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Surface Depression and Wetland Water Storage Improves Major River Basin Hydrologic Predictions.

ABSTRACT: Surface water storage in small yet abundant landscape depressions-including wetlands and other small waterbodies-is largely disregarded in conventional hydrologic modeling practices. No quantitative evidence exists of how their exclusion may lead to potentially inaccurate model projections and understanding of hydrologic dynamics across the world's major river basins. To fill this knowledge gap, we developed the first-ever major river basin-scale modeling approach integrating surface depressions and focusing on the 450,000-km² Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) in the United States. We applied a novel topography-based algorithm to estimate areas and volumes of ~455,000 surface depressions (>1 ha) across the UMRB (in addition to lakes and reservoirs) and subsequently aggregated their effects per subbasin. Compared to a "no depression" conventional model, our depression-integrated model (a) improved streamflow simulation accuracy with increasing upstream abundance of depression storage, (b) significantly altered the spatial patterns and magnitudes of water yields across 315,000 km² (70%) of the basin area, and (c) provided realistic spatial distributions of rootzone wetness conditions corresponding to satellite-based data. Results further suggest that storage capacity (i.e., volume) alone does not fully explain depressions' cumulative effects on landscape hydrologic responses. Local (i.e., subbasin level) climatic and geophysical drivers and downstream flowpath-regulating structures (e.g., reservoirs and dams) influence the extent to which depression storage volume in a subbasin causes hydrologic effects. With these new insights, our study supports the integration of surface depression storage and thereby catalyzes a reassessment of current hydrological modeling and management practices for basin-scale studies.

SUBMITTER: Rajib A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7751708 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The Sabor River basin is a large basin (3170 km2) located in the northeast of Portugal and used mostly for agroforestry. One problem this basin faces is a lack of water during the dry season, when there is a higher demand for water to irrigate crops. To solve this problem, the Portuguese government created a National Irrigation Program to finance new irrigation areas and improve existing ones. Consequently, it is necessary to evaluate the past and future water availability for agricultural and domestic consumption in the basin. This was done through the development of a hydrological and water allocation model. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to model the hydrological processes that took place in the catchment between 1960 and 2008. The MIKE HYDRO Basin was used to simulate water allocation (irrigation and domestic consumption) in a historical view and under two scenarios. The historical view used the time period 1960-2008, and the two scenarios used the same time period but with an increase in the irrigated area. The first scenario simulated the irrigation of the total irrigable area that exists in the basin. The second scenario simulated a 29% increase in the olive grove area and a 24% decrease in the resident population, according to the projection for 2060. The results show that, in the historical view, the average annual water demand deficit was 31% for domestic consumption and 70% for irrigation, which represent 1372 × 103 m3 and 94 × 106 m3 of water, respectively. In the two scenarios, the water demand deficit increased to 37% for domestic consumption and 77% for irrigation. In the first scenario, the average annual water demand deficit was 183 × 106 m3 of water for irrigation. In the second scenario, the average annual water demand deficit was 385 × 103 m3 of water for domestic consumption, and 106 × 106 m3 of water for irrigating the expanded olive grove area. These results demonstrate that Portuguese farmers can use our model as a decision support tool to determine how much water needs to be stored to meet the present and future water demand.

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Surface Depression and Wetland Water Storage Improves Major River Basin Hydrologic Predictions.

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