Vicente-Serrano, S M and Peña‐Gallardo, M and Hannaford, Jamie and Murphy, Conor and Lorenzo‐Lacruz, J and Dominguez‐Castro, F and López‐Moreno, J I and Beguería, S and Noguera, I and Harrigan, Shaun and Vidal, J P (2019) Climate, irrigation, and land-cover change explain streamflow trends in countries bordering the Northeast Atlantic. Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (19). ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Attribution of trends in streamflow is complex, but essential, in identifying optimal management options for water resources. Disagreement remains on the relative role of climate change and human factors, including water abstractions and land cover change, in driving change in annual streamflow. We construct a very dense network of gauging stations (n = 1,874) from Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Portugal for the period of 1961–2012 to detect and then attribute changes in annual streamflow. Using regression‐based techniques, we show that climate (precipitation and atmospheric evaporative demand) explains many of the observed trends in northwest Europe, while for southwest Europe human disturbances better explain both temporal and spatial trends. For the latter, large increases in irrigated areas, agricultural intensification, and natural revegetation of marginal lands are inferred to be the dominant drivers of decreases in streamflow.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Climate; Irrigation; Land Cover; Change; Explain; Streamflow; Trends; Countries Bordering; Northeast Atlantic;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, ICARUS
Item ID:	13847
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084084
Depositing User:	Conor Murphy
Date Deposited:	19 Jan 2021 12:30
Journal or Publication Title:	Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher:	Wiley
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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