Contribution of human and climate change impacts to changes in streamflow of Canada

Tan, Xuezhi; Gan, Thian Yew

doi:10.1038/srep17767

Cited by 83 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Wang et al [34] used the Budyko elasticity method to evaluate the attribution of streamflow in the contiguous United States, finding that the underlying parameter, n, can be applied to mirror the influence of human activities, such as dams, cropland, and irrigated land, on streamflow change. Similar results were also obtained in Canada [12]. Climate change tends to exert an impact on streamflow via variations in the precipitation, temperature, relative humidity, and so on, so the cumulative effect on the streamflow of these meteorological variables can be calculated as:…”

Section: Elasticity Of Factors Influencing Streamflowsupporting

confidence: 56%

Decreased Streamflow in the Yellow River Basin, China: Climate Change or Human‐Induced?

Liu

et al. 2017

Water

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Decreased streamflow of the Yellow River basin has become the subject of considerable concern in recent years due to the critical importance of the water resources of the Yellow River basin for northern China. This study investigates the changing properties and underlying causes for the decreased streamflow by applying streamflow data for the period 1960 to 2014 to both the Budyko framework and the hydrological modelling techniques. The results indicate that (1) streamflow decreased 21% during the period 1980-2000, and decreased 19% during the period 2000-2014 when compared to 1960-1979; (2) higher precipitation and relative humidity boost streamflow, while maximum/minimum air temperature, solar radiation, wind speed, and the underlying parameter, n, all have the potential to adversely affect them; (3) decreased streamflow is also linked to increased cropland, grass, reservoir, urban land, and water areas and other human activities associated with GDP and population; (4) human activity is the main reason for the decrease of streamflow in the Yellow River basin, with the mean fractional contribution of 73.4% during 1980-2000 and 82.5% during 2001-2014. It is clear that the continuing growth of human-induced impacts on streamflow likely to add considerable uncertainty to the management of increasingly scarce water resources. Overall, these results provide strong evidence to suggest that human activity is the key factor behind the decreased streamflow in the Yellow River basin.

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Section: Elasticity Of Factors Influencing Streamflowsupporting

confidence: 56%

Decreased Streamflow in the Yellow River Basin, China: Climate Change or Human‐Induced?

Liu

et al. 2017

Water

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“…By using this framework we can quantify not only the climate-induced runoff change, but also the human activities-induced runoff change. The framework named "Hydrological Sensitivity Analysis" has been applicable to various climatic conditions (Tan and Gan, 2015;Wang and Hejazi, 2011;Ye et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We could not estimate ET by PET because the model parameter ω was unavailable. However, some other applications of hydrological sensitivity analysis did also use the same approach on estimating the actual ET (Ye et al, 2013;Li et al, 2007;Tan and Gan, 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

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2018

WATER

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Understanding how climate variability and human activities interact to affect watershed hydrology is needed for adaptive watershed management. The Mann-Kendall test and hydrological sensitivity analysis were coupled in this study to evaluate the specific impacts of climate variability and human activities on the change in mean annual runoff for the Jiulong River Watershed using a long-term hydro-climatic data during 1961-2013. Based on the results of MK test, the study period was divided into two periods, the baseline period (1961)(1962)(1963)(1964)(1965)(1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974) and the altered period . The mean annual runoff during the altered period increased by 31 mm (3.5%) and 93 mm (11.6%) for the North and West Rivers, respectively, compared with that of baseline period. Climate variability was identified as the dominant factor controlling the increased annual runoff, accounted for 58 mm (193%) and 90 mm (97%) of the changes in the North and West Rivers, respectively. Human activities (e.g. increasing water withdrawal, cascade dams, and reforestation) played a more important role in the reduction of annual runoff, particularly in the North River of about 27 mm. The present study suggests that human activities may buffer the severity of hydrological changes associated with climate changes, particularly in Southeast China region where more intense and extreme weather events have been experienced.

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“…With regards to changes in streamflow, while significant progress has been made to distinguish climate-induced changes from landscape-induced modifications (Tomer and Schilling, 2009;Wang et al, 2013;Jaramillo and Destouni, 2014;Tan and Gan, 2015), there is little evidences from Australian catchments, where acute climatic changes and biomass increases have been reported. I separate, for the first time, the large-scale reductions on streamflow due to changes in climate and vegetation regrowth.…”

Section: Changes In Streamflow Generation Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contemporary changes in climate and land surface conditions are impacting the hydrological cycle, and ultimately global water resources, via multiple pathways (Tomer and Schilling, 2009;Destouni et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2013;Jaramillo and Destouni, 2014;Tan and Gan, 2015). Disentangling the relative influence of how climate and anthropogenic land cover changes drive streamflow (Q) change is of critical importance for effective water resource adaptation and management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecohydrology in space and time: functioning and changes in the streamflow generation of catchments

Silva¹

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Surface freshwater yield is a service provided by catchments, which cycle water intake by partitioning precipitation into evapotranspiration and streamflow. Streamflow generation is experiencing changes globally due to climate-and human-induced changes currently taking place in catchments. However, the direct attribution of streamflow changes to specific catchment modification processes is challenging because catchment functioning results from multiple interactions among distinct drivers (i.e., climate, soils, topography and vegetation). These drivers have coevolved until ecohydrological equilibrium is achieved between the water and energy fluxes.Therefore, the coevolution of catchment drivers and their spatial heterogeneity makes their functioning and response to changes unique and poses a challenge to expanding our ecohydrological knowledge. Addressing these problems is crucial to enabling sustainable water resource management and water supply for society and ecosystems.This thesis explores an extensive dataset of catchments situated along a climatic gradient in eastern Australia to understand the spatial and temporal variation in their ecohydrological functioning and to potentially identify responses to climate-and human-induced changes. To address this aim, the thesis has four major objectives: 1) to investigate how streamflow similarity varies according to the annual water and energy balances and to determine to what degree biophysical drivers of runoff explain the observed spatial streamflow variability;2) to determine the changes in the drivers of key streamflow characteristics across different regions and scales;3) to examine long-term ecohydrological changes in the water and energy balances of catchments and separate out the climate-and human-induced components; and 4) to investigate trends in baseflow and separate the contribution of precipitation, potential evapotranspiration and elevated atmospheric CO2 feedbacks with vegetation.Three hundred and fifty five catchments were analysed spanning a tropical to Mediterranean climatic gradient in the Australian east coast over multiple periods of time. An extensive dataset was compiled and analysed, composed of: daily streamflow and precipitation time series, monthly satellite-based time-series of vegetation, model-based soil moisture and temperature, and spatial data of land-cover, topography, soil properties, physiography, bioregions and human population density. To address the first objective, catchments were classified using streamflow signatures and modelling was used to relate the spectrum of water and energy balances (Budyko framework) to the Trancoso, R. (2016) PhD Thesis, The University of Queensland Ecohydrology in space and time ii drivers of runoff generation (Dunne diagram). To address the second objective a robust statistical modelling framework was applied to understand changes in streamflow drivers with regions and scales. In the third objective, the temporal displacement into the Budyko framework and its decomposition into climate a...

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Contribution of human and climate change impacts to changes in streamflow of Canada

Cited by 83 publications

References 50 publications

Decreased Streamflow in the Yellow River Basin, China: Climate Change or Human‐Induced?

Decreased Streamflow in the Yellow River Basin, China: Climate Change or Human‐Induced?

Untitled

Ecohydrology in space and time: functioning and changes in the streamflow generation of catchments

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