Reservoir-Induced Changes in Flow Fluctuations at Monthly and Hourly Scales: Case Study of the Qingyi River, China
This article has a reply.
VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20, Issue 12
Abstract
Reservoirs play an important role in modifying the natural hydrological regime. Reservoir-induced changes in flow fluctuations at monthly and hourly scales were analyzed through a case study of a tributary of the Yangtze River (China), the Qingyi River, where the Chencun reservoir is located at the upper reaches. Monthly and hourly flow data were collected from two flow gauging stations monitoring the inflow and outflow regimes, respectively. The flow fluctuations were characterized by coefficient of variation () and concentration degree (). Continuous Morlet wavelet transform was applied to detect diurnal period. The influence of the reservoir was revealed comparing the postdam with the predam conditions by and comparing the affected with the natural conditions. The results indicate two opposite change patterns. Reservoir impoundment may mitigate flow fluctuations at both of the monthly and the hourly scales. At a monthly scale, reservoirs usually impound water in the flood season for the dry season. At an hourly scale, reservoirs may restrain a flood pulse and strictly control the outflow. Thus, the reservoirs reduce variation and concentration of the runoff distribution within a year and within a day. In contrast, the reservoirs may aggravate the hourly flow fluctuation by releasing hydropeaking waves for hydropower generation and superimpose a diurnal period to the downstream flow regime. But the artificial diurnal fluctuation is of some uncertainty in terms of appearance time and duration. This work may deepen the understanding of the reservoirs influence mechanism on the downstream flow regime.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The current research is supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation Projects of China (Nos. 51209072 and 41401011) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Nos. 2013/B13020312 and 2014B24714).
References
Batalla, R. J., Gomez, C. M., and Kondolf, G. M. (2004). “Reservoir-induced hydrological changes in the Ebro River basin (NE Spain).” J. Hydrol., 290(1–2), 117–136.
Casado, A., Hannah, D. M., Peiry, J. L., and Campo, A. M. (2013). “Influence of dam-induced hydrological regulation on summer water temperature: Sauce Grande River, Argentina.” Ecohydrology, 6(4), 523–535.
FitzHugh, T. W., and Vogel, R. M. (2011). “The impact of dams on flood flows in the United States.” River Res. Appl., 27(10), 1192–1215.
Huang, F., Xia, Z. Q., Li, F., Guo, L. D., and Yang, F. C. (2012). “Hydrological changes of the Irtysh River and the possible causes.” Water Resour. Manage., 26(11), 3195–3208.
Huang, F., Xia, Z. Q., Li, F., and Wu, T. B. (2013). “Assessing sediment regime alteration of the upper Yangtze River.” Environ. Earth Sci., 70(5), 2349–2357.
Huang, F., Xia, Z. Q., Zhang, N., Zhang, Y. D., and Li, J. (2011). “Flow-complexity analysis of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, China.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 914–919.
Jevrejeva, S., Moore, J. C., and Grinsted, A. (2003). “Influence of the arctic oscillation and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on ice conditions in the Baltic Sea: The wavelet approach.” J. Geophys. Res., 108(D21), 4677.
Li, L., Hao, Z. C., Wang, J. H., Wang, Z. H., and Yu, Z. B. (2008). “Impact of future climate change on runoff in the head region of the Yellow River.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 347–354.
Li, S., Xiong, L. H., Dong, L. H., and Zhang, J. (2013). “Effects of the Three Gorges Reservoir on the hydrological droughts at the downstream Yichang station during 2003–2011.” Hydrol. Processes, 27(26), 3981–3993.
Lundquist, J. D., and Cayan, D. R. (2002). “Seasonal and spatial patterns in diurnal cycles in streamflow in the western United States.” J. Hydrometeorol., 3(5), 591–603.
Magilligan, F. J., and Nislow, K. H. (2005). “Changes in hydrologic regime by dams.” Geomorphology, 71(1–2), 61–78.
Meile, T., Boillat, J. L., and Schleiss, A. J. (2010). “Hydropeaking indicators for characterization of the Upper-Rhone River in Switzerland.” Aquat. Sci., 73(1), 171–182.
Melesse, A., Abtew, W., Dessalegne, T., and Wang, X. X. (2010). “Low and high flow analyses and wavelet application for characterization of the Blue Nile River system.” Hydrol. Processes, 24(3), 241–252.
Mount, N. J., Tate, N. J., Sarker, M. H., and Thorne, C. R. (2013). “Evolutionary, multi-scale analysis of river bank line retreat using continuous wavelet transforms: Jamuna River, Bangladesh.” Geomorphology, 183(SI), 82–95.
Nilsson, C., Reidy, C. A., Dynesius, M., and Revenga, C. (2005). “Fragmentation and flow regulation of the world’s large river systems.” Science, 308(5720), 405–408.
Percival, D. B., Lennox, S. M., Wang, Y. G., and Darnell, R. E. (2011). “Wavelet-based multiresolution analysis of Wivenhoe Dam water temperatures.” Water Resour. Res., 47(5), W05552.
Sauterleute, J. F., and Charmasson, J. (2014). “A computational tool for the characterisation of rapid fluctuations in flow and stage in rivers caused by hydropeaking.” Environ. Modell. Software, 55, 266–278.
Sferratore, A., Billen, G., Garnier, J., Smedberg, E., Humborg, C., and Rahm, L. (2008). “Modelling nutrient fluxes from sub-arctic basins: Comparison of pristine versus dammed rivers.” J. Mar. Syst., 73(3–4), 236–249.
Shiau, J.-T., and Wu, F.-C. (2013). “Optimizing environmental flows for multiple reaches affected by a multipurpose reservoir system in Taiwan: Restoring natural flow regimes at multiple temporal scales.” Water Resour. Res., 49(1), 565–584.
Sun, T., and Feng, M. L. (2013). “Multistage analysis of hydrological alteration in the Yellow River, China.” River Res. Appl., 29(8), 991–1003.
Tebakari, T., Yoshitani, J., and Suvanpimol, P. (2012). “Impact of large-scale reservoir operation on flow regime in the Chao Phraya River basin, Thailand.” Hydrol. Processes, 26(16), 2411–2420.
Torrence, C., and Compo, G. P. (1998). “A practical guide to wavelet analysis.” Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 79(1), 61–78.
Wei, W., Chang, Y., and Dai, Z. (2014). “Streamflow changes of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River in the recent 60 years: Impacts of the east Asian summer monsoon, ENSO, and human activities.” Quat. Int., 336(SI), 98–107.
White, M. A., Schmidt, J. C., and Topping, D. J. (2005). “Application of wavelet analysis for monitoring the hydrologic effects of dam operation: Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, Arizona.” River Res. Appl., 21(5), 551–565.
Yang, T., Zhang, Q., Chen, Y. D., Tao, X., Xu, C. Y., and Chen, X. (2008). “A spatial assessment of hydrologic alteration caused by dam construction in the middle and lower Yellow River, China.” Hydrol. Processes, 22(18), 3829–3843.
Yang, Z., et al. (2006). “Dam impacts on the Changjiang (Yangtze) River sediment discharge to the sea: The past 55 years and after the Three Gorges Dam.” Water Resour. Res., 42(4), W04407.
Zhang, Q., Chen, G., Su, B., Disse, M., Jiang, T., and Xu, C.-Y. (2008). “Periodicity of sediment load and runoff in the Yangtze River basin and possible impacts of climatic changes and human activities.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 53(2), 457–465.
Zhang, Q., Singh, V. P., and Chen, X. H. (2012). “Influence of Three Gorges Dam on streamflow and sediment load of the middle Yangtze River, China.” Stochastic Environ. Res. Risk Assess., 26(4), 569–579.
Zimmerman, J. K. H., Letcher, B. H., Nislow, K. H., Lutz, K. A., and Magilligan, F. J. (2010). “Determining the effects of dams on subdaily variation in river flows at a whole-basin scale.” River Res. Appl., 26(10), 1246–1260.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 20 • Issue 12 • December 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 30, 2014
Accepted: Mar 19, 2015
Published online: May 13, 2015
Discussion open until: Oct 13, 2015
Published in print: Dec 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.