Effects of climatic variability on spatial characteristics of european river flows

Shorthouse, Caroline Anne (1999) Effects of climatic variability on spatial characteristics of european river flows. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

This research explores the effects of climatic variability on European river flows taking a unique approach. The research focus lies in exploring the spatial characteristics of the associations between climate and river flow variability during the 1961 to 1990 period. The continental scale approach, the use of regional river flow anomaly series and the spatial mapping of the associations between European river flows and climatic variability provide unique components to this research. This research is closely tied with the FRIEND (Flow Regimes from International and Experimental and Network Data) project and has made significant use of the FRIEND European Water Archive. The initial part of the thesis examined spatial patterns in European river flow variability. Large areas of Europe were shown to exhibit similar river flow behaviour over time whilst other large areas of Europe displayed opposing river flow anomalies. In particular, the Nordic region was shown to reveal a different pattern of river flow variability to the rest of Europe. In addition, spatial mapping of some patterns of temporal variability in European river flows was investigated. The mapping of significant changes, called jumps, in the regional river flow time series, revealed that positive jumps tend to occur in northern Europe and negative jumps in southern and eastern Europe.

Following the spatial characterisation of European river flow variability, the effects of numerous different climate patterns, which were transformed into indices of climatic variability, on European river flows were investigated. This hydroclimatological investigation, coupled with the spatial focus and the mapping of correlations between regional river flow series and climatic indices, produced some striking results. Variations in North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies, higher level atmospheric pressure over the North Atlantic and Eurasia, and North Atlantic Oscillation and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation were shown to exert a very strong influence on European river flows.

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