Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco Rangelands
Transporting water to supply livestock is one of the great challenges of the drylands. Ranchers usually make impoundments, filled by runoff, to access freshwater for cattle supply in flat rangelands. The aim of this study was to understand rainfall-runoff generation and water storage temporal dynami...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/15/13/2353 |
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| author | Marcos Javier Niborski Osvaldo Antonio Martin Francisco Murray Esteban Gabriel Jobbágy Marcelo Daniel Nosetto Ricardo Andrés Paez Patricio Nicolás Magliano |
| author_facet | Marcos Javier Niborski Osvaldo Antonio Martin Francisco Murray Esteban Gabriel Jobbágy Marcelo Daniel Nosetto Ricardo Andrés Paez Patricio Nicolás Magliano |
| author_sort | Marcos Javier Niborski |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Transporting water to supply livestock is one of the great challenges of the drylands. Ranchers usually make impoundments, filled by runoff, to access freshwater for cattle supply in flat rangelands. The aim of this study was to understand rainfall-runoff generation and water storage temporal dynamics of impoundments in the Dry Chaco rangelands (Argentina). Thus, we instrumented six impoundments over three consecutive years and analyzed water storage data by developing a probabilistic model. For all impoundments, the rainfall event size thresholds to generate runoff presented values between 15 and 33 mm. Once they reached this threshold, the water gain response slopes presented values between 19 and 99 m<sup>3</sup> mm<sup>−1</sup>. Loss patterns of water storage were described by exponential or linear functions. The predicted water storage dynamics presented high accuracy with the observed time series for all impoundments (RMSD between 380 and 1320 m<sup>3</sup>). The model only needs daily rainfall and air temperature to be run, making it easy to be used by scientists, ranchers, or local decision makers. It may be used to explore the hydrological functioning of small and seasonal water bodies of different sites of the world exposed to drought episodes caused by high climate variability and/or climate change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:25:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c26acb5ff6ec40cb8c13beb490f18ced |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4441 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T01:25:48Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-c26acb5ff6ec40cb8c13beb490f18ced2023-11-18T17:46:58ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412023-06-011513235310.3390/w15132353Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco RangelandsMarcos Javier Niborski0Osvaldo Antonio Martin1Francisco Murray2Esteban Gabriel Jobbágy3Marcelo Daniel Nosetto4Ricardo Andrés Paez5Patricio Nicolás Magliano6Grupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis (UNSL) y CONICET, San Luis D5700HHW, ArgentinaIMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis (UNSL) y CONICET, San Luis D5700HHW, ArgentinaINTA, AER San Luis, San Luis D5700HHW, ArgentinaGrupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis (UNSL) y CONICET, San Luis D5700HHW, ArgentinaGrupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis (UNSL) y CONICET, San Luis D5700HHW, ArgentinaGrupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis (UNSL) y CONICET, San Luis D5700HHW, ArgentinaGrupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis (UNSL) y CONICET, San Luis D5700HHW, ArgentinaTransporting water to supply livestock is one of the great challenges of the drylands. Ranchers usually make impoundments, filled by runoff, to access freshwater for cattle supply in flat rangelands. The aim of this study was to understand rainfall-runoff generation and water storage temporal dynamics of impoundments in the Dry Chaco rangelands (Argentina). Thus, we instrumented six impoundments over three consecutive years and analyzed water storage data by developing a probabilistic model. For all impoundments, the rainfall event size thresholds to generate runoff presented values between 15 and 33 mm. Once they reached this threshold, the water gain response slopes presented values between 19 and 99 m<sup>3</sup> mm<sup>−1</sup>. Loss patterns of water storage were described by exponential or linear functions. The predicted water storage dynamics presented high accuracy with the observed time series for all impoundments (RMSD between 380 and 1320 m<sup>3</sup>). The model only needs daily rainfall and air temperature to be run, making it easy to be used by scientists, ranchers, or local decision makers. It may be used to explore the hydrological functioning of small and seasonal water bodies of different sites of the world exposed to drought episodes caused by high climate variability and/or climate change.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/15/13/2353atmospheric demandariddamssaturated overland flowprecipitationwater balance |
| spellingShingle | Marcos Javier Niborski Osvaldo Antonio Martin Francisco Murray Esteban Gabriel Jobbágy Marcelo Daniel Nosetto Ricardo Andrés Paez Patricio Nicolás Magliano Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco Rangelands Water atmospheric demand arid dams saturated overland flow precipitation water balance |
| title | Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco Rangelands |
| title_full | Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco Rangelands |
| title_fullStr | Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco Rangelands |
| title_full_unstemmed | Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco Rangelands |
| title_short | Modeling Rainwater Harvesting and Storage Dynamics of Rural Impoundments in Dry Chaco Rangelands |
| title_sort | modeling rainwater harvesting and storage dynamics of rural impoundments in dry chaco rangelands |
| topic | atmospheric demand arid dams saturated overland flow precipitation water balance |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/15/13/2353 |
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