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Publication

Climate changes of hydrometeorological and hydrological extremes in the Paute basin, Ecuadorean Andes

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

Investigation was made on the climate change signal for hydrometeorological and hydrological variables for the Paute River basin, in southern Ecuador Andes, making use of an adjusted quantile perturbation approach for climate downscaling, and the impact of climate change on runoff for two nested catchments within the basin. The analysis was done making use of long daily series of seven representative rainfall and temperature sites along the study area and considering climate change signals of global and regional climate models for IPCC SRES scenarios A1B, A2 and B1. The determination of runoff was carried out using a lumped conceptual rainfall-runoff model. The study found that the range of changes in temperature is despicably lower that the range of changes in rainfall. However, changes differ from site to site, showing that more significant changes in temperature are observed at higher elevation sites. For rainfall, high differences in rainfall change are found and strongly related to the rainfall regime. Higher changes are detected for sites located in regions with bimodal rainfall regime. In addition, higher changes are observed on higher temporal resolutions. The runoff changes are strongly related to the changes in rainfall peaks, more than with the changes in temperature; also showing strong spatial differences over the Andean region considered.
Journal: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences & Discussions
ISSN: 1812-2108
Volume: 10
Pages: 6445 - 6471
Publication year:2013
Accessibility:Open