Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluation
The study area is the Lower Flint River Basin which is at the center of water conflicts in the southeastern USA. This study focuses on a systematic evaluation and separation of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) induced droughts and irrigation water withdrawal impacts on flow levels using a novel a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214581816300350 |
| _version_ | 1818320588090900480 |
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| author | Sarmistha Singh Puneet Srivastava Subhasis Mitra Ash Abebe |
| author_facet | Sarmistha Singh Puneet Srivastava Subhasis Mitra Ash Abebe |
| author_sort | Sarmistha Singh |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The study area is the Lower Flint River Basin which is at the center of water conflicts in the southeastern USA.
This study focuses on a systematic evaluation and separation of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) induced droughts and irrigation water withdrawal impacts on flow levels using a novel and powerful statistical technique, called JRFit. JRFit procedure was applied to quantify significant differences in streamflows, baseflows, and low flow statistics during non-irrigation (NI) and irrigation (IR) periods associated with ENSO phases.
The results indicate that overall streamflow levels have decreased by approximately 20% after the introduction of irrigation in the study area. Lowering of flow levels mainly occur during La Niña phases which gets exacerbated (decreased by 50%) during growing season of IR compared to NI periods. Flow duration curve analysis showed that the frequency of low flows has increased during IR period impairing aquatic ecosystem. This is the first time an elimination approach is used to separate and quantify the impacts of anthropogenic and climate signals on water resources. This approach avoids the need of using complex and data intensive groundwater/surface water models in studying climate-stream-aquifer interactions which can be replicated easily in other data scarce watersheds. This study provides useful information to policymakers to devise irrigation water withdrawal policies during La Niña growing seasons for maintaining flow levels in the study area. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:27:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f01730a3d325478bb39a5024bbfc6a19 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2214-5818 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T10:27:23Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-f01730a3d325478bb39a5024bbfc6a192022-12-21T23:50:59ZengElsevierJournal of Hydrology: Regional Studies2214-58182016-12-018C27428610.1016/j.ejrh.2016.07.001Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluationSarmistha Singh0Puneet Srivastava1Subhasis Mitra2Ash Abebe3Biosystems Engineering, Auburn University, Tom E. Corley Building, Auburn, AL 36849, USABiosystems Engineering, Auburn University, Tom E. Corley Building, Auburn, AL 36849, USABiosystems Engineering, Auburn University, Tom E. Corley Building, Auburn, AL 36849, USADepartment of Mathematics & Statistics, Auburn University, 221 Parker Hall, Auburn, AL 36849, USAThe study area is the Lower Flint River Basin which is at the center of water conflicts in the southeastern USA. This study focuses on a systematic evaluation and separation of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) induced droughts and irrigation water withdrawal impacts on flow levels using a novel and powerful statistical technique, called JRFit. JRFit procedure was applied to quantify significant differences in streamflows, baseflows, and low flow statistics during non-irrigation (NI) and irrigation (IR) periods associated with ENSO phases. The results indicate that overall streamflow levels have decreased by approximately 20% after the introduction of irrigation in the study area. Lowering of flow levels mainly occur during La Niña phases which gets exacerbated (decreased by 50%) during growing season of IR compared to NI periods. Flow duration curve analysis showed that the frequency of low flows has increased during IR period impairing aquatic ecosystem. This is the first time an elimination approach is used to separate and quantify the impacts of anthropogenic and climate signals on water resources. This approach avoids the need of using complex and data intensive groundwater/surface water models in studying climate-stream-aquifer interactions which can be replicated easily in other data scarce watersheds. This study provides useful information to policymakers to devise irrigation water withdrawal policies during La Niña growing seasons for maintaining flow levels in the study area.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214581816300350StreamflowBaseflowIrrigationClimate variabilityENSOJRFit |
| spellingShingle | Sarmistha Singh Puneet Srivastava Subhasis Mitra Ash Abebe Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluation Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies Streamflow Baseflow Irrigation Climate variability ENSO JRFit |
| title | Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluation |
| title_full | Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluation |
| title_fullStr | Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluation |
| title_short | Climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a Karst watershed—A systematic evaluation |
| title_sort | climate variability and irrigation impacts on streamflows in a karst watershed a systematic evaluation |
| topic | Streamflow Baseflow Irrigation Climate variability ENSO JRFit |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214581816300350 |
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