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Recession of Discharge

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Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Synonyms

Streamflow recession

Definition

Recession of discharge. The gradual depletion of discharge during periods with little or no precipitation constitutes the recession of discharge. A recession period lasts until streamflow begins to increase again due to subsequent precipitation. Depending on the source of flow in the recession period, the recession is further classified as recession of quick flow, recession of interflow, and recession of baseflow.

Recession curve. The specific part of discharge hydrograph after the crest (and the precipitation event), where streamflow diminishes during a rainless or dry period is called the flow recession curve, at a specific river cross section of the basin. Hence, recession curves are the part of the hydrograph that are dominated by the release of water from natural storages.

Introduction

Streamflow recession represents withdrawal of water from natural storages with no inflow (Singh, 1989). Therefore, it is more or less independent of time...

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Correspondence to Manoj K. Jain .

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Jain, M.K. (2011). Recession of Discharge. In: Singh, V.P., Singh, P., Haritashya, U.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2642-2_437

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