The Potential Utility of Physically Based Hydrologic Modeling in Ungauged Urban Streams

Tague, Christina; Pohl-Costello, Molly

doi:10.1080/00045600802099055

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although chaparral species are not as common in urban landscaping, they are representative of the native and drought‐resistant vegetation types that are increasingly encouraged as xeriscape landscaping choices. Land surface parameters for these vegetation types are assigned according to literature estimates [see Tague et al ., ; Tague and Pohl , ; White et al ., for details].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…All simulations were run using the Regional Hydro‐Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys; version 5.14) [ Tague and Band , ]. RHESSys is a spatially distributed model of coupled hydro‐biogeochemical cycling and has been successfully used to model daily runoff and evapotranspiration (ET) in the Mission Creek catchment [ Shields and Tague , ] and in watersheds with similar climate and topography to Mission Creek [ Tague and Band , ; Tague et al ., ; Tague and Pohl , ]. RHESSys is a spatially explicit model, routing both subsurface and overland flow.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Ecohydrology in semiarid urban ecosystems: Modeling the relationship between connected impervious area and ecosystem productivity

Shields

Tague

2015

Water Resour. Res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In water-stressed, semiarid urban environments, connections between impervious surfaces and drainage networks may strongly impact the water use and ecosystem productivity of neighboring vegetated areas. We use an ecohydrologic model, the Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys), to quantify the sensitivity of vegetation water use and net primary productivity (NPP) to fine-scale impervious surface connectivity. We develop a set of very fine-scale (2 m 2 ) scenarios that vary both the percentage of impervious surface and fraction of this impervious surface with direct hydrologic connections to urban drainage systems for a small hillslope. When driven by Mediterranean climate forcing, model estimates suggest that total vegetation water use declines with increasing impervious area. However, when impervious area is hydrologically disconnected from the urban drainage network, declines in water and carbon fluxes with decreased vegetated area can be partially, or in some cases even completely, offset by increased transpiration and NPP in the remaining vegetation. Relative increases in water use and NPP of remaining vegetation are much greater for deeply rooted shrubs and trees and negligible for shallow rooted grasses. We extrapolate our findings to the catchment scale by developing a first-order approximation of fine-scale impervious connection impacts on aggregate watershed water and carbon flux estimates. Our approach offers a computationally and data-efficient method for estimating the impact of impervious area connectivity on these ecohydrologic fluxes. For our only partially urbanized Santa Barbara watershed, estimates of water use and NPP that account for fine-scale impervious connection differed by more than 10% from those that did not.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecohydrology in semiarid urban ecosystems: Modeling the relationship between connected impervious area and ecosystem productivity

Shields

Tague

2015

Water Resour. Res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…RHESSys is a coupled ecohydrologic-biogeochemical model that has been run successfully in Mission Canyon and other chaparral-dominated watersheds in California to capture interactions among climate, soils, vegetation, and hydrology , 2009, Tague and Pohl-Costello 2008, Shields and Tague 2012. RHESSys requires climate inputs in the form of temperature and precipitation, and then uses topographic data from digital elevation models to extrapolate spatial variation in these inputs as well as solar radiation over mountainous terrain using the MTN-CLIM approach (accounting for orographic effects; Running et al 1987, Tague andBand 2004).…”

Section: Rhessys Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen cycling and export in California chaparral: the role of climate in shaping ecosystem responses to fire

Hanan

Tague

Schimel

2016

Ecological Monographs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate change models predict that interannual rainfall variability will increase in California over the next several decades; these changes will likely influence how frequently California ecosystems burn and how they respond to fire. Fires uncouple N mobilization from uptake by destroying plant biomass and increasing nitrification. Following fire, autumn and winter rains can leach N into streams from slopes that have been denuded. The amount of N exported depends on how rapidly soil microbes metabolize it into mobile forms such as NO3− , and the rate that recovering plants take up available N. However, the long‐term effects of a changing climate on postfire N dynamics remain unknown. We used the ecohydrologic model RHESSys (regional hydro‐ecologic simulation system) to evaluate how interannual climate variability may affect the magnitude of N mineralization, nitrification, N export, and plant recovery following fire. N export was highest when fire was followed by drought; even though there was less water moving through the system, dry conditions prolonged the period during which N mobilization was decoupled from plant uptake. We also found that the effects of drought on N export were magnified in stands dominated by obligate seeders, which initially recovered more slowly than resprouters. These findings suggest that climate may regulate N balance most powerfully by influencing how quickly plants “turn on” and begin to immobilize N.

show abstract

“…Placement and configuration of imperviousness within a catchment can have a significant influence on downstream response (Mejía and Moglen, 2010). Locations and configuration of conventional conveyance (Meierdiercks et al, 2010a;Ogden et al, 2011;Tague and Pohl-Costello, 2008), infiltration-based (Easton et al, 2007;Gobel et al, 2004;Miles and Band, 2015) and detention-based stormwater management infrastructures also 4800 T. C. LIM influence incremental connectivity in hydrologic response of a catchment under varying event depths.…”

Section: Urban Variable Source Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of urban variable source area: a cross‐sectional analysis of urbanized catchments in the United States

Lim

2016

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many studies have empirically confirmed the relationship between urbanization and changes to the hydrologic cycle and degraded aquatic habitats. While much of the literature focuses on extent and configuration of impervious area as a causal determinant of degradation, in this article, I do not attribute causes of decreased watershed storage on impervious area a priori. Rather, adapting the concept of variable source area (VSA) and its relationship to incremental storage to the particular conditions of urbanized catchments, I develop a statistically robust linear regression‐based methodology to detect evidence of VSA‐dominant response. Using the physical and meteorological characteristics of the catchments as explanatory variables, I then use logistic regression to statistically analyze significant predictors of the VSA classification. I find that the strongest predictor of VSA‐type response is the percent of undeveloped area in the catchment. Characteristics of developed areas, including total impervious area, percent‐developed open space and the type of drainage infrastructure, do not add to the explanatory power of undeveloped land in predicting VSA‐type response. Within only developed areas, I find that total impervious area and percent‐developed open space both decrease the odds of a catchment exhibiting evidence of VSA‐type response and the effect of developed open space is more similar to that of total impervious area than undeveloped land in predicting VSA response. Different types of stormwater management infrastructure, including combined sewer systems and infiltration, retention and detention infrastructure are not found to have strong statistically significant effects on probability of VSA‐type response. VSA‐type response is also found to be stronger during the growing season than the dormant season. These findings are consistent across a national cross‐section of urbanized watersheds, a higher resolution dataset of Baltimore Metropolitan Area watersheds and a subsample of watersheds confirmed not to be served by (combined sewer systems). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

show abstract

The Potential Utility of Physically Based Hydrologic Modeling in Ungauged Urban Streams

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

Ecohydrology in semiarid urban ecosystems: Modeling the relationship between connected impervious area and ecosystem productivity

Ecohydrology in semiarid urban ecosystems: Modeling the relationship between connected impervious area and ecosystem productivity

Nitrogen cycling and export in California chaparral: the role of climate in shaping ecosystem responses to fire

Predictors of urban variable source area: a cross‐sectional analysis of urbanized catchments in the United States

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About