Continental differences in the variability of annual runoff-update and reassessment

Peel, Murray C.; McMahon, TA; Finlayson, Brian

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.03.004

Cited by 110 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Multiyear rainfall variability in southern Africa is higher than in many other parts of the world 31,32 . Interannual variability, expressed as the coefficient of variation (COV), is not particularly high on national scales: <20% for most countries, except for Botswana and Namibia, the driest two countries (Fig.…”

Section: Climate Signals In Nexus Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 83%

Climate and southern Africa's water–energy–food nexus

et al. 2015

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Section: Climate Signals In Nexus Sectorsmentioning

confidence: 83%

Climate and southern Africa's water–energy–food nexus

et al. 2015

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“…Details of the stratification of the annual precipitation database into Köppen climate zones are provided in Peel et al (2002) and for the annual runoff database in Peel et al (2004b).…”

Section: Köppen Climate Zone Analysis Of Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global analysis of runs of annual precipitation and runoff equal to or below the median: run length

Peel

Pegram

McMahon

2004

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The investigation of fluctuations of wet and dry years has a long history in the climatology and hydrology literature. In this, the first of two papers investigating runs of consecutive dry years, the lengths (persistence) of dry runs are investigated. In the second paper the magnitude/intensity and severity (length × magnitude) of dry runs will be investigated. Consecutive dry years are associated with drought, which is a significant physical and economic phenomenon that imposes great stress on ecosystems and societies. Run lengths of consecutive years equal to or below the median were analysed for 3863 precipitation and 1236 runoff stations from around the world. Run lengths were found to be similar across all continents and Köppen climate zones, expect for tropical and arid North Africa (Sahel), which showed a distinct bias toward longer run lengths than any other region of the world. Generally, the run length observed in annual runoff was found to be similar to that observed in annual precipitation for the same location. Both annual precipitation and runoff data were found to be well described by the lag-one autoregressive (AR(1)) model or by white noise. The influence of the El Niño-southern oscillation on run lengths was not observed to be significant. The presence of decadal and multi-decadal oscillations was weakly observed in the results of the precipitation runs analysis. The faintness of the decadal and multi-decadal oscillation signal may be due to the sample sizes not being long enough and/or the runs analysis not being sensitive enough to detect their presence.

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“…To specifically address flood disasters from a global perspective, understanding of global-scale flood processes and streamflow variability is important (Dettinger and Diaz, 2000;Ward et al, 2014). In recent decades, studies have investigated global-scale streamflow characteristics using observed streamflow from around the world McMahon, 1992;McMahon et al, 2007;Peel et al, 2001Peel et al, , 2004Poff et al, 2006;Probst and Tardy, 1987) and modeled streamflow from global hydrological models McCabe and Wolock, 2008;Milly et al, 2005;Ward et al, 2013Ward et al, , 2014 to investigate ungauged and poorly gauged basins (Fekete and Vörösmarty, 2007). Despite this broad attention to annual streamflow and its connections to global climate processes and precursors, there has been relatively little attention paid to the intra-annual timing of streamflow, emphasizing the need for analysis of seasonal streamflow patterns to further improve understanding of large-scale hydrology and atmospheric behaviors in the main (flood) streamflow season globally (Dettinger and Diaz, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining high-flow seasons using temporal streamflow patterns from a global model

Lee

Ward

Block

2015

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Globally, flood catastrophes lead all natural hazards in terms of impacts on society, causing billions of dollars of damages annually. Here, a novel approach to defining high-flow seasons (3-month) globally is presented by identifying temporal patterns of streamflow. The main high-flow season is identified using a volume-based threshold technique and the PCR-GLOBWB model. In comparison with observations, 40 % (50 %) of locations at a station (subbasin) scale have identical peak months and 81 % (89 %) are within 1 month, indicating fair agreement between modeled and observed high-flow seasons. Minor high-flow seasons are also defined for bi-modal flow regimes. Identified major and minor high-flow seasons together are found to well represent actual flood records from the Dartmouth Flood Observatory, further substantiating the model's ability to reproduce the appropriate high-flow season. These high-spatial-resolution high-flow seasons and associated performance metrics allow for an improved understanding of temporal characterization of streamflow and flood potential, causation, and management. This is especially attractive for regions with limited observations and/or little capacity to develop early warning flood systems.

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Continental differences in the variability of annual runoff-update and reassessment

Cited by 110 publications

References 21 publications

Climate and southern Africa's water–energy–food nexus

Climate and southern Africa's water–energy–food nexus

Global analysis of runs of annual precipitation and runoff equal to or below the median: run length

Defining high-flow seasons using temporal streamflow patterns from a global model

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