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SUMMARY:Hydroclimatic Fluctuations and Patterns of River Flow Regimes
DTSTART:20131119T161500
DTEND:20131119T171500
DTSTAMP:20260601T072920Z
UID:17ca9b8ba8901cdc4873a3e8e6fed20647116a8004be459c10fae55a
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Gianluca Botter\, Hydrology Laboratory\, Department of Civi
 l\, Environmental and Architectural Engineering\, University of Padova (IT
 )\nAbstract: \nRiver flow regimes identify the streamflow variability at d
 ifferent temporal scales\, from daily to decadal. Streamflow regimes not o
 nly constrain anthropogenic uses of fresh water\, such as hydropower and i
 rrigation\, but also shape form and function of riverine ecosystems. Lands
 cape and climate alterations in the Anthropocene threaten global-scale shi
 fts of river flow regimes\, with potentially dramatic ecologic and socioec
 onomic consequences. Nevertheless\, a theory that identifies the range of 
 foreseen impacts on streamflows resulting from inhomogeneous forcings and 
 sensitivity gradients across diverse regimes is still lacking. In this con
 tribution\, a dimensionless index embedding simple climate and landscape a
 ttributes (the ratio of the mean interarrival of streamflow-producing rain
 fall events and the mean catchment response time) is used to identify the 
 nature of flow regimes and their sensitivity to changes of the external fo
 rcing. The proposed index is based on a mechanistic analytical model in wh
 ich streamflow dynamics are driven by stochastic rainfall\, and discrimina
 tes erratic regimes with enhanced intra-seasonal streamflow variability fr
 om persistent regimes endowed with reduced discharge variability. The prop
 osed classification is successfully applied to 110 seasonal streamflow dis
 tributions observed in diverse unregulated catchments of the Alps and the 
 United States\, allowing the identification of dominant patterns of catchm
 ent response across geomorphoclimatic gradients. The impact of multi-scale
  fluctuations of climate drivers (temperature\, precipitation) on the stre
 amflow distributions is also assessed within the same framework. Theoretic
 al and empirical data show that erratic regimes\, typical of rivers with l
 ow mean discharges\, are more resilient than persistent regimes\, owing to
  their reduced sensitivity to variations of the external forcing. The prop
 osed classification of flow regimes provides a new framework for character
 izing the functioning of freshwater ecosystems (in particular stream veget
 ation and food-web dynamics) and eventually contributes to evaluate the al
 teration produced by water infrastructures and the effectiveness of water 
 management strategies in times of global change.Dr Gianluca Botter holds a
  degree in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D in Environmental Modeling 
 from the University of Padova\, where he’s currently assistant professor
  of hydrology and water resources management. He’s author and co-author 
 of more than 35 papers in peer-reviewed journals\, including PNAS\, PlosON
 E and Geophysical Research Letters (h-index = 15). In 2010 he has been awa
 rded with the Torricelli prize as leading under-34 researcher in the field
 s of Hydraulics and Hydrology\, while in 2011 he received the Outstanding 
 Referee Award for Water Resources Research from the American Geophysical U
 nion. He’s member of the Editorial Board of Advances in Water Resources\
 , and reviewer for several multidisciplinary\, geophysics and hydrology jo
 urnals. His scientific interests include the characterization of river flo
 w regimes and the analysis of water quality patterns in space and time\, w
 ith particular emphasis on the effects of anthropogenic activities and cli
 mate change on freshwaters.
LOCATION:GR A3 31 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2031
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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