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The Roles of Climate Forcing and Its Variability on Streamflow at Daily, Monthly, Annual, and Long‐Term Scales
Author(s) -
Yao Lili,
Libera Dominic A.,
Kheimi Marwan,
Sankarasubramanian A.,
Wang Dingbao
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020wr027111
Subject(s) - streamflow , environmental science , climatology , precipitation , forcing (mathematics) , climate change , evapotranspiration , water balance , climate model , drainage basin , geography , meteorology , geology , ecology , oceanography , cartography , geotechnical engineering , biology
The temporal variability of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration affects streamflow from daily to long‐term scales, but the relative roles of different climate variabilities on streamflow at daily, monthly, annual, and mean annual scales have not been systematically investigated in the literature. This paper developed a new daily water balance model, which provides a unified framework for water balance across timescales. The daily water balance model is driven by four climate forcing scenarios (observed daily climate and observed daily climate with its intra‐monthly, intra‐annual, and inter‐annual variability removed) and applied to 78 catchments. Daily streamflow from the water balance model is aggregated to coarser timescales. The relative roles of intra‐monthly, intra‐annual, and inter‐annual climate variability are evaluated by comparing the modeled streamflow forced with the climate forcings at two consecutive timescales. It is found that daily, monthly, and annual streamflow is primarily controlled by the climate variability at the same timescale. Intra‐monthly climate variability plays a small role in monthly and annual streamflow variability. Intra‐annual climate variability has significant effects on streamflow at all the timescales, and the relative roles of inter‐annual climate variability are also significant to the monthly and mean annual streamflow, which is often disregarded. The quantitative evaluation of the roles of climate variability reveals how climate controls streamflow across timescales.