Transcript CHASM : Catchment Hydrology and Sustainable Management

HELP
Integrating mesoscale
catchment experiments
with modelling:
the potential for sustainable water
resources management
by
Enda O’Connell1, Jaime Amezaga1, James Bathurst1,
Chris Kilsby1, Geoff Parkin1, Paul Quinn1, Paul Younger1,
Steve Anderton2, and Mick Riley3
1. Water Resource Systems Research Laboratory,
Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
2. Department of Engineering, University of Durham
3. School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham
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CHASM : Catchment Hydrology And
Sustainable Management
A major UK initiative in catchment research
CHASM
• CHASM is a framework for a long-term programme of catchment
research which presently involves UK universities, research
institutes, and end-user organizations; it is planned to extend it
internationally
• CHASM will be implemented through a series of research
projects to be funded from various sources (UK research
councils, EC etc.)
• The first major project to be funded is NICHE (National
Infrastructure for Catchment Hydrology Experiments). Joint
Infrastructure Fund (JIF) funding of £4M has been approved for
catchment instrumentation
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Key Issues
• The vast majority of catchment experiments have been
conducted at the small scale (<10 km2); only limited aspects of
hydrological understanding can be transferred to larger scales
(the scale issue)
• The range and intensity of anthropogenic influences within
catchments is increasing and impacts are not fully understood,
particularly in relation to ecological diversity and biogeochemical
cycling
• A better understanding is needed of how catchments are likely
to behave under future climatic conditions
• Sustainable management plans for catchments need to be
underpinned by good scientific understanding, particularly of the
influences of abstractions on the hydrological and ecological
regimes of catchments
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Key Elements of CHASM
• A new focus on mesoscale (~100 km2) catchment research to
bridge the CHASM (!!) between the typical scale of past
experimental catchment research (~10 km2) and the catchment
scales which are the focus of sustainable management issues
• A major assault on the scaling issue, with new scaling theories
to be developed and tested using multiscale experiments
• a set of n mesoscale nested catchment experiments which
(a) sample heterogeneity in rainfall/topography/soils/
vegetation/geology comprehensively, and
(b) cover a range of anthropogenic impacts
• A scientific platform for new developments in hydroecological
research
• An integrated monitoring and modelling approach in which
modelling is used from the outset to design the catchment
experiments and to steer field campaignss
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CHASM Objectives
• 1. To understand and model catchment response as
a function of landscape heterogeneity and scale
• 2. To understand the impacts of internal
anthropogenic activities on catchment response
• 3. To understand the impacts of climate change on
catchment response
• 4. To use the understanding gained under 1, 2 and 3
to underpin sustainable catchment management
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Science for Sustainable
Management
Physics
Meteorology
Catchment
Experiments
Geology
Ecology and
Biogeochemistry
Applied
Maths and
Statistics
Scaling Theories for
Hydrological Flow and
Transport
Multiscale Catchment
Models of Flow and
Transport
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Planning for Sustainable
Management
Climate
Change
Point source
pollution
Non-point
source
pollution
Land-use
Change
Catchment
Experiments
Multiscale Catchment
Models of Flow and
Transport
Management Models
Abstractions
Sustainable
Management Plans
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NICHE Project Structure
NICHE
National Infrastructure for Catchment
Hydrology Experiments
NICHE-CHASM
NICHE-LOCAR
Catchment Hydrology And
Sustainable Management
LOwland CAtchment
Research
4 catchments
3 catchments
Co-ordinator:
Prof. P.E. O’Connell
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Co-ordinator:
Prof. H. Wheater
Imperial College
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NICHE-CHASM Partner
Organisations
Uni. Of Newcastle
Uni. Of Aberdeen
Uni. Of Dundee
Uni. Of Durham
Uni. Of Lancaster
Uni. Of Leeds
Uni. Of Ulster
Institute of Hydrology
Institute of Freshwater Ecology
Prof PE O’Connell (co-ordinator)
Dr C Soulsby
Prof A Werrity
Prof T Burt
Prof K Beven
Prof M Kirkby
Prof DN Wilcock
Prof JS Wallace
Prof AD Pickering
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NICHE-LOCAR Partner
Organisations
Imperial College
Uni. Of Birmingham
Uni. Of Exeter
Institute of Hydrology
Institute of Freshwater Ecology
Prof HS Wheater (co-ordinator)
Prof GE Petts
Prof DE Walling
Prof JS Wallace
Prof J Hilton
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NICHE Catchments
Feshie
Oona
Eden
Tern
Upper Severn
Pang/Lambourn
Frome
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NICHE-CHASM Catchments
Oona Water
University of Ulster
92 km2
Feshie
University of Aberdeen
University of Dundee
200 km2
Upper Severn
Institute of Hydrology
187 km2
Eden
University of Newcastle
University of Lancaster
University of Durham
University of Leeds
Inst. of Freshwater Ecology
337 km2 + 90 km2
10 km
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Key Elements of
Generic Experimental Design
• Landscape classification
• Adaptive, staged approach to instrumentation of
catchments:
– permanent instrumentation
– staged instrumentation
– mobile instrumentation
• Multi-scale approach with nested structure
• Understand and resolve heterogeneity (Integrated
Monitoring and Modelling)
• Reclassification of the landscape and repetition of the
cycle
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Experimental Design
Landscape Classification
Mobile Instrumentation
(‘Green Machine’)
Staged Instrumentation
(‘Patches’)
Permanent Instrumentation
(mesoscale, miniscale and
microscale catchments)
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Landscape Classification
topography
soils
geology
land use
?
classifications
hydrological
geomorphological
ecological
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Mobile Instrumentation
• Rapid surveys (prior to installation of staged instrumentation,
and for landscape classification)
• Lightweight all-terrain vehicle (‘Green Machine’), with
– drilling rig
– differential GPS
– surface geophysics
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Staged Instrumentation
1 Raingauge
2 Nested multi-level piezometers
3 Soil moisture probes
Tensiometers
Gypsum blocks
suction lysimeters
4 Interception gauges
2
Sap flow meters
1
4
3
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Permanent Instrumentation
River gauging stations with nested structure
Observation boreholes and river-aquifer
experiments
Hydrometeorological stations and
raingauges
Hillslope instrumentation (runoff troughs,
lysimeters)
Suspended sediment and water quality
monitors
Ecological monitors (e.g. fish tracking)
Mesoscale (~100 km2)
Miniscale (~10 km2)
Microscale (~1 km2)
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End-User Participation
• Catchment Management Committees (CMCs) have been set up
to create a partnership of NICHE participants and end-user
organizations (e.g. Environmental Agencies, Water Companies,
Conservation Bodies, Government Departments etc.)
• The CMCs will
– identify key anthropogenic issues to be investigated
– harmonize expenditure on instrumentation to meet both
research and operational needs
– co-ordinate research projects and monitor their progress
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National Forum for Catchment
Hydrological Research
• Provide wider access to NICHE infrastructure
• Promote involvement in CHASM initiative
• Discuss research strategy and priorities
• Develop thematic funding initiatives
• First meeting at BHS National Symposium in September 2000
• Ecological and geomorphological forums to be convened in
subsequent years
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International Context
• The UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP) has
identified Experimental Hydrology as a high priority activity for
the 6th phase of IHP (2002-2007)
• The NICHE catchments may be potential candidates for
inclusion in the proposed UNESCO Hydrology, Environment,
Life and Policy (HELP) programme
• It is planned to expand the network of CHASM catchments
through international collaboration with scientists interested in
participating in the CHASM initiative. Those interested should
contact the CHASM co-ordinator, Enda O’Connell
(P.E.O’[email protected]).
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Sustainable Water Resources
Management (SWRM)
• Need to connect with socio-economic dimensions of
SWRM
• Sustainability is concept through which hydrologists
can engage with policy makers: meeting the needs of
the current generation without foreclosing on the
options available to future generations
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Different Perspectives
on Sustainability
• Physical, ecological, social and economic
perspectives: how to reconcile in context of SWRM?
Need to achieve a:
Sociotechnical Perspective
• Multi-criteria analysis: technical solution but difficult to
articulate the ways in which policy makers think and
act e.g. when water resource systems are under
stress or undergoing change
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Sociotechnical Perspective
• Need methods and concepts for sociotechnical
research
• How to deal with the human/social factor? HELP!
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Sociotechnical Perspective
• Shaping one common reality
Planning for
Sustainable Management
Climate
Change
Landuse
Change
Catchment
Experiments
Point
source
pollution
Non-point
source
pollution
Abstractions
Multiscale
Catchment Models
of Flow and
Transport
Management
Models
Sustainable
Management Plans
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Problem Structuring Methods
(PSMs)
• Can deal with ill-structured situations involving
human actors with multiple perspectives
• ‘Soft-system’ approaches require human skills and
expertise which technical experts find difficulty in
relating to
• May help to arrive at consensus among different
actors and stakeholders in different settings as to
what SWRM really means, and how it might be
achieved in the future
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