Runoff processes in catchments with a small scale topography

Feyen, H.; Leuenberger, J.; Papritz, Andreas; Gysi, Mario; Flühler, H.; Schleppi, Patrick

doi:10.1016/s0079-1946(97)85581-4

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The Zwäckentobel has a humid-temperate climate with a mean annual temperature of 6°C (Feyen et al, 1996). The annual precipitation is 2300 mm year -1 and is relatively equally distributed but slightly skewed to the summer season (Turowski et al, 2009).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ontop of the flysch parent material are shallow and creeping gleysols (0.5-2.5 m in depth). These gleysols consist of a B g -horizon with high silt and clay content and the A-horizon of 20-50 cm Muck or Mor humus (Feyen et al, 1996). The clay layer has low matrix permeability but high drainage capacity in macropores (see Feyen et al (1996) for a more detailed soil description).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The different land cover were delineated from an aerial photo (Swiss Federal Office of Topography, 2005) and divided into three classes: forest, partly forested and meadow (Figure 1c). Wetlands were derived from the available Swiss Cantonal wetland inventory (Swiss Federal Office for Environment, 2007).The Zwäckentobel has a humid-temperate climate with a mean annual temperature of 6°C (Feyen et al, 1996). The annual precipitation is 2300 mm year -1 and is relatively equally distributed but slightly skewed to the summer season (Turowski et al, 2009).…”

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Contributing sources to baseflow in pre‐alpine headwaters using spatial snapshot sampling

Fischer

Rinderer

Schneider

et al. 2015

Hydrological Processes

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Mountainous headwaters consist of different landscape units including forests, meadows and wetlands. In these headwaters it is unclear which landscape units contribute what percentage to baseflow. In this study, we analysed spatiotemporal differences in baseflow isotope and hydrochemistry to identify catchment-scale runoff contribution. Three baseflow snapshot sampling campaigns were performed in the Swiss pre-alpine headwater catchment of the Zwäckentobel (4.25km2) and six of its adjacent subcatchments. The spatial and temporal variability of 2H, Ca, DOC, AT, pH, SO4, Mg and H4SiO4 of streamflow, groundwater and spring water samples was analysed and related to catchment area and wetland percentage using bivariate and multivariate methods. Our study found that in the six subcatchments, with variable arrangements of landscape units, the inter-and intra catchment variability of isotopic and hydrochemical compositions was small and generally not significant. Stream samples were distinctly different from shallow groundwater. An upper spring zone located near the water divide above 1,400 m and a larger wetland were identified by their distinct spatial isotopic and hydrochemical composition. The upstream wetland percentage was not correlated to the hydrochemical streamflow composition, suggesting that wetlands were less connected and act as passive features with a negligible contribution to baseflow runoff. The isotopic and hydrochemical composition of baseflow changed slightly from the upper spring zone towards the subcatchment outlets and corresponded to the signature of deep groundwater. Our results confirm the need and benefits of spatially distributed snapshot sampling to derive process understanding of heterogeneous headwaters during baseflow. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.10529Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-111985 Accepted Version Originally published at: Fischer, Benjamin M C; Rinderer, Michael; Schneider, Philipp; Ewen, Tracy; Seibert, Jan (2015). Contributing sources to baseflow in pre-alpine headwaters using spatial snapshot sampling. Hydrological Processes, 29(26):5321-5336. DOI: https://doi.org/10. 1002/hyp.10529 This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/hyp.10529 This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Contributing sources to baseflow in pre-alpine headwaters using spatial snapshot sampling ABSTRACTMountainous headwaters consist of different landscape units including forests, meadows and wetlands. In these headwaters it is unclear which landscape units contribute what percentage to baseflow. In this study, we analysed spatiotemporal differences in baseflow isotope and hydrochemistry to identify catchment-scale runoff contribution. Three baseflow s...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contributing sources to baseflow in pre‐alpine headwaters using spatial snapshot sampling

Fischer

Rinderer

Schneider

et al. 2015

Hydrological Processes

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“…A strong positive relationship with F * yw can be expected because saturated soils and lowpermeability soils are often associated with overland flow and/or fast subsurface flow mechanisms triggered by exceedance of soil water storage thresholds (saturation excess; Dunne and Black, 1970) or precipitation intensity (infiltration excess; Horton, 1933). Particularly high fractions of saturated soils occur at three neighbouring catchments (Erlenbach, Lümpenenbach and Vogelbach) that are characterized by shallow gleysols (Feyen et al, 1996;Fischer et al, 2015). Together with the nearby Biber catchment, these four sites exhibit the largest young water fractions in our data set.…”

Section: Relationships Between Young Water Fractions Hydro-climatic mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of young water fractions to hydro-climatic forcing and landscape properties across 22 Swiss catchments

Freyberg

Allen

Seeger

et al. 2018

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

110

205

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Abstract. The young water fraction F yw , defined as the proportion of catchment outflow younger than approximately 2-3 months, can be estimated directly from the amplitudes of seasonal cycles of stable water isotopes in precipitation and streamflow. Thus, F yw may be a useful metric in catchment inter-comparison studies that investigate landscape and hydro-climatic controls on streamflow generation. Here, we explore how F yw varies with catchment characteristics and climatic forcing, using an extensive isotope data set from 22 small-to medium-sized (0.7-351 km 2 ) Swiss catchments. We find that flow-weighting the tracer concentrations in streamwater resulted in roughly 26 % larger young water fractions compared to the corresponding unweighted values, reflecting the fact that young water fractions tend to be larger when catchments are wet and discharge is correspondingly higher. However, flow-weighted and unweighted young water fractions are strongly correlated with each other among the catchments. They also correlate with terrain, soil, and land-use indices, as well as with mean precipitation and measures of hydrologic response. Within individual catchments, young water fractions increase with discharge, indicating an increase in the proportional contribution of faster flow paths at higher flows. We present a new method to quantify the discharge sensitivity of F yw , which we estimate as the linear slope of the relationship between the young water fraction and flow. Among the 22 catchments, discharge sensitivities of F yw are highly variable and only weakly correlated with F yw itself, implying that these two measures reflect catchment behaviour differently. Based on strong correlations between the discharge sensitivity of F yw and several catchment characteristics, we suggest that low discharge sensitivities imply greater persistence in the proportions of fast and slow runoff flow paths as catchment wetness changes. In contrast, high discharge sensitivities imply the activation of different dominant flow paths during precipitation events, such as when subsurface water tables rise into more permeable layers and/or the river network expands further into the landscape.

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“…"# * can be expected because saturated and low-permeability soils are often associated with overland flow and fast subsurface runoff mechanisms triggered by precipitation intensity (infiltration excess) or exceedance of soil water storage thresholds (saturation excess) (Dunne and Black, 1970;Horton, 1933). Particularly high fractions of saturated soils occur at three small neighbouring catchments (Erlenbach, 10 Lümpenenbach and Vogelbach), which are characterized by shallow gleysols (Feyen et al, 1996;Fischer et al, 2015). Together with the nearby Biber catchment, these four sites exhibit the largest young water fractions in our data set.…”

Section: Climatic Indices (E F) and Topographic Indices (Dd G L Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of young water fractions to hydro-climatic forcing and landscape properties across 22 Swiss catchments

Freyberg¹,

Allen²,

Seeger³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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The young water fraction F yw , defined as the proportion of catchment outflow younger than ca. 2-3 10 months, can be estimated directly from the amplitudes of seasonal cycles of stable water isotopes in precipitation and streamflow. Thus, F yw may be a useful metric in catchment inter-comparison studies that investigate landscape and hydro-climatic controls on streamflow generation. Here, we explore how F yw varies with catchment characteristics and climatic forcing, using an extensive isotope data set from 22 small-to medium-sized (0.7 -352 km 2 ) Swiss catchments. We find that flow-weighting the tracer 15 concentrations in streamwater resulted in roughly 26 % larger young water fractions compared to the corresponding un-weighted values, reflecting the fact that young water fractions tend to be larger when catchments are wet and discharge is correspondingly higher. However, flow-weighted and un-weighted young water fractions are strongly correlated with each other among the catchments. They also correlate with terrain, soil and land use parameters, as well as with measures of hydrologic response. 20Within individual catchments, young water fractions increase with discharge, indicating an increase in the proportional contribution of faster flowpaths at higher flows. We present a new method to estimate the linear slope of this relationship, which we call the discharge sensitivity of F yw . Among the 22 catchments, discharge sensitivities of F yw are highly variable and only weakly correlated with F yw itself, implying that these two measures reflect catchment behaviour differently. Based on strong correlations 25 between the discharge sensitivity of F yw and several catchment characteristics, we suggest that low discharge sensitivities imply greater persistence in the proportions of fast and slow runoff flowpaths as catchment wetness changes. High discharge sensitivities, on the other hand, imply the activation of different dominant flowpaths during precipitation events, such as when subsurface water tables rise into more permeable layers and/or the river network expands further into the landscape. 30Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi

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Runoff processes in catchments with a small scale topography

Cited by 15 publications

References 8 publications

Contributing sources to baseflow in pre‐alpine headwaters using spatial snapshot sampling

Contributing sources to baseflow in pre‐alpine headwaters using spatial snapshot sampling

Sensitivity of young water fractions to hydro-climatic forcing and landscape properties across 22 Swiss catchments

Sensitivity of young water fractions to hydro-climatic forcing and landscape properties across 22 Swiss catchments

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