Impacts of Climate Change on Mean Annual Water Balance for Watersheds in Michigan, USA

Water

Yinqin Zhang⁴  Bernard Engel³  Laurent Ahiablame¹  Junmin Liu² 

[1] Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA; E-Mail:;College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A & F University, 23 Weihui Road, Yangling 712100, Shanxi, China; E-Mail:;Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University, 225 S. University Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA;College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hebei University of Engineering, 178 S. Zhonghua Street, Handan 056000, Hebei, China; E-Mail:

关键词: water balance;    baseflow;    climate sensitivity;    Budyko Hypothesis;    Michigan;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w7073565

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Evaluation of water balance at the watershed scale is a fundamental step for estimating streamflow in watersheds. Mean annual water balance of 17 watersheds across Michigan were evaluated by comparing observed streamflow with simulated streamflow estimated using Fu’s Equation, which is based on the Budyko Hypothesis. The Budyko Hypothesis describes mean annual water balance as a function of available water and energy. Impact of long-term climatic controls (e.g., precipitation, potential evapotranspiration (ET_P)) on mean annual water balance was also investigated with Fu’s Equation. Results indicated that observed streamflow ranged from 237 to 529 mm per year, with an average of 363 mm per year in the study watersheds during 1967–2011. On average, 40% of long-term precipitation in the study watersheds was converted into surface runoff. The performance of Fu’s Equation in estimating mean annual streamflow resulted in Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value of 64.1 mm/year. Mean annual streamflow was sensitive to changes in mean annual precipitation, and less sensitive to changes in mean annual ET_p in the watersheds. With the increase of baseflow index (BFI), mean annual streamflow was less sensitive to climate change. Overall, different contributions of baseflow to streamflow modified the impact of climate controls on mean annual water balance in the baseflow-dominated watersheds.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.