Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales
Hydrological extremes can be particularly impactful in catchments with high human presence where they are modulated by human intervention such as reservoir regulation. Still, we know little about how reservoir operation affects droughts and floods, particularly at a regional scale. Here, I present a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac36f6 |
| _version_ | 1827869889847623680 |
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| author | Manuela I Brunner |
| author_facet | Manuela I Brunner |
| author_sort | Manuela I Brunner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Hydrological extremes can be particularly impactful in catchments with high human presence where they are modulated by human intervention such as reservoir regulation. Still, we know little about how reservoir operation affects droughts and floods, particularly at a regional scale. Here, I present a large data set of natural and regulated catchment pairs in the United States and assess how reservoir regulation affects local and regional drought and flood characteristics. My results show that (1) reservoir regulation affects drought and flood hazard at a local scale by reducing severity (i.e. intensity/magnitude and deficit/volume) but increasing duration; (2) regulation affects regional hazard by reducing spatial flood connectedness (i.e. number of catchments a catchment co-experiences flood events with) in winter and by increasing spatial drought connectedness in summer; (3) the local alleviation effect is only weakly affected by reservoir purpose for both droughts and floods. I conclude that both local and regional flood and drought characteristics are substantially modulated by reservoir regulation, an aspect that should neither be neglected in hazard nor climate impact assessments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:50:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-07b04890823e41fca489af75a593dfdf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:50:29Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-07b04890823e41fca489af75a593dfdf2023-08-09T15:09:36ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262021-01-01161212401610.1088/1748-9326/ac36f6Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scalesManuela I Brunner0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8824-877XInstitute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg , Freiburg, Germany; Research Applications Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research , Boulder, CO, United States of AmericaHydrological extremes can be particularly impactful in catchments with high human presence where they are modulated by human intervention such as reservoir regulation. Still, we know little about how reservoir operation affects droughts and floods, particularly at a regional scale. Here, I present a large data set of natural and regulated catchment pairs in the United States and assess how reservoir regulation affects local and regional drought and flood characteristics. My results show that (1) reservoir regulation affects drought and flood hazard at a local scale by reducing severity (i.e. intensity/magnitude and deficit/volume) but increasing duration; (2) regulation affects regional hazard by reducing spatial flood connectedness (i.e. number of catchments a catchment co-experiences flood events with) in winter and by increasing spatial drought connectedness in summer; (3) the local alleviation effect is only weakly affected by reservoir purpose for both droughts and floods. I conclude that both local and regional flood and drought characteristics are substantially modulated by reservoir regulation, an aspect that should neither be neglected in hazard nor climate impact assessments.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac36f6regulationsdroughtsfloodsreservoirreservoir purposeUnited States |
| spellingShingle | Manuela I Brunner Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales Environmental Research Letters regulations droughts floods reservoir reservoir purpose United States |
| title | Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales |
| title_full | Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales |
| title_fullStr | Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales |
| title_short | Reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales |
| title_sort | reservoir regulation affects droughts and floods at local and regional scales |
| topic | regulations droughts floods reservoir reservoir purpose United States |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac36f6 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT manuelaibrunner reservoirregulationaffectsdroughtsandfloodsatlocalandregionalscales |