Regional scale estimates of baseflow and factors influencing baseflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Rumsey, Christine A.; Miller, Matthew P.; Susong, David D.; Tillman, Fred D.; Anning, David W.

doi:10.1016/j.ejrh.2015.04.008

Cited by 94 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…3; Norton et al, 2014). These findings are consistent with a study by Rumsey et al (2015), which reported that baseflow typically increased with elevation in the Upper Colorado River Basin. High terrain settings have greater influence on baseflow processes, as topographic gradients govern soil water movement downslope, regulating the amount of water reaching the channel network or retained in the soil profile (Price, 2011;Devito et al, 2005;Tetzlaff et al, 2009).…”

Section: Mean Variability and Spatial Distribution Of Baseflowsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…This may be explained by the presence of forest supported by high elevations of the Rocky Mountains ( Fig. 3; Norton et al, 2014), high precipitation, and low temperature (Rumsey et al, 2015). In the Southern Great Plains, researchers reported increasing trends in baseflow with tree cover increased (Wine and Zou, 2012).…”

Section: Mean Variability and Spatial Distribution Of Baseflowmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research showed that baseflow represents more than 50% of total streamflow in the United States Midwest and Great Plains regions (e.g. Santhi et al, 2008;Ahiablame et al, 2013;Rumsey et al, 2015). To continue to meet critical water demands, as mentioned above, there is a need to provide relevant science-based information to increase understanding of the role of regional controls on MORB baseflow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Baseflow is an important component of streamflow (Santhi et al, 2008;Ahiablame et al, 2013;Rumsey et al, 2015). As such, understanding its availability and contribution to streamflow are critical for appropriate planning and management of water resources (Santhi et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Annual baseflow variations as influenced by climate variability and agricultural land use change in the Missouri River Basin

Ahiablame

Sheshukov

Rahmani

et al. 2017

Journal of Hydrology

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a b s t r a c tThe Missouri River system has a large water storage capacity, where baseflow plays an important role. Understanding historical baseflow characteristics with respect to climate and land use impacts is essential for effective planning and management of water resources in the Missouri River Basin (MORB). This study evaluated statistical trends in baseflow and precipitation for 99 MORB minimally disturbed watersheds during 1950-2014. Elasticity of baseflow to climate variability and agricultural land use change were quantified for the 99 studied watersheds. Baseflow was derived from daily streamflow records with a recursive digital filter method. The results showed that baseflow varied between 38 and 80% (0 and 331 mm/year) of total streamflow with an average of 60%, indicating that more than half of streamflow in the MORB is derived from baseflow. The trend analysis revealed that precipitation increased during the study period in 78 out of 99 watersheds, leading to 1-3.9% noticeable increase in baseflow for 68 of 99 watersheds. Although the changes in baseflow obtained in this study were a result of the combined effects of climate and land use change across the basin, upward trends in baseflow generally coincide with increased precipitation and agricultural land use trends in the basin. Agricultural land use increase mostly led to a 0-5.7% decrease in annual baseflow in the basin, except toward east of the basin where baseflow mostly increased with agricultural land use increase (0.1-2.0%). In general, a 1% increase in precipitation and a 1% increase in agricultural land use resulted in 1.5% increase and 0.2% decrease in baseflow, respectively, during the study period. These results are entirely dependent on the quality of data used; however, they provide useful insight into the relative influence of climate and land use change on baseflow conditions in the Great Plains region of the USA.

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Section: Mean Variability and Spatial Distribution Of Baseflowsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Mean Variability and Spatial Distribution Of Baseflowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Annual baseflow variations as influenced by climate variability and agricultural land use change in the Missouri River Basin

Ahiablame

Sheshukov

Rahmani

et al. 2017

Journal of Hydrology

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“…Similarly, base flow indexed based recharge was the best available at grid scale and also been used in literatures for comparison purposes. It should be noted that the BFI-based recharge (Wolock, 2003a) itself is a very rough estimate and should not be treated as an observation due to high uncertainty related to this dataset but has been widely used (Becker, 2006;Santhi et al, 2008;Rumsey et al, 2015) as a basis of recharge comparison due to lack of such data at the grid scale. Thus to better validate the model results, we further analyzed and compared the recharge at basin scale based on the availability of data in the western US.…”

Section: Uncertainty Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing potential recharge estimates from three Land Surface Models across the western US

Niraula

Meixner

Ajami

et al. 2017

Journal of Hydrology

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a b s t r a c tGroundwater is a major source of water in the western US. However, there are limited recharge estimates in this region due to the complexity of recharge processes and the challenge of direct observations. Land surface Models (LSMs) could be a valuable tool for estimating current recharge and projecting changes due to future climate change. In this study, simulations of three LSMs (Noah, Mosaic and VIC) obtained from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2) are used to estimate potential recharge in the western US. Modeled recharge was compared with published recharge estimates for several aquifers in the region. Annual recharge to precipitation ratios across the study basins varied from 0.01% to 15% for Mosaic, 3.2% to 42% for Noah, and 6.7% to 31.8% for VIC simulations. Mosaic consistently underestimates recharge across all basins. Noah captures recharge reasonably well in wetter basins, but overestimates it in drier basins. VIC slightly overestimates recharge in drier basins and slightly underestimates it for wetter basins. While the average annual recharge values vary among the models, the models were consistent in identifying high and low recharge areas in the region. Models agree in seasonality of recharge occurring dominantly during the spring across the region. Overall, our results highlight that LSMs have the potential to capture the spatial and temporal patterns as well as seasonality of recharge at large scales. Therefore, LSMs (specifically VIC and Noah) can be used as a tool for estimating future recharge in data limited regions.

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The importance of base flow in sustaining surface water flow in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Miller

Buto

Susong

et al. 2016

Water Resources Research

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152

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The Colorado River has been identified as the most overallocated river in the world. Considering predicted future imbalances between water supply and demand and the growing recognition that base flow (a proxy for groundwater discharge to streams) is critical for sustaining flow in streams and rivers, there is a need to develop methods to better quantify present-day base flow across large regions. We adapted and applied the spatially referenced regression on watershed attributes (SPARROW) water quality model to assess the spatial distribution of base flow, the fraction of streamflow supported by base flow, and estimates of and potential processes contributing to the amount of base flow that is lost during in-stream transport in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). On average, 56% of the streamflow in the UCRB originated as base flow, and precipitation was identified as the dominant driver of spatial variability in base flow at the scale of the UCRB, with the majority of base flow discharge to streams occurring in upper elevation watersheds. The model estimates an average of 1.8 3 10 10 m 3 /yr of base flow in the UCRB; greater than 80% of which is lost during in-stream transport to the Lower Colorado River Basin via processes including evapotranspiration and water diversion for irrigation. Our results indicate that surface waters in the Colorado River Basin are dependent on base flow, and that management approaches that consider groundwater and surface water as a joint resource will be needed to effectively manage current and future water resources in the Basin.

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Regional scale estimates of baseflow and factors influencing baseflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Cited by 94 publications

References 27 publications

Annual baseflow variations as influenced by climate variability and agricultural land use change in the Missouri River Basin

Annual baseflow variations as influenced by climate variability and agricultural land use change in the Missouri River Basin

Comparing potential recharge estimates from three Land Surface Models across the western US

The importance of base flow in sustaining surface water flow in the Upper Colorado River Basin

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