Trends in the hydrologic regime of Alpine rivers

Bard, Antoine; Renard, Benjamin; Lang, Michel; Giuntoli, Ignazio; Korck, Jane; Koboltschnig, Gernot; Janža, Mitja; D’Amico, Michele; Volken, David

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.07.052

Cited by 59 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(59 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Such networks are usually subsets of national hydrometric networks and are particularly useful for detecting and attributing trends in river flow indices. Data sets of gauging stations with RHN-like characteristics were also created for large parts of Europe (Stahl et al 2010) or for the Alpine region in central Europe (Bard et al 2015). Although Poland does not maintain its RHN, in this study we have used a data set of gauging stations with RHN-like features.…”

Section: River Flow Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Trend detection in river flow indices in Poland

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The issue of trend detection in long time series of river flow records is of vast theoretical interest and considerable practical relevance. Water management is based on the assumption of stationarity; hence, it is crucial to check whether taking this assumption is justified. The objective of this study is to analyse long-term trends in selected river flow indices in small-and medium-sized catchments with relatively unmodified flow regime (semi-natural catchments) in Poland. The examined indices describe annual and seasonal average conditions as well as annual extreme conditions-low and high flows. The special focus is on the spatial analysis of trends, carried out on a comprehensive, representative data set of flow gauges. The present paper is timely, as no spatially comprehensive studies (i.e. covering the entire Poland or its large parts) on trend detection in time series of river flow have been done in the recent 15 years or so. The results suggest that there is a strong random component in the river flow process, the changes are weak and the spatial pattern is complex. Yet, the results of trend detection in different indices of river flow in Poland show that there exists a spatial divide that seems to hold quite generally for various indices (annual, seasonal, as well as low and high flow). Decreases of river flow dominate in the northern part of the country and increases usually in the southern part. Stations in the central part show mostly 'no trend' results. However, the spatial gradient is apparent only for the data for the period 1981-2016 rather than for 1956-2016. It seems also that the magnitude of increases of river flow is generally lower than that of decreases.

show abstract

Section: River Flow Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Trend detection in river flow indices in Poland

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The highest flows occur during spring and summer and the month with the highest flow ranges between June, for hydrological regimes dominated by snow melting, to April, for snowmelt-rainfall mixed regimes (Bard et al, 2015). In particular the rivers of the northern side of the Alpine Chain are dominated by snow-melting and show a maximum discharge in May-June and a minimum in December-February, while the rivers of Southern Alps, affected by precipitation of Mediterranean origin, are generally characterised by a mixed snowmelt-rainfall regime and show a period of maximum discharge in April-May, a minimum in September, a further maximum in November and a minimum in January-February.…”

Section: Drainage Basins Sampling Sites and Sampling Campaignsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical weathering and consumption of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the Alpine region

Donnini

Frondini

Probst

et al. 2016

Global and Planetary Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To determine the CO 2 consumption due to chemical weathering in the Alps, water samples from the 32 main Alpine rivers were collected and analysed in two periods, spring 2011 and winter 2011/2012. Most of the river waters are characterized by a bicarbonate earth-alkaline composition with some samples showing a clear enrichment in sulphates and other samples showing a slight enrichment in alkaline metals. The amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) ranges between 96 and 551 mg/L. Considering the major ion composition and the Sr isotopic composition of water samples, coherently with the geological setting of the study area, three major reservoirs of dissolved load have been recognized: carbonates, evaporites and silicates. Based on a chemical mass balance, the flux of dissolved solids, and the flux of carbon dioxide consumed by chemical weathering have been computed for each basin and for the entire study area. Results show that the flux of dissolved solids, ranges from 8 × 10 3 to 411 × 10 3 kg km −2 y −1 , with an average value of 127 × 10 3 kg km −2 y −1 , while the flux of carbon dioxide consumed by chemical weathering in the short-term (b 1 Ma) is 5.03 × 10 5 mol km −2 y −1 1 on average. Since part of the CO 2 is returned to the atmosphere through carbonate precipitation and reverse weathering once river water reaches the ocean, the CO 2 removed from the atmosphere/soil system in the long-term (N 1 Ma) is much smaller than the CO 2 consumed in the short-term and according to our calculations amounts to 2.01 × 10 4 mol km −2 y −1 on average. This value is almost certainly a minimum estimate of the total amount of CO 2 fixed by weathering on the long-term because in our calculations we assumed that all the alkaline metals deriving from rock weathering in the continents are rapidly involved in the process of reverse weathering in the oceans, while there are still large uncertainties on the magnitude and significance of this process. The values of CO 2 flux consumed by weathering are strongly correlated with runoff while other potential controlling factors show only weak correlations or no correlation. Our estimation of the CO 2 consumed by weathering in the Alpine basins is in the same order of magnitude, but higher than the world average and is consistent with previous estimations made in river basins with similar climatic conditions and similar latitudes.

show abstract

“…the Danube, the Rhine, the Po and the Rhone. In this paper we focus on the timing of the spring discharge, which can affect water quality and management (Hänggi and Weingartner, 2011;Gunawardhana and Kazama, 2012;Vanham, 2012), flood risk (Eckhardt and Ulbrich, 2003;Wetter et al, 2011;Bard et al, 2012;Dobler et al, 2012), river navigation and water availability (Middelkoop et al, 2001), tourism (Elsasser et Burki, 2002;Beniston et al, 2011), energy production (Hänggi, 2012), insurance (Beniston, 2012) and natural ecosystems (Keller et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%