Articles | Volume 24, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4691-2020
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the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
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https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4691-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Hydrology and water resources management in ancient India
Pushpendra Kumar Singh
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Water Resources Systems Division, National Institute of Hydrology,
Roorkee, 247667, India
Pankaj Dey
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science,
Bengaluru, 560012, India
Sharad Kumar Jain
visiting professor at: Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, 247667, India
Pradeep P. Mujumdar
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science,
Bengaluru, 560012, India
Interdisciplinary Centre for Water Research, Indian Institute of
Science, Bengaluru, 560012, India
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Nikunj K. Mangukiya, Kanneganti Bhargav Kumar, Pankaj Dey, Shailza Sharma, Vijaykumar Bejagam, Pradeep P. Mujumdar, and Ashutosh Sharma
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-379, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-379, 2024
Preprint under review for ESSD
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We introduce CAMELS-INDIA (Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large-sample Studies – India), which provides daily hydrometeorological time series and static catchment attributes representing location, topography, climate, hydrological signatures, land-use, land cover, soil, geology, and anthropogenic influences for 472 catchments in peninsular India, to foster large-sample hydrological studies in India and promote the inclusion of Indian catchments in global hydrological research.
Pankaj Dey, Jeenu Mathai, Murugesu Sivapalan, and Pradeep P. Mujumdar
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1493–1514, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1493-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1493-2024, 2024
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This study explores the regional streamflow variability in Peninsular India. This variability is governed by monsoons, mountainous systems, and geologic gradients. A linkage between these influencing factors and streamflow variability is established using a Wegenerian approach and flow duration curves.
Pankaj Dey, Jeenu Mathai, Murugesu Sivapalan, and Pradeep Mujumdar
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-286, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2022-286, 2023
Preprint withdrawn
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This study explores the regional streamflow variability in Peninsular India – which is governed by monsoons, mountainous systems and geologic gradients. A linkage between these influencers and streamflow variability is established.
Sneha Santy, Pradeep Mujumdar, and Govindasamy Bala
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-796, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-796, 2022
Preprint archived
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The percentage contribution of climate change, land use, population and industry to Ganga pollution is quantified using a coupled hydrological-water quality simulation model. Climate change is identified as the prominent driver with a percentage contribution above 70 %. Hence, due to the added pollution load from climate change, land use projections, and industrial growth, the proposed treatment for Ganga in mid 21st century is not sufficient to bring down Ganga pollution.
Jeenu Mathai and Pradeep P. Mujumdar
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2019–2033, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2019-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2019-2022, 2022
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With availability of large samples of data in catchments, it is necessary to develop indices that describe the streamflow processes. This paper describes new indices applicable for the rising and falling limbs of streamflow hydrographs. The indices provide insights into the drivers of the hydrographs. The novelty of the work is on differentiating hydrographs by their time irreversibility property and offering an alternative way to recognize primary drivers of streamflow hydrographs.
Lu Li, Mingxi Shen, Yukun Hou, Chong-Yu Xu, Arthur F. Lutz, Jie Chen, Sharad K. Jain, Jingjing Li, and Hua Chen
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1483–1503, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1483-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1483-2019, 2019
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The study used an integrated glacio-hydrological model for the hydrological projections of the Himalayan Beas basin under climate change. It is very likely that the upper Beas basin will get warmer and wetter in the future. This loss in glacier area will result in a reduction in glacier discharge, while the future changes in total discharge are uncertain. The uncertainty in future hydrological change is not only from GCMs, but also from the bias-correction methods and hydrological modeling.
Ila Chawla, Krishna K. Osuri, Pradeep P. Mujumdar, and Dev Niyogi
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1095–1117, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1095-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-1095-2018, 2018
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For realistic flood predictions, it is necessary to have accurate rainfall estimates. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is often used to correctly simulate heavy rainfall events, but setting up the model over a region is a challenging task. In this study, the sensitivity of the WRF model is assessed for physics schemes, parameterization options, land surface models and downscaling ratios, by simulating several extreme rainfall events in the Ganges basin.
Sharad K. Jain, Sanjay K. Jain, Neha Jain, and Chong-Yu Xu
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-100, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2017-100, 2017
Manuscript not accepted for further review
I. Chawla and P. P. Mujumdar
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 3633–3651, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-3633-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-3633-2015, 2015
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A simple hydrologic modeling-based approach to segregate the impacts of land use (LU) and climate change on streamflow is presented. Upper part of Ganga River basin in India is selected as study area for investigation. Results suggest that climate is the dominant contributor to the changes observed in the simulated streamflow. LU did not contribute significantly to the simulated streamflow which could be attributed to smaller spatial extent of sensitive LU categories in the study region.
Related subject area
Subject: Global hydrology | Techniques and Approaches: Instruments and observation techniques
Wetting and drying trends in the land–atmosphere reservoir of large basins around the world
HESS Opinions: Towards a common vision for the future of hydrological observatories
Evaluation of reanalysis soil moisture products using cosmic ray neutron sensor observations across the globe
Evaporation enhancement drives the European water-budget deficit during multi-year droughts
Combining passive and active distributed temperature sensing measurements to locate and quantify groundwater discharge variability into a headwater stream
Technical note: Evaluation and bias correction of an observation-based global runoff dataset using streamflow observations from small tropical catchments in the Philippines
Terrestrial water loss at night: global relevance from observations and climate models
Global-scale evaluation of 22 precipitation datasets using gauge observations and hydrological modeling
SMOS brightness temperature assimilation into the Community Land Model
SMOS near-real-time soil moisture product: processor overview and first validation results
Estimating annual water storage variations in medium-scale (2000–10 000 km2) basins using microwave-based soil moisture retrievals
Recent trends and variability in river discharge across northern Canada
Effects of changes in moisture source and the upstream rainout on stable isotopes in precipitation – a case study in Nanjing, eastern China
The "Prediflood" database of historical floods in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula) AD 1035–2013, and its potential applications in flood analysis
Regional GRACE-based estimates of water mass variations over Australia: validation and interpretation
Geodynamical processes in the channel connecting the two lobes of the Large Aral Sea
Juan F. Salazar, Ruben D. Molina, Jorge I. Zuluaga, and Jesus D. Gomez-Velez
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2919–2947, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2919-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2919-2024, 2024
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Global change is altering river basins and their discharge worldwide. We introduce the land–atmosphere reservoir (LAR) concept to investigate these changes in six of the world's largest basins. We found that low-latitude basins (Amazon, Paraná, and Congo) are getting wetter, whereas high-latitude basins (Mississippi, Ob, and Yenisei) are drying. If this continues, these long-term trends will disrupt the discharge regime and compromise the sustainability of these basins with widespread impacts.
Paolo Nasta, Günter Blöschl, Heye R. Bogena, Steffen Zacharias, Roland Baatz, Gabriëlle De Lannoy, Karsten H. Jensen, Salvatore Manfreda, Laurent Pfister, Ana M. Tarquis, Ilja van Meerveld, Marc Voltz, Yijian Zeng, William Kustas, Xin Li, Harry Vereecken, and Nunzio Romano
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1678, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1678, 2024
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The Unsolved Problems in Hydrology (UPH) initiative has emphasized the need to establish networks of multi-decadal hydrological observatories to tackle catchment-scale challenges on a global scale. This opinion paper provocatively discusses two end members of possible future hydrological observatory (HO) networks for a given hypothesized community budget: a comprehensive set of moderately instrumented observatories or, alternatively, a small number of highly instrumented super-sites.
Yanchen Zheng, Gemma Coxon, Ross Woods, Daniel Power, Miguel Angel Rico-Ramirez, David McJannet, Rafael Rosolem, Jianzhu Li, and Ping Feng
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1999–2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1999-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1999-2024, 2024
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Reanalysis soil moisture products are a vital basis for hydrological and environmental research. Previous product evaluation is limited by the scale difference (point and grid scale). This paper adopts cosmic ray neutron sensor observations, a novel technique that provides root-zone soil moisture at field scale. In this paper, global harmonized CRNS observations were used to assess products. ERA5-Land, SMAPL4, CFSv2, CRA40 and GLEAM show better performance than MERRA2, GLDAS-Noah and JRA55.
Christian Massari, Francesco Avanzi, Giulia Bruno, Simone Gabellani, Daniele Penna, and Stefania Camici
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1527–1543, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1527-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1527-2022, 2022
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Droughts are a creeping disaster, meaning that their onset, duration and recovery are challenging to monitor and forecast. Here, we provide further evidence of an additional challenge of droughts, i.e. the fact that the deficit in water supply during droughts is generally much more than expected based on the observed decline in precipitation. At a European scale we explain this with enhanced evapotranspiration, sustained by higher atmospheric demand for moisture during such dry periods.
Nataline Simon, Olivier Bour, Mikaël Faucheux, Nicolas Lavenant, Hugo Le Lay, Ophélie Fovet, Zahra Thomas, and Laurent Longuevergne
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 1459–1479, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1459-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-1459-2022, 2022
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Groundwater discharge into streams plays a major role in the preservation of stream ecosystems. There were two complementary methods, both based on the use of the distributed temperature sensing technology, applied in a headwater catchment. Measurements allowed us to characterize the spatial and temporal patterns of groundwater discharge and quantify groundwater inflows into the stream, opening very promising perspectives for a novel characterization of the groundwater–stream interface.
Daniel E. Ibarra, Carlos Primo C. David, and Pamela Louise M. Tolentino
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 2805–2820, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2805-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2805-2021, 2021
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We evaluate a recently published global product of monthly runoff using streamflow data from small tropical catchments in the Philippines. Using monthly runoff observations from catchments, we tested for correlation and prediction. We demonstrate the potential utility of this product in assessing trends in regional-scale runoff, as well as look at the correlation of phenomenon such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation on streamflow in this wet but drought-prone archipelago.
Ryan S. Padrón, Lukas Gudmundsson, Dominik Michel, and Sonia I. Seneviratne
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 793–807, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-793-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-793-2020, 2020
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We focus on the net exchange of water between land and air via evapotranspiration and dew during the night. We provide, for the first time, an overview of the magnitude and variability of this flux across the globe from observations and climate models. Nocturnal water loss from land is 7 % of total evapotranspiration on average and can be greater than 15 % locally. Our results highlight the relevance of this often overlooked flux, with implications for water resources and climate studies.
Hylke E. Beck, Noemi Vergopolan, Ming Pan, Vincenzo Levizzani, Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Graham P. Weedon, Luca Brocca, Florian Pappenberger, George J. Huffman, and Eric F. Wood
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 6201–6217, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-6201-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-6201-2017, 2017
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This study represents the most comprehensive global-scale precipitation dataset evaluation to date. We evaluated 13 uncorrected precipitation datasets using precipitation observations from 76 086 gauges, and 9 gauge-corrected ones using hydrological modeling for 9053 catchments. Our results highlight large differences in estimation accuracy, and hence, the importance of precipitation dataset selection in both research and operational applications.
Dominik Rains, Xujun Han, Hans Lievens, Carsten Montzka, and Niko E. C. Verhoest
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 5929–5951, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5929-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5929-2017, 2017
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We have assimilated 6 years of satellite-observed passive microwave data into a state-of-the-art land surface model to improve surface soil moisture as well as root-zone soil moisture simulations. Long-term assimilation effects/biases are identified, and they are especially dependent on model perturbations, applied to simulate model uncertainty. The implications are put into context of using such assimilation-improved data for classifying extremes within hydrological monitoring systems.
Nemesio J. Rodríguez-Fernández, Joaquin Muñoz Sabater, Philippe Richaume, Patricia de Rosnay, Yann H. Kerr, Clement Albergel, Matthias Drusch, and Susanne Mecklenburg
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 5201–5216, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5201-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5201-2017, 2017
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The new SMOS satellite near-real-time (NRT) soil moisture (SM) product based on a neural network is presented. The NRT SM product has been evaluated with respect to the SMOS Level 2 product and against a large number of in situ measurements showing performances similar to those of the Level 2 product but it is available in less than 3.5 h after sensing. The new product is distributed by the European Space Agency and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.
Wade T. Crow, Eunjin Han, Dongryeol Ryu, Christopher R. Hain, and Martha C. Anderson
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 1849–1862, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1849-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-1849-2017, 2017
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Terrestrial water storage is defined as the total volume of water stored within the land surface and sub-surface and is a key variable for tracking long-term variability in the global water cycle. Currently, annual variations in terrestrial water storage can only be measured at extremely coarse spatial resolutions (> 200 000 km2) using gravity-based remote sensing. Here we provide evidence that microwave-based remote sensing of soil moisture can be applied to enhance this resolution.
Stephen J. Déry, Tricia A. Stadnyk, Matthew K. MacDonald, and Bunu Gauli-Sharma
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 4801–4818, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4801-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-4801-2016, 2016
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This manuscript focuses on observed changes to the hydrology of 42 rivers in northern Canada draining one-half of its land mass over the period 1964–2013. Statistical and trend analyses are presented for the 42 individual rivers, 6 regional drainage basins, and collectively for all of northern Canada. A main finding is the reversal of a statistically significant decline in the first half of the study period to a statistically significant 18.1 % incline in river discharge across northern Canada.
Y. Tang, H. Pang, W. Zhang, Y. Li, S. Wu, and S. Hou
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 4293–4306, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4293-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-4293-2015, 2015
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We examined the variability of daily stable isotopic composition in precipitation in Nanjing, eastern China. We found that both the upstream rainout effect on stable isotopes related to changes in the Asian summer monsoon and the temperature effect of precipitation stable isotopes associated with the Asian winter monsoon should be taken into account when interpreting the stable isotopic composition of speleothems in the Asian monsoon region.
M. Barriendos, J. L. Ruiz-Bellet, J. Tuset, J. Mazón, J. C. Balasch, D. Pino, and J. L. Ayala
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 4807–4823, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4807-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4807-2014, 2014
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This paper shows an interdisciplinary effort for a common methodology on flood risk analysis: hydraullics, hydrology, climatology and meteorology. Most basic problems of work with historical information are faced. Firsts results of data collection on historical floods for Catalonia (Ne Spain) are showed for period AD 1035-2014.
L. Seoane, G. Ramillien, F. Frappart, and M. Leblanc
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 4925–4939, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-4925-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-4925-2013, 2013
E. Roget, P. Zavialov, V. Khan, and M. A. Muñiz
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 13, 2265–2271, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-13-2265-2009, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-13-2265-2009, 2009
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Short summary
Like in all ancient civilisations, the need to manage water propelled the growth of hydrological science in ancient India also. In this paper, we provide some fascinating glimpses into the hydrological, hydraulic, and related engineering knowledge that existed in ancient India, as discussed in contemporary literature and recent explorations and findings. Many interesting dimensions of early scientific endeavours emerge as we investigate deeper into ancient texts, including Indian mythology.
Like in all ancient civilisations, the need to manage water propelled the growth of hydrological...
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