0000000000372714
AUTHOR
Elga Apsīte
Changes of total annual runoff distribution, high and low discharges in Latvian rivers
Changes of total annual runoff distribution, high and low discharges in Latvian rivers The paper examines climate change impacts on the hydrological regime of nineteen different river basins in Latvia. Hydrological data series for the period of 1951-2006 were analysed for river basins of four hydrological districts: Western, Central, Northern and Eastern. Climate change has influenced the temporal and spatial distribution of total annual river runoff and high and low flows in Latvia at the turn of century. The results confirm the hypothesis that the main tendency in the run-off change is a decrease in spring floods and increase in winter. Generally, statistically insignificant long-term tre…
Forecasted changes in the climate and the river runoff regime in Latvian river basins
The hydrological model HBV (Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning model) has been applied to six river basins in Latvia to assess climate change and its impacts on the river runoff regime at the end of the 21st century. Climate change has been predicted by applying the regional climate model RCAO with the driving boundary conditions from the global general circulation model HadAM3H applied for the IPCC scenarios A2 and B2 and the following time periods: 1961–1990 (control) and 2071–2100 (scenario). Changes have been found under both scenarios. Major changes in the future hydro-climate data were forecasted according to the A2 scenario, where the trends of increase are identified for the …
Long-term changes in the water temperature of rivers in Latvia
Abstract The study describes the trends of monthly mean water temperature (from May to October) and the annual maximum water temperature of the rivers in Latvia during the time period from 1945 to 2000. The results demonstrated that the mean water temperatures during the monitoring period from May to October were higher in the largest rivers (from 13.6 °C to 16.1 °C) compared to those in the smallest rivers (from 11.5 °C to 15.7 °C). Similar patterns were seen for the maximum water temperature: in large rivers from 22.9 °C to 25.7 °C, and in small rivers from 20.8 °C to 25.8 °C. Generally, lower water temperatures occurred in rivers with a high groundwater inflow rate, for example, in river…
Climate change impacts on river runoff in Latvia
In order to assess climate change impacts on river runoff patterns at the end of this cen- tury, the hydrological model METQ2007BDOPT was applied to 8 river basins and sub-basins in Latvia, which is a part of the southeast Baltic Sea basin. The climate data we used originate from the PRUDENCE project and were prepared in a separate study. Changes in hydro-climate were analysed using one control run (1961-1990) and 2 IPCC scenario runs (A2 and B2; 2071-2100). For the A2 sce- nario, both annual and seasonal analysis predicted the major significant changes in most cases. For both scenarios, an increase of the mean annual climate data (air temperature, precipitation and evapo - transpiration) i…
Long-term changes in hydrological regime of the lakes in Latvia
Changes in the hydrological regime of the lakes of Latvia depend on natural and anthropogenic causes. This publication summarises the results of the research on the long-term changes in the water level, thermal and ice regimes in the seven largest lakes of Latvia: Liepājas, Usma, Ķīšezers, Burtnieks, Rāzna, Sventes and Lielais Ludzas, and their regional specifics from 1926 to 2002. For most of the studied lakes, the water level has been regulated, except for the lakes Liepājas, Burtnieks and Ķīšezers. Global climate warming has caused considerable changes in the hydrological regime of the lakes during the last decades and the surface water temperature has increased. At the same time, the nu…
Impact of climate variability, drainage and land-cover changes on hemiboreal streamflow
ABSTRACTThe aim of the study was to determine the effects of climate variability, agricultural land drainage and afforestation of agricultural land on river discharge. The study was conducted in the Vienziemīte stream basin (6 km2), where discharge was monitored on a daily basis during the time period of 1946–2010. In the stream basin, natural afforestation of agricultural land began in the 1950s, and in the mid-1970s artificial drainage systems were installed in all agricultural land (70% of the total basin area). Climate variability and artificial drainage were the main factors observed to be affecting stream discharge. The changes were most evident in annual and seasonal mean, minimum an…
Changes in Latvian river discharge regime at the turn of the century
The study deals with turn-of-the-century changes in the total annual river runoff distribution and high and low flows in Latvia, covering river basins within four hydrological districts which vary according to size and physiographical conditions. Mathematical statistical methods were applied in the analysis of river discharge data series for two study periods of 1951–2009 and 1881–2009. The present results confirm the basic statement concerning the Baltic countries that major significant changes in river runoff during the last two decades have occurred between spring (decrease) and winter (increase) seasons. Mostly insignificant changes in summer runoff and significant/insignificant changes…
Spatial distribution and temporal changes in river water temperature in the Baltic States
Abstract The thermal regime of rivers in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) is not sufficiently studied. The presented research describes the spatial distribution and temporal variation of river water temperature (WT) in the Baltic States using a unified methodology. The object of the research is the WT of rivers during the warm season (May–October) and the warmest month of the year (July). The contour maps of WT were compiled for the rivers of the Baltic States using data series for the period 1961–1990 from 17 water measuring stations in Estonia (EST), 36 stations in Latvia (LV) and 40 stations in Lithuania (LT). These maps allow the evaluation of WT for the unmonitored riv…
Long-term changes of the ice regime of rivers in Latvia
The ice regime of rivers is considered a sensitive indicator of climate change. This paper summarises the results of research on the long-term changes in the ice regime parameters under changing climate conditions and their regional peculiarities in Latvia from 1945 to 2012. The ice cover duration on Latvian rivers has decreased during recent decades. The research results demonstrated that there is a positive trend as regards the formation of the ice cover and in 31.8% of the cases the trend is statistically significant at p < 0.05. As regards the breaking up of ice, there is a statistically significant negative trend in 93.2% of the cases at p < 0.05. This indicates an earlie…