Revision as of 10:53, 14 February 2013

Hydrological regime assessment

Type

Hydromorphological assessment methods

Brief description

Methods for the assessment of hydrological regime alteration analyze specific hydrological indicators of rivers and streams to assess the impact of human pressures on the hydrological regime. They often focus on alterations which affect the longitudinal continuity of water flow (e.g. intakes, impoundment, diversions) and mainly focus on the reach scale. Methods widely use models to obtain data from ungauged reaches or incomplete data series. We reviewed 10 methods in total (4 for European countries and 6 for non-European countries) (Table 1).

Strengths, limitations and gaps

Methods for the assessment of hydrological regime alteration make use of indicators derived by quantitative, statistical or physically-based models. This implies the use of existing large data sets and long-time series, which represent the main limitation. Moreover these methods often do not take into account small scale hydrological alterations (e.g. hydropeaking) as well as groundwater/surface interactions, important for organisms.

Other relevant information

Summary tables of analyzed assessment methods for hydrological regime are available here:

- For European countries: File:4 EU.pdf

- For non European countries: File:4 nonEU.pdf

In the table we recorded whether the analyzed method considers or not a specific feature. Three options were considered: presence (tick), absence ( ), and probably assessed (PA), the latter indicating when there is an uncertainty concerning whether the feature is collected and/or when the feature may be indirectly obtained.

Table 1 lists the key and the analyzed references for methods of hydrological regime assessment.

Table 1. Analyzed references for methods of hydrological regime assessment.

References

Black A.R., Bragg O.M., Duck R.W. and Rowan J.S. (2005): DHRAM: a method for classifying river flow regime alterations for the EC Water Framework Directive. Aquatic Conservervation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 15:427–446.

Henriksen J.A., Heasley J., Kennen J.G. and Niewsand S. (2006): Users’ manual for the Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process. U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Discipline, Open File Report 2006-1093, 80 p.

(ISPRA) Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (2011): Implementazione della Direttiva 2000/60/CE. Analisi e valutazione degli aspetti idromorfologici. Versione 1.1. Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Roma, 85 p.

Kleynhans C.J., Louw M.D., Thirion C., Rossouw N.J. and Rowntree K. M. (2005): River EcoClassification: Manual for EcoStatus determination (Version 1), Joint Water Research Commission and Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (South Africa). Report No. KV 168/05, 210 p.

Martínez Santa-María C. and Fernández Yuste J.A. (2010): IAHRIS 2.2. Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration in Rivers. User’s Manual. Ministry of the Environment - Polytechnic University of Madrid – CEDEX, 66 p. http://www.ecogesfor.org/IAHRIS_es.html

Munné A., Solà C. and Pagés J. (2006): HIDRI: Protocolo para la valoración de la calidad hidromorfológica de los ríos. Barcelona, Agència Catalana de l’Aigua, 164 p.

(OWEB) Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (2000): Oregon Watershed Assessment Manual, 583 p.

Richter B.D., Baumgartner J.V., Powell J. and Braun D.P. (1996): A method for assessing hydrologic alteration within ecosystems. Conservation Biology 10(4):1163-1174.

Richter B.D., Baumgartner J.V., Braun D.P. and Powell J. (1998): A spatial assessment of hydrologic alteration within a river network. Regulated Rivers-Research & Management 14(4):329-340.

Shiau J.-T. and F.-C. Wu (2008): A Histogram Matching Approach for assessment of flow regime alteration: application to environmental flow optimization. River Research and Applications 24(7):914-928.

The Nature Conservancy (2009): Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration Version 7.1. User's Manual, 81 p.