanja N.; Lant, Jeremiah G.; Claggett, Peter R.; Nystrom, Elizabeth A.; Milly, P. C. D.; Nelson, Hugh L.; Hoffman, Scott A.; Colarullo, Susan J.; Fischer, Jeffrey M.

doi:10.3133/sir20155143

Cited by 16 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…We used the USGS Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER) (Williamson et al ) for the rainfall‐runoff model. WATER partitions precipitation into runoff with a TOPMODEL routine (Beven and Kirkby ; Wolock ) for pervious areas and the TR55 Curve Number based routine (NRCS ; McCuen ) for impervious areas, estimates evapotranspiration using the Hamon routine based on a regression with maximum daily temperature (Hamon ; Lu et al ), and uses lake‐delay and impervious runoff delay factors to account for storage effects on timing of daily discharge at the basin outlet.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced Soil Macropores and Forest Cover Reduce Warm‐Season Baseflow below Ecological Thresholds in the Upper Delaware River Basin

Endreny

Kwon²,

Williamson

et al. 2019

J American Water Resour Assoc

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We examined the impacts of changes in land cover and soil conditions on the flow regime of the upper Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources. We simulated flows for two periods, c. 1600 and 1940, at three sites using the same temperature and precipitation conditions: the East Branch, West Branch, and mainstem Delaware River at Callicoon, New York. The 1600 period represented pristine forest and soils. The 1940 period included reduced forest cover, increased agriculture, and degraded soils with reduced soil macropore fractions. A model‐sensitivity test examined the impact of soil macropore and land cover change separately. We assessed changes in flow regimes between the 1600 and 1940 periods using a variety of flow statistics, including established ecological limits of hydrologic alteration (ELOHA) thresholds. Reduced forest soil macropore fraction significantly reduced summer and fall baseflows. The 1940 period had significantly lower Q50 flows (50% exceedance) than the 1600 period, as well as summer and fall Q90 and Q75–Q90 flows below the ELOHA thresholds. The one‐ to seven‐day minimum flows were also lower for the 1940 period, by 17% on the mainstem. 1940 flows were 6% more likely than the 1600 period to fall below the low‐flow threshold for federally endangered dwarf wedgemussel (Alasmidonta heterodon) habitat. In contrast, the 1940 period had higher flows than the 1600 period from late fall to early winter.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced Soil Macropores and Forest Cover Reduce Warm‐Season Baseflow below Ecological Thresholds in the Upper Delaware River Basin

Endreny

Kwon²,

Williamson

et al. 2019

J American Water Resour Assoc

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“…Tools are being developed to help inform decision‐making for active management of environmental water (e.g. Cartwright, Caldwell, Nebiker, & Knight, ; Horne, Webb, Stewardson, et al., ; Williamson et al., ). The challenge remains to use such tools within established and often inflexible institutional structures, and to encourage and support more flexible adaptive management/governance systems.…”

Section: Advancing the Management Of Environmental Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent advances in environmental flows science and water management—Innovation in the Anthropocene

et al. 2018

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The implementation of environmental flow regimes offers a promising means to protect and restore riverine, wetland and estuarine ecosystems, their critical environmental services and cultural/societal values. This Special Issue expands the scope of environmental flows and water science in theory and practice, offering 20 papers from academics, agency researchers and non‐governmental organisations, each with fresh perspectives on the science and management of environmental water allocations. Contributions confront the grand challenge for environmental flows and water management in the Anthropocene—the urgent need for innovations that will help to sustain the innate resilience of social–ecological systems under dynamic and uncertain environmental and societal futures. Basin‐scale and regional assessments of flow requirements mark a necessary advance in environmental water science in the face of rapid changes in water‐resource management activities worldwide (e.g. increases in dams, diversions, retention and reuse). Techniques for regional‐scale hydrological and ecohydrological modelling support ecological risk assessment and identification of priority flow management and river restoration actions. Changing flood–drought cycles, long‐term climatic shifts and associated effects on hydrological, thermal and water quality regimes add enormous uncertainty to the prediction of future ecological outcomes, regardless of environmental water allocations. An improved capacity to predict the trajectories of ecological change in rivers degraded by legacies of past impact interacting with current conditions and future climate change is essential. Otherwise, we risk unrealistic expectations from restoration of river and estuarine flow regimes. A more robust, dynamic and predictive approach to environmental water science is emerging. It encourages the measurement of process rates (e.g. birth rate, colonisation rate) and species traits (e.g. physiological requirements, morphological adaptations) as well as ecosystem states (e.g. species richness, assemblage structure), as the variables representing ecological responses to flow variability and environmental water allocations. Another necessary development is the incorporation of other environmental variables such as water temperature and sedimentary processes in flow–ecological response models. Based on contributions to this Special Issue, several recent compilations and the wider literature, we identify six major scientific challenges for further exploration, and seven themes for advancing the management of environmental water. We see the emerging frontier of environmental flows and water science as urgent and challenging, with numerous opportunities for reinvigorated science and methodological innovation in the expanding enterprise of environmental water linked to ecological sustainability and social well‐being.

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“…Model parameters vary by land‐cover‐based hydrologic response units and were optimized for regional hydrologic simulations (Williamson et al, ). These parameters control the soil‐plant‐water interactions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Model structure, data sources, optimization, and uncertainty for 2002–2010 (which aligned with land‐cover and available water‐use data) are detailed by Williamson et al (). In summary, land‐cover derived HRUs are delineated by intersecting individual basins with land cover to separate forested, agricultural, and developed areas; each HRU may include multiple, discontiguous areas.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of streamflow simulation in the Delaware River Basin to forecasted land‐cover change for 2030 and 2060

Williamson

Claggett

2018

Hydrological Processes

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In order to simulate the potential effect of forecasted land‐cover change on streamflow and water availability, there has to be confidence that the hydrologic model used is sensitive to small changes in land cover (<10%) and that this land‐cover change exceeds the inherent uncertainty in forecasted conditions. To investigate this, a 26‐year streamflow record was simulated for 33 basins (54–928 km2) in the Delaware River Basin using three dates of land cover: the 2011 National Land‐Cover Dataset (Homer, Fry, & Barnes, ), 2030 land‐cover conditions representing median values from 101 equally‐likely forecasts, and 2060 land‐cover conditions corresponding to the same iterations used to represent 2030. Streamflow was simulated using a process‐based hydrologic model that includes both pervious and impervious methods as parameterized by three land‐cover‐based hydrologic response units (HRUs)—forested, agricultural, and developed land. Small, but significant differences in streamflow magnitude, variability, and seasonality were seen among the three time periods—2011, 2030, and 2060. Temporal differences were discernible from the range of conditions simulated with 101 equally likely forecasts for 2030. Development was co‐located with the most frequent landscape components, as characterized by topographic wetness index, resulting in a change in hydrology for each HRU, highlighting that knowing the location of disturbance is key to understanding potential streamflow changes. These results show that streamflow simulation using regional calibration that incorporates land‐cover‐based HRUs can be sensitive to relatively small changes in land‐cover and that temporal trends resulting from land‐cover change can be isolated in order to evaluate other changes that might affect water resources.

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Summary of hydrologic modeling for the Delaware River Basin using the Water Availability Tool for Environmental Resources (WATER)

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

Reduced Soil Macropores and Forest Cover Reduce Warm‐Season Baseflow below Ecological Thresholds in the Upper Delaware River Basin

Reduced Soil Macropores and Forest Cover Reduce Warm‐Season Baseflow below Ecological Thresholds in the Upper Delaware River Basin

Recent advances in environmental flows science and water management—Innovation in the Anthropocene

Sensitivity of streamflow simulation in the Delaware River Basin to forecasted land‐cover change for 2030 and 2060

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