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Regional patterns of interannual variability of catchment water balances across the continental U.S.: A Budyko framework
Author(s) -
Carmona Alejandra M.,
Sivapalan Murugesu,
Yaeger Mary A.,
Poveda Germán
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1002/2014wr016013
Subject(s) - water balance , context (archaeology) , environmental science , drainage basin , spatial variability , climate change , scale (ratio) , temporal scales , climatology , physical geography , hydrology (agriculture) , geography , ecology , geology , mathematics , statistics , geotechnical engineering , cartography , archaeology , biology
Patterns of interannual variability of the annual water balance are explored using data from 190 MOPEX catchments across the continental U.S. This analysis has led to the derivation of a quantitative, dimensionless, Budyko‐type framework to characterize the observed interannual variability of annual water balances. The resulting model is expressed in terms of a humidity index that measures the competition between water and energy availability at the annual time scale, and a similarity parameter ( α ) that captures the net effects of other short‐term climate features and local landscape characteristics. This application of the model to the 190 study catchments revealed the existence of space‐time symmetry between spatial (between‐catchment) variability and general trends in the temporal (between‐year) variability of the annual water balances. The MOPEX study catchments were classified into eight similar catchment groups on the basis of magnitudes of the similarity parameter α . Interesting regional trends of α across the continental U.S. were brought out through identification of similarities between the spatial positions of the catchment groups with the mapping of distinctive ecoregions that implicitly take into account common climatic and vegetation characteristics. In this context, this study has introduced a deep sense of similarity that is evident in observed space‐time variability of water balances that also reflect the codependence and coevolution of climate and landscape properties.