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A Procedure for Assessment of Environmental Flows Incorporating Inter- and Intra-Annual Variability in Dam-Regulated Watersheds

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Abstract

Many investigations have highlighted the importance of 32 indicators of RVA method and its modified framework in the evaluation of inter-annual and/or intra-annual low and high flow variability in river systems. Yet none of the previous investigations have taken inter-annual and intra-annual minimum e-flow variability for preserving aquatic organisms, especially in dry periods. To this end, this study proposed a procedure which consisted of modified 72 hydrologic indicators and Tennant method and applied the procedure to five sub-watersheds of Damodar catchment, India. Results showed (1) high intra-annual and inter-annual variability of all indicators within water years; (2) that none of the studied watersheds met the 10% minimum flow criterion for poor habitat conditions as recommended by Tennant method in dry years and as well as most of time none of the watersheds exhibited the availability of assured e-flow in all water years; and (3) that aquatic organisms of the catchment would become more vulnerable in the future.

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Abbreviations

\(\overline{e }\) :

Mean of 10% most extreme event

\({x}_{ij}\) :

Seasonal precipitation at ith rain gauge station and jth observation,

\(\beta\) :

Scale parameter

\(\alpha\) :

Shape parameter

\(\sigma\) :

Standard deviation

\({x}_{im}\) :

Long-term seasonal mean

\(\Gamma \left(\alpha \right)\) :

Gamma function

\({x}_{jm}\) :

Long-term mean precipitation for the jth time step of the year

\({x}_{i,j}\) :

Precipitation value for ith year and jth time step of the year

\({y}_{i,j}\) :

Precipitation anomaly for the ith year and jth time step of the year

\(\pm SF\) :

Scaling factor

%AAF:

Percentage annual average flow

g(x):

Cumulative gamma distribution fitted to the non-zero rainfall data (x)

g(x):

Probability distribution function

H(x):

CDF of mixed probability distribution of rainfall series for the concerned month

m:

Rank of the dataset arranged in descending order

N:

Number of precipitation observations.

n:

Number of flow measurements

p :

Cumulative probability

q :

Probability of a zero considering, computed as M/N

M:

Number of all zeros in a precipitation time series

x > 0:

Amount of precipitation

AFDC:

Annual Flow Duration Curve

DRB:

Damodar River Basin

DRM:

Desktop Reserve Model

DVC:

Damodar Valley Corporation

FDC:

Flow Duration Curve

FDCA:

Flow Duration Curve Analysis

IHA:

Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration

MMFs:

Mean Monthly Flows

mRAI:

Modified Rainfall Anomaly Index

RVA:

Range of Variability Approach

SFDC:

Stochastic Flow Duration Curve

SPAI:

Standardized Precipitation Anomaly Index

SPI:

Standardized Precipitation Index

WCD:

World Commission on Dams

%AAF:

Percentage Annual Average Flow

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Maithon Reservoir Office, DVC, Maithon for providing daily rainfall and discharge data. First author is also thankful to IIT Roorkee for providing Post Doctoral Fellowship and necessary support to carrying out the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Resource Development & Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, 247667, Uttarakhand, India

    Ravindra Kumar Verma, Ashish Pandey & Surendra Kumar Mishra

  2. Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering and Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-2117, USA

    Vijay P. Singh

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  1. Ravindra Kumar Verma
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Verma, R.K., Pandey, A., Mishra, S.K. et al. A Procedure for Assessment of Environmental Flows Incorporating Inter- and Intra-Annual Variability in Dam-Regulated Watersheds. Water Resour Manage 37, 3259–3297 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-023-03502-3

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