Reply to comment by Jack Lewis et al. on “Forests and floods: A new paradigm sheds light on age‐old controversies”

Alila, Younes; Hudson, Robert O.; Kuraś, Piotr K.; Schnorbus, M.; Rasouli, Kabir

doi:10.1029/2009wr009028

Cited by 17 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Caissie et al 2002;Hornbeck et al 1993;Lavigne et al 2004;Robinson et al 2003). However, Alila et al (2009Alila et al ( , 2010 recently questioned the appropriateness of the methods used in these studies. Furthermore, these methods do not allow quantification of the effect of forest cover on the spatial variability of flow.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Temporal Regionalization of 7-Day Low Flows in the St. Lawrence Watershed in Quebec (Canada)

Assani

Chalifour

Légaré

et al. 2011

Water Resour Manage

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Winter and summer 7-day low flows of eighteen natural rivers in the St. Lawrence River watershed of Quebec were analyzed over the period from 1934 to 2000. The rivers were first subdivided into three modes using principal component analysis. Two of these modes are located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, respectively south (Southeast mode) and north (East mode) of the 47°N, and the third (Southwest mode) is located on the north shore. The Southeast mode shows a significant increase in 7-day low flows in winter and summer due to increasing summer and fall precipitation, whereas the Southwest mode shows a significant decrease in summer 7-day low flows due to an increase in evapotranspiration. No significant change in winter and summer 7-day low flows is observed in the East mode. Results show that the variability of 7-day low flows and their link with climate indices are mainly seasonally dependent. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the only index which is correlated to 7-day low flows in all three modes. This correlation is positive for north shore rivers and negative for south shore rivers. Furthermore, only north shore rivers are correlated to NAO in both winter and summer.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Temporal Regionalization of 7-Day Low Flows in the St. Lawrence Watershed in Quebec (Canada)

Assani

Chalifour

Légaré

et al. 2011

Water Resour Manage

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“…attributing a return period of 7 years to a flood peak of 20 years. This figure shows that relatively small changes in the estimated flood peak magnitude can translate into surprisingly large changes in their return periods, as a consequence of the strong non-linearity of the flood frequency curve (Alila et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This does not necessarily mean that the effect of forest cover on flood peaks is not relevant for higher return periods. In fact, owing to the correlation between the forest cover fraction and the other hydromorphological parameters employed in the examined flood regionalization procedure, the forest cover can also indirectly influence the ratio of the corresponding index values and thus the position of the entire flood frequency distribution (Alila et al, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alila et al (2009) challenged decades of peer reviewed paired watershed study literature, arguing that the experimental design and statistical methods used in paired watershed studies have overlooked a fundamental part of the physics of the relation between forests and floods, namely that forest affects not only the magnitude but most importantly the frequency of floods. Moreover, because of the strong non-linearity of the flood frequency distribution, small changes in the magnitude of extreme floods can translate into large changes in the corresponding return periods (Alila et al, 2009(Alila et al, , 2010.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest cover influence on regional flood frequency assessment in Mediterranean catchments

Preti

Forzieri

Chirico

2011

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The paper aims at evaluating to what extent the forest cover can explain the component of runoff coefficient as defined in a regional flood frequency analysis based on the application of the rational formula coupled with a regional model of the annual maximum rainfall depths. The analysis is addressed to evaluate the component of the runoff coefficient which cannot be captured by the catchment lithology alone. Data mining is performed on 75 catchments distributed from South to Central Italy. Cluster and correlation structure analyses are conducted for distinguishing forest cover effects within catchments characterized by hydromorphological similarities. We propose to improve the prediction of the runoff coefficient by a linear regression model, exploiting the ratio of the forest cover to the catchment critical rainfall depth as dependent variable. The proposed regression enables a significant bias correction of the runoff coefficient, particularly for those small mountainous catchments, characterised by larger forest cover fraction and lower critical rainfall depth.

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“…However, this explanation does not apply to the present study, since the catchments were exploited as pastures or agricultural fields for a sustained period of time prior to their abandonment and subsequent forest regeneration. Another possible reason for the inconclusive results obtained by many studies is the use of seasonal or annual mean Q characteristics only, whereas it is generally preferred to use characteristics related to the frequency and magnitude of Q (Alila et al, 2009(Alila et al, , 2010, particularly when evaluating the change in peak flows. Finally, the failure to correct for climatic variability by many studies may also have led to inconclusive or even erroneous outcomes.…”

Section: Potential Explanations For the Lack Of Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of forest regeneration on streamflow in 12 mesoscale humid tropical catchments

Beck

Bruijnzeel

Dijk

et al. 2013

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

106

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Abstract. Although regenerating forests make up an increasingly large portion of humid tropical landscapes, little is known of their water use and effects on streamflow (Q). Since the 1950s the island of Puerto Rico has experienced widespread abandonment of pastures and agricultural lands, followed by forest regeneration. This paper examines the possible impacts of these secondary forests on several Q characteristics for 12 mesoscale catchments (23-346 km 2 ; mean precipitation 1720-3422 mm yr −1 ) with long (33-51 yr) and simultaneous records for Q, precipitation (P ), potential evaporation (PET), and land cover. A simple spatially-lumped, conceptual rainfall-runoff model that uses daily P and PET time series as inputs (HBV-light) was used to simulate Q for each catchment. Annual time series of observed and simulated values of four Q characteristics were calculated. A least-squares trend was fitted through annual time series of the residual difference between observed and simulated time series of each Q characteristic. From this the total cumulative change (Â) was calculated, representing the change in each Q characteristic after controlling for climate variability and water storage carry-over effects between years. Negative values ofÂ were found for most catchments and Q characteristics, suggesting enhanced actual evaporation overall following forest regeneration. However, correlations between changes in urban or forest area and values ofÂ were insignificant (p ≥ 0.389) for all Q characteristics. This suggests there is no convincing evidence that changes in the chosen Q characteristics in these Puerto Rican catchments can be ascribed to changes in urban or forest area. The present results are in line with previous studies of mesoand macro-scale (sub-)tropical catchments, which generally found no significant change in Q that can be attributed to changes in forest cover. Possible explanations for the lack of a clear signal may include errors in the land cover, climate, Q, and/or catchment boundary data; changes in forest area occurring mainly in the less rainy lowlands; and heterogeneity in catchment response. Different results were obtained for different catchments, and using a smaller subset of catchments could have led to very different conclusions. This highlights the importance of including multiple catchments in land-cover impact analysis at the mesoscale.

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Reply to comment by Jack Lewis et al. on “Forests and floods: A new paradigm sheds light on age‐old controversies”

Cited by 17 publications

References 25 publications

Temporal Regionalization of 7-Day Low Flows in the St. Lawrence Watershed in Quebec (Canada)

Temporal Regionalization of 7-Day Low Flows in the St. Lawrence Watershed in Quebec (Canada)

Forest cover influence on regional flood frequency assessment in Mediterranean catchments

The impact of forest regeneration on streamflow in 12 mesoscale humid tropical catchments

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