Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The impact of climate changes on rivers discharge in Eastern Romania

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Theoretical and Applied Climatology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Climate changes imply many changes in different socioeconomic and environmental fields. Among the most important impacts are changes in water resources. Long- and mid-term river discharge flow analysis is essential for the effective management of water resources. In this work, the changes in temperature, precipitation, and river discharges as well as the connections between precipitation and river discharges were investigated. Seasonal and annual climatic and hydrological data collected at 6 weather stations and 17 hydrological stations were employed. The data sets cover 57 years (1950–2006). The modified Mann–Kendall test and Sen’s slope were used to calculate trends and their slopes, whereas the Bravais–Pearson correlation index was chosen to detect the connections between precipitation and river discharge data series. The main findings are as follows: a general increase was identified in all the three variables; the air temperature data series showed the highest frequency of statistically significant slopes, mainly in annual and spring series; all data series, except the series for winter, showed an increase in precipitation, and in winter, a significant decrease in precipitation was observed at most of the stations. The increase in precipitation is reflected in the upward trends of the river discharge flows, as verified by the good Bravais–Pearson correlations, mainly for annual, summer, and autumn series.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Badea L, Gâştescu P, Velcea VA et al. (1983) Geography of Romania vol. 1. Physical Geography (in Romanian). Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste, Bucharest

  • Bai P, Liu W, Guo M (2013) Impacts of climate variability and human activities on decrease in streamflow in the Qinhe River, China. Theor Appl Climatol. doi:10.1007/s00704-013-1009-7

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernhofer C, Goldberg V, Franke J (2003) REKLI – Aufbau einer Klimadatenbank und Regionale Klimadiagnose für Thüringen, Abschlussbericht zum Forschungsvorhaben der Thüringer Landesanstalt für Umwelt und. Geologie, Dresden

    Google Scholar 

  • Bîrsan M, Zaharia L, Chendeş V, Brănescu E (2012) Recent trends in atreamflow in Romania (1976–2005). Romanian Rep Phys 64(1):275–280

    Google Scholar 

  • Busuioc A, Caian M, Cheval S, Bojariu R, Boroneant C, Baciu M, Dumitrescu A (2010) Variability and change in the climate of Romania (in Romanian). Pro Universitaria, Bucharest

    Google Scholar 

  • Croitoru AE, Holobaca IH, Lazar C, Moldovan F, Imbroane A (2012) Air temperature trend and the impact on winter wheat phenology in Romania. Clim Chang 111(2):393–410. doi:10.1007/s10584-011-0133-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Croitoru AE, Piticar A, Dragotă CS, Burada DC (2013) Recent changes in reference evapotranspiration in Romania. Global Planet Change 111(December):127–137. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.09.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ćurić M, Janc D (2011a) Comparison of modeled and observed accumulated convective precipitation in mountainous and flat land areas. J Hydrometeorol 12:245–261. doi:10.1175/2010JHM1259.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ćurić M, Janc D (2011b) Analysis of predicted and observed accumulated convective precipitation in the area with frequent split storms. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 15:3651–3658. doi:10.5194/hess-15-3651-2011, www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/15/3651/2011/

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Danneberg J (2012) Changes in runoff time series in Thuringia, Germany—Mann-Kendall trend test and extreme value analysis. Adv Geosci 31:49–56. doi:10.5194/adgeo-31-49-2012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fărcaș I (1988) Boundary layer climatology (in Romanian). Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamed KH, Rao AR (1998) A modified Mann-Kendall trend test for autocorrelated data. J Hydrol 204:182–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch RM (1988) Statistical methods and sampling design for estimating step trends in surface-water quality. J Am Water Res Assoc 24:493–503. doi:10.1111/j.1752-1688.1988.tb00899.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karpouzos DK, Baltas EA, Kavalieratou S, Babajimopoulos C (2011) A hydrological investigation using a lumped water balance model: the Aison River Basin case (Greece). Water Environ J 25(3):297–307. doi:10.1111/j.1747-6593.2010.00222.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kendall MG (1975) Rank correlation methods. Griffin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Klavins M, Briede A, Rodinov V, Kokorite I, Frisk T (2002) Long-term changes of the river run-off in Latvia. Boreal Environ Research: 447-456

  • Klein Tank AMG, Wijngaard JB, Konnen GP et al (2002) Daily dataset of 20th century surface air temperature and precipitation series for the European climate assessment. Int J Climatol 22:1441–1453. doi:10.1002/joc.773

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lettenmaier DP, Wood EF, Wallis JR (1994) Hydro-climatological trends in the continental United States, 1948-88. J Clim: 7586-7607. doi: 10.1175/1520-0442(1994)007<0586:HCTITC>2.0.CO;2

  • Li B, Su H, Chen F, Li H, Zhang R, Tian J, Chen S, Yang Y, Rong Y (2013) Separation of the impact of climate change and human activity on streamflow in the upper and middle reaches of the Taoer River, northeastern China. Theor Appl Climatol. doi:10.1007/s00704-013-1032-8

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann HB (1945) Nonparametric tests against trend. Econometrica 13:245–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCabe GJ Jr, Wolock DM (1997) Climate change and the detection of trends in annual runoff. Clim Res 8:129–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meals DW, Spooner J, Dressing SA, Harcum JB (2011) Statistical analysis for monotonic trends, Tech Notes 6, November 2011. Developed for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by Tetra Tech, Inc., Fairfax, VA, 23 p. Available online at www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/wqg/319monitoring/tech_notes.htm

  • Minea I (2012) Bahlui hydrographic basin. Hydrological study (in Romanian). Al.I.Cuza University Press, Iasi

    Google Scholar 

  • Nijssen B, O’Donnell G, Hamlet AF, Lettenmaier DP (2001) Hydrologic sensitivity of global rivers to climate change. Clim Change 50:143–175. doi:10.1023/A:1010616428763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogouwale R, Donou B, Houssou C, Boko M (2010) Vulnerabilité des établissements humains aux événements pluviométriques extrèmes dans le bassin de l’Oueme à Bonou (Benin). Geographia Technica 1:47–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP Co-authors (2007) Technical summary. Climate change: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK: 23–78

  • Radinović D, Ćurić M (2012) Some evidence on European monsoon existence. Theor Appl Climatol 110(1–2):11–15. doi:10.1007/s00704-012-0609-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sang Y-F, Wang Z, Liu C, Yu J (2014) The impact of changing environments on the runoff regimes of the arid Heihe River basin, China. Theor Appl Climatol 115(1–2):187–195. doi:10.1007/s00704-013-0888-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stângă IC (2012) Tutova hydrographic basin. Natural hazards and vulnerability of the area (in Romanian). “Al.I.Cuza” Univ. Press, Iaşi

    Google Scholar 

  • Tabari H, Hosseinzadeh Talaee P (2011) Analysis of trends in temperature data in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran. Glob Planet Chang 79(1–2):1–10. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2011.07.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Türkeş M, Sümer UM (2004) Spatial and temporal patterns of trends and variability in diurnal temperature ranges of Turkey. Theor Appl Climatol 77(3–4):195–227. doi:10.1007/s00704-003-0024-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Pelt SC, Swart RJ (2011) Climate change risk management in transnational river basins: the Rhine. Water Res Manag 25:3837–3861. doi:10.1007/s11269-011-9891-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vehvilainen B, Lohvansuu J (1991) The effects of climate change on discharges and snow cover in Finland. J Hydrol Sci 36:109–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wen G, Huang G, Hu K, Qu X, Tao W, Gong H (2014) Changes in the characteristics of precipitation over northern Eurasia. Theor Appl Climatol. doi:10.1007/s00704-014-1137-8

    Google Scholar 

  • Ye B, Yang D, Kane DL (2003) Changes in Lena River streamflow hydrology: human impacts versus natural variations. Water Resour Res 39(7):1200. doi:10.1029/2003WR001991

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaharia L, Beltrando G (2009) Variabilité et tendances de la pluviométrie et des débits de crue dans la région de la Courbure de l’Arc carpatique (Roumanie). Geographia Technica (numero special): 471 – 476

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the climatic and hydrological data provided by the European Climate Assessment & Dataset project (Klein Tank et al. 2002), Moldova Regional Meteorological Center, and Prut-Birlad Basins Branch of Romanian Waters Administration. This paper was conducted under the “Climate change and their impact on environment and society” research project developed in Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, and implemented by the Climate Research Group. Special acknowledgements are for the two anonymous reviewers whose constructive suggestions helped us to improve the quality of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geography, Department of Physical and Technical Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7, Clinicilor Street, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Adina-Eliza Croitoru

  2. Faculty of Geography and Geology, Department of Geography, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 20 A, Carol I Bd., 700505, Iasi, Romania

    Ionuț Minea

Authors
  1. Adina-Eliza Croitoru
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ionuț Minea
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ionuț Minea.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Croitoru, AE., Minea, I. The impact of climate changes on rivers discharge in Eastern Romania. Theor Appl Climatol 120, 563–573 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1194-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1194-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation