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Regionalization of Hydrologic Information: Establishment of Flow Series at Ungauged Watersheds
Regionalization of Hydrologic Information: Establishment of Flow Series at Ungauged Watersheds
Abstract
In previous papers the authors have shown that the mean annual flow expressed
as water depth over the watershed—mean annual flow depth, H —provides an
accurate measure of the temporal variability (within the year and throughout the
years) of the natural flow regime in Portuguese rivers and therefore can be
adopted as a regionalization parameter of hydrologic information. The analysis
then presented focused mainly on the annual and monthly flows, the daily flow
temporal variability having been only briefly mentioned. In this paper the flow
series regionalization subject is more deeply developed, not only at the monthly
level—by including a considerably large number of results—but especially by
presenting new results at the daily level. Additional approaches that confirm the
relationship between the characteristics of the daily flow series and H are
presented and procedures that enable the establishing of mean daily flow series at
ungauged watersheds are included.
Keywords: mean annual flow depth, temporal relative variability of flow series,
hydrologic information regionalization, mean daily flow, ungauged watershed.
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
12 Water Resources Management III
Eqn (1) shows that the inter annual variability of the flow increases as H
decreases, that is to say, the annual flows are more irregular when the watershed
is located in a drier area. In Portugal, this situation occurs mainly in the South
and in the Northeast.
Based on the previous equation the authors established relationships that
allow estimating the annual flow depths with different non-exceedence
probabilities. For that purpose the Pearson type III law was considered.
The characterization of the dependency between the temporal relative
variability of the monthly flows and H utilized the mean quadratic deviation,
MQD, of the monthly flows expressed in a non-dimensional form according to:
12
∑ [( H i, j − H i ) H 2 ]
j =1
MQDi = (2)
12
where the indexes i and j denote the year and the month, respectively, and
MQDi=mean quadratic deviation (non-dimensional form) of the monthly flows
in year i; H i =mean monthly flow depth also in year i; and H i , j = monthly flow
depth in month j of the year i.
The series of MQD then obtained in each of the 24 stream gauging stations,
with as many elements as the number of years of the corresponding recording
period, was characterized by its mean, MEAN MQD, and its standard deviation,
DEVI MQD. Taking into account the results for the 24 stream gauging stations,
the following statistical relationships between MEAN MQD and H (mm) and
between DEVI MQD and also H (mm) were established:
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
Water Resources Management III 13
2 Daily data
The main goal of the present work is to show that the relative temporal
variability of the daily flows also depends on H . For that purpose the daily
records at the 54 stream gauging stations of Table 1 were utilized. These stations
include some of the stations previously considered by Portela and Quintela [1],
[2] and [3]. As, most of the time, the available monthly flow records and daily
flow records do not coincide, it was decided to redo the regionalization analysis
at the monthly level based on the monthly flows computed from the daily flows
at the recording periods pointed out in Table 1.
Table 1 also includes the mean annual flow depth at each stream gauging
station, as well as the standard deviation of the corresponding annual flow depth
series. The stations are displayed by increasing values of H .
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
14 Water Resources Management III
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
Water Resources Management III 15
0.07
0.03
0 500 1000 1500 2000 H (mm)
Q/Qmod Q/Qmod
a) b) Q/Qmod
c)
4 4 4
2 2 2
0 0 0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
Duration (day) Duration (day) Duration (day)
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
16 Water Resources Management III
100
60
20
0 400 800 1200
H (mm)
Figure 3 shows that for mean annual flow depth smaller than 400 mm the
duration of the modulus, D, increases with H depending statistically on this
depth (in fact, despite the dispersion of the points of Figure 3, the correlation
coefficient of the linear regression analysis is of about 72%). For higher values
of H the duration, D, is more or less independent of H , varying only between
90 and 100 days. The estimates of the mean annual duration of Qmod given by
the two regression analysis equations for H = 400 mm are quite similar.
As the mean annual duration of the modulus is, itself, a measure of the flow
regime relative irregularity – being smaller as this regime becomes more
irregular – the conclusions presented about Figure 2 result reinforced.
To quantify the dependency between the relative temporal variability of the
daily flow depths and H , the concept of mean square deviation was generalized
to the daily level, according to the following equation:
∑ [ ( H i*, j − H i* ) ]
365
2
H
j =1
MQDi* = (5)
365
where the indexes i and j denote the year and the day, respectively, and
MQD*i =mean quadratic deviation (non-dimensional form) of the daily flows in
year i; H *i =mean daily flow depth also in year i; and H *i, j = daily flow depth in
day j of the year i.
Similarly to the procedure adopted at the monthly flow level analysis, the
mean quadratic deviation series of the daily flows obtained by eqn (5) for the 54
gauging stations of Table 1 were characterized by their averages
( MEAN MQD*i ) and standard deviations ( DEVI MQD*i ) these parameters
being represented as a function of H in Figure 4. This figure also includes the
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
Water Resources Management III 17
0.013
-0.4153
MEAN MQD* = 0.0715 H
0.009
-0.6692
DEVI MQD* = 0.2083 H
0.005
0.001
0 500 1000 1500 2000 H (mm)
The previous results show that there is also a dependency between the
relative variability of the daily flows and the mean annual flow depth, that
variability being expressed by the non-dimensional mean quadratic deviations of
the daily flow series. Taking into account that the MQD* in a given year is as
higher as the daily flow are more irregular, it can be concluded that, in average,
the relative temporal variability of the daily flows decreases as H increases.
5 Application examples
In this item the dependency between the relative temporal variability of the
annual, monthly and daily flow series and the mean annual flow depth, H , is
exemplified based on the six sets of two stream gauging stations each presented
in Table 2. The two stations that compose each set were chosen among the
stations of Table 1 in order to ensure mean annual flow depths close enough.
For each stream gauging station Table 2 shows the watershed area, the total
recording period and the mean annual flow depth in that period (as previously
presented in Table 1). The flowing additional information was also included: the
common recording period and, based on that period, the mean annual flow
depths at the two stations and three correlation coefficients. These coefficients
were computed separately for the annual, monthly and daily flows based on the
corresponding non-dimensional flow series. These series were obtained by
division of each of its terms (flow in a given year, a given month or a given day)
by the mean annual flow depth ( H in the common recording period) at the
stream gauging station under consideration.
Table 2 shows that the correlation coefficients between the non-dimensional
series of annual, of monthly or of daily flows at each pair of stations are
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
18 Water Resources Management III
6 3
Annual flow (10 m ) Monte da Ponte (27J/01) Annual flow (-) Monte da Ponte (27J/01)
Entradas (27I/01) Entradas (27I/01)
3.0
200
2.0
100
1.0
0 0.0
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 1 4 7 10 13 16 19
Year (from 1971/72 to 1989/90) Year (from 1971/72 to 1989/90)
2000
1.0
1000
0 0.0
1 4 7 10 13 16 1 4 7 10 13 16
Year (from 1958/59 to 1973/74) Year (from 1958/59 to 1973/74)
6 3
Annual flow (10 m ) Castro Daire (08J/01) Annual flow (-) Castro Daire (08J/01)
Vinhais-Qt. Ranca (03P/01) Vinhais-Qt. Ranca (03P/01)
2.0
600
400
1.0
200
0 0.0
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 1 6 11 16 21 26 31
Year (from 1956/57 to 1987/88) Year (from 1956/57 to 1987/88)
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
Water Resources Management III 19
Figures 5 and 6 reinforce the results of Table 2 – the former for the annual
level and the latter for the monthly level – based only on three of the six sets of
stations of Table 2.
6 3
Monthly flowl (10 m ) Monte da Ponte (27J/01) Monthly flow (-) Monte da Ponte (27J/01)
30 Entradas (27I/01) Entradas (27I/01)
0.4
20
0.2
10
0 0.0
0 12 24 36 48 60 0 12 24 36 48 60
Month (years from 1971/72 to 1975/76) Month (years from 1971/72 to 1975/76)
400
0.2
200
0 0.0
0 12 24 36 48 60 0 12 24 36 48 60
Month (years from 1958/59 to 1962/63) Month (years from 1958/59 to 1962/63)
100
0.2
50
0 0.0
0 12 24 36 48 60 0 12 24 36 48 60
Month (years from 1956/57 to 1960/61) Month (years from 1956/57 to 1960/61)
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
20 Water Resources Management III
allowing to conclude that the mean annual flow depth over the watershed is a
powerful hydrological parameter that enables to assess in an easy and enough
reliable way the relative temporal variability of the flows at each of those levels.
Therefore the non-dimensional annual, monthly or daily flow series at a
given river section with a mean annual flow depth H1 can be transposed for an
ungauged river section providing the annual flow depth H 2 at this last section is
close enough to H1 . For that purpose, any of the following relationships can be
applied at the monthly and daily levels:
2 1 H 2
H i, j = H i, j , (6)
H 1
∀2
Q i2, j = Q 1i , j , (7)
∀1
Q mod 2
Q i2, j = Q 1i , j , (8)
Q mod 1
∀2
∀ i2, j = ∀ 1i , j , (9)
∀1
Q mod 2
∀ i2, j = ∀ 1i , j . (10)
Q mod 1
In the previous equations the river sections are identify by the indexes 1 and
2; j represents a month or a day of year i and H =flow depth; Q = mean
discharge; ∀ = flow volume; ∀ = mean annual volume; and Q mod = modulus.
The previous equations can be applied to the annual level by replacing the
two indexes i,j by un unique year index.
The application of the previous equations requires that the mean annual flow
at section 2 is known which does not represent an obstacule as there are several
procedures that enable to estimte that flow at an ungauged watershed.
References
[1] Portela, M.M. & Quintela, A.C., A altura do escoamento anual médio
numa bacia hidrográfica como parâmetro de regionalização de informação
hidrométrica. 1º Congresso sobre Aproveitamentos e Gestão de Recursos
Hídricos em Países de Idioma Português. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil,
pp. 218-227, 2000.
[2] Portela, M.M. & Quintela, A.C., Assessment of the streamflow
characteristics under unavailability of discharge data: the mean annual
flow depth over the watershed as a regionalization parameter. The
Portuguese case. 2002 EGS Conference. Nice, France, 2002a.
[3] Portela, M.M. & Quintela, A.C., Evaluation of the water resources in
Portuguese watersheds without streamflow data. International Conference
of Basin Organizations. Madrid, Spain, 2002b.
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 80, © 2005 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)