The Hydrological Status Concept: Application at a Temporary River (Candelaro, Italy)

In achieving the final objective of the European Water Framework Directive, the evaluation of the ‘hydrological status’ of a water body in a catchment is of the utmost importance. It represents the divergence of the actual hydrological regime from its ‘natural’ condition and may thus provide crucial information about the ecological status of a river. In this paper, a new approach in evaluating the hydrological status of a temporary river was tested. The flow regime of a river has been classified through the analysis of two metrics: the permanence of flow and the predictability of no-flow conditions that were evaluated on monthly streamflow data. This method was applied to the Candelaro river basin (Puglia, Italy) where we had to face the problem of limited data availability. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool model was used when streamflow data were not available, and a geographic information system procedure was applied to estimate potential water abstractions from the river. Four types of rivers were identified whose regimes may exert a control on aquatic life. By using the two metrics as coordinates in a plot, a graphic representation of the regime can be visualized in a point. Hydrological perturbations associated with water abstractions, point discharges and the presence of a reservoir were assessed by comparing the position of the two points representing the regime before and after the impacts. The method is intended to be used with biological metrics in order to define the ecological status of a stream, and it could also be used in planning the ‘measures’ aimed at fulfilling the Water Framework Directive goals. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  John Heasley,et al.  Users' manual for the Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process software (including the New Jersey Assessment Tools) , 2006 .

[2]  F. Sabater,et al.  Drought and postdrought recovery cycles in an intermittent Mediterranean stream: structural and functional aspects , 2005, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[3]  Ryan A. McManamay,et al.  REGIONAL FRAMEWORKS APPLIED TO HYDROLOGY: CAN LANDSCAPE-BASED FRAMEWORKS CAPTURE THE HYDROLOGIC VARIABILITY? , 2011 .

[4]  J. Arnold,et al.  SWAT2000: current capabilities and research opportunities in applied watershed modelling , 2005 .

[5]  V. Singh,et al.  Mathematical models of large watershed hydrology , 2002 .

[6]  N. Poff,et al.  Ecological responses to altered flow regimes: a literature review to inform the science and management of environmental flows , 2010 .

[7]  T. Ferreira,et al.  FISH ASSEMBLAGES IN NON‐REGULATED AND REGULATED RIVERS FROM PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY IBERIAN SYSTEMS , 2013 .

[8]  K. Abbaspour,et al.  Modelling hydrology and water quality in the pre-alpine/alpine Thur watershed using SWAT , 2007 .

[9]  Andrea Buffagni,et al.  Does the lentic-lotic character of rivers affect invertebrate metrics used in the assessment of ecological quality? , 2009 .

[10]  J. Olden,et al.  Redundancy and the choice of hydrologic indices for characterizing streamflow regimes , 2003 .

[11]  N. Prat,et al.  Macroinvertebrate community structure and biological traits related to flow permanence in a Mediterranean river network , 2007, Hydrobiologia.

[12]  Steven T. Bednarz,et al.  LARGE AREA HYDROLOGIC MODELING AND ASSESSMENT PART II: MODEL APPLICATION 1 , 1998 .

[13]  Vijay P. Singh,et al.  Hydrological Simulation Program - Fortran (HSPF). , 1995 .

[14]  Jeffrey G. Arnold,et al.  Advances in ecohydrological modelling with SWAT—a review , 2008 .

[15]  A. D. Girolamo,et al.  Land use scenario development as a tool for watershed management within the Rio Mannu Basin , 2012 .

[16]  Andrea Buffagni,et al.  The Development of a System to Assess the Ecological Quality of Streams Based on Macroinvertebrates – Design of the Sampling Programme within the AQEM Project , 2003 .

[17]  Klement Tockner,et al.  Emerging concepts in temporary‐river ecology , 2010 .

[18]  P. Llorens,et al.  THE MIRAGE TOOLBOX: AN INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR TEMPORARY STREAMS , 2014 .

[19]  V. Singh,et al.  Mathematical Modeling of Watershed Hydrology , 2002 .

[20]  John R. Williams,et al.  LARGE AREA HYDROLOGIC MODELING AND ASSESSMENT PART I: MODEL DEVELOPMENT 1 , 1998 .

[21]  P. Lake.  Flow‐Generated Disturbances and Ecological Responses: Floods and Droughts , 2008 .

[22]  G. Senay,et al.  A multi-source satellite data approach for modelling Lake Turkana water level: calibration and validation using satellite altimetry data , 2012 .

[23]  David P. Braun,et al.  A Method for Assessing Hydrologic Alteration within Ecosystems , 1996 .

[24]  Ons,et al.  Modeling the Impact of Climate Change in A Mediterranean Catchment(Merguellil,Tunisia) , 2009 .

[25]  O. Bragg,et al.  DHRAM: a method for classifying river flow regime alterations for the EC Water Framework Directive , 2005 .

[26]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  The ecological limits of hydrologic alteration (ELOHA): a new framework for developing regional environmental flow standards , 2007 .

[27]  Martin Volk,et al.  Application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to predict the impact of alternative management practices on water quality and quantity , 2009 .

[28]  Andrea Buffagni,et al.  The European reference condition concept: A scientific and technical approach to identify minimally-impacted river ecosystems. , 2012, The Science of the total environment.

[29]  J. Nash,et al.  River flow forecasting through conceptual models part I — A discussion of principles☆ , 1970 .

[30]  Andrea Buffagni,et al.  A novel approach to analysing the regimes of temporary streams in relation to their controls on the composition and structure of aquatic biota , 2012 .

[31]  R. Naiman,et al.  The challenge of providing environmental flow rules to sustain river ecosystems. , 2006, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[32]  N. Prat,et al.  Effects of Mediterranean climate annual variability on stream biological quality assessment using macroinvertebrate communities , 2011 .

[33]  Ian G. Cowx,et al.  Environmental flows from dams: the water framework directive , 2009 .

[34]  P. S. Lake.  Ecological effects of perturbation by drought in flowing waters , 2003 .

[35]  J. Latron,et al.  Towards sustainable management of Mediterranean river basins: policy recommendations on management aspects of temporary streams , 2013 .

[36]  Classifying low flow hydrological regimes at a regional scale , 2011 .

[37]  S. Uhlenbrook,et al.  Prediction uncertainty of conceptual rainfall-runoff models caused by problems in identifying model parameters and structure , 1999 .

[38]  V. Resh,et al.  Benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages and macrohabitat connectivity in Mediterranean-climate streams of northern California , 2006, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[39]  L. Metzeling,et al.  Can macroinvertebrate rapid bioassessment methods be used to assess river health during drought in south eastern Australian streams , 2008 .

[40]  Peter A. Vanrolleghem,et al.  Uncertainty in the environmental modelling process - A framework and guidance , 2007, Environ. Model. Softw..

[41]  András Bárdossy,et al.  Calibration of hydrological model parameters for ungauged catchments , 2006 .

[42]  A van Griensven,et al.  Sensitivity analysis and auto-calibration of an integral dynamic model for river water quality. , 2002, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.