1. Nine Hundred Years of Weekly Streamflows: Stochastic Downscaling of Ensemble Tree‐Ring Reconstructions
- Author
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Sauchyn, David and Ilich, Nesa
- Abstract
We combined the methods and advantages of stochastic hydrology and paleohydrology to estimate 900 years of weekly flows for the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers at Edmonton and Medicine Hat, Alberta, respectively. Regression models of water‐year streamflow were constructed using historical naturalized flow data and a pool of 196 tree‐ring (earlywood, latewood, and annual) ring‐width chronologies from 76 sites. The tree‐ring models accounted for up to 80% of the interannual variability in historical naturalized flows. We developed a new algorithm for generating stochastic time series of weekly flows constrained by the statistical properties of both the historical record and proxy streamflow data, and by the necessary condition that weekly flows correlate between the end of a year and the start of the next. A second innovation, enabled by the density of our tree‐ring network, is to derive the paleohydrology from an ensemble of 100 statistically significant reconstructions at each gauge. Using paleoclimatic data to generate long series of weekly flow estimates augments the short historical record with an expanded range of hydrologic variability, including sequences of wet and dry years of greater length and severity. This unique hydrometric time series will enable evaluation of the reliability of current water supply and management systems given the range of hydroclimatic variability and extremes contained in the stochastic paleohydrology. It also could inform evaluation of the uncertainty in climate model projections, given that internal hydroclimatic variability is the dominant source of uncertainty. We combined the methods and advantages of paleo and stochastic hydrology to estimate 900 years of weekly flows for two major rivers in Alberta, CanadaWe developed a new algorithm to generate stochastic time series of weekly flows that have decadal variability not evident in the short historical flow recordA second innovation is to derive the paleohydrology from an ensemble of 100 statistically significant reconstructions at each gauge
- Published
- 2017
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