Recent Low-Flow and Groundwater Storage Changes in Upland Watersheds of the Kanto Region, Japan
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14, Issue 3
Abstract
Annual trends in baseflow and groundwater storage over the past are deduced from stream flow observations in four upland catchments in the northern parts of the Kanto region. The analysis is based on the assumption that baseflow is an exponential decay function of time, which yields a linear relationship between storage and baseflow. These catchments are part of the water supply system for the Greater Tokyo metropolitan area, and groundwater constitutes an integral component of their storage capacity. Although the data exhibit great variability from year to year, no evidence was found that any persistent or systematic changes in low streamflow regime and in groundwater storage have taken place in this region over the period of record.
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Acknowledgments
The writers thank N. Shimizu of the River Environment Division of the River Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan who provided the discharge and precipitation data and detailed information on the dam sites and watersheds analyzed in this study. Part of this work was carried out when the second writer was on leave at the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba with support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, which is gratefully acknowledged.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 14 • Issue 3 • March 2009
Pages: 280 - 285
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 13, 2007
Accepted: Jun 3, 2008
Published online: Mar 1, 2009
Published in print: Mar 2009
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