Print Email Facebook Twitter Patterns of similarity of seasonal water balances: A window into streamflow variability over a range of time scales Title Patterns of similarity of seasonal water balances: A window into streamflow variability over a range of time scales Author Berghuijs, W.R. Sivapalan, M. Woods, R.A. Savenije, H.H.G. Faculty Civil Engineering and Geosciences Department Water Management Date 2014-07-09 Abstract Recent hydrologic synthesis efforts have presented evidence that the seasonal water balance is at the core of overall catchment responses, and understanding it will assist in predicting signatures of streamflow variability at other time scales, including interannual variability, the flow duration curve, low flows, and floods. In this study, we group 321 catchments located across the continental U.S. into several clusters with similar seasonal water balance behavior. We then delineate the boundaries between these clusters on the basis of a similarity framework based on three hydroclimatic indices that represent aridity, precipitation timing, and snowiness. The clustering of catchments based on the seasonal water balance has a strong relationship not only with regional patterns of the three climate indices but also with regional ecosystem, soil, and vegetation classes, which point to the strong dependence of these physiographic characteristics on seasonal climate variations and the hydrologic regimes. Building on these catchment clusters, we demonstrate that the seasonal water balance does have an imprint on signatures of streamflow variability over a wide range of time scales (daily to decadal) and a wide range of states (low flows to floods). The seasonal water balance is well integrated into variability at seasonal and longer time scales, but is only partly reflected in the signatures at shorter time scales, including flooding responses. Overall, the seasonal water balance has proven to be a similarity measure that serves as a link between both short-term hydrologic responses and long-term adaptation of the landscape with climate. Subject seasonal water balancehydrologic similarityclassificationstreamflow variabilityvegetation adaptation To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a85c2092-a61d-4aac-8f30-4896880ed775 DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/2014WR015692 Publisher American Geophysical Union Embargo date 2015-01-09 ISSN 0043-1397 Source Water Resources Research, 50 (7), 2014 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2014 American Geophysical Union Files PDF Savenije_2014.pdf 5.13 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:a85c2092-a61d-4aac-8f30-4896880ed775/datastream/OBJ/view