Reference no: EM132306599 , Length: word count:3000

Fluvial Geomorphology and Sedimentology Assignment -

The assignment will focus on extreme runoff events and climate change. It will require data analysis and a comprehensive literature review that compiles, evaluates and critiques the issue of the documented effects of climate change on stream flow and extreme runoff events. This should be a substantive piece of work that draws on a variety of published material using examples/case studies where necessary and making a robust attempt at drawing out major findings within the literature and potentially identifying knowledge gaps.

Climate change and its impact on annual streamflow and extreme floods

Rivers and floodplains across the world are subject to extreme or catastrophic events, as well as the smaller more frequent events. We can investigate daily maximum stream flow (e.g. peak instantaneous flow) to assess such extremes and we can assess annual total yield to assess progressive declines through time. Can we detect any changes in peak floods and annual totals changed over the last five decades? This project is going to investigate the potential changes in stream flow on Macquarie Rivulet. As such the alternative assignment has the following aims:

1. Assess the changes in the frequency of large floods at Macquarie Rivulet through time - you can use stream level or stream discharge.

2. Investigate changes in total annual discharge at Macquarie Rivulet.

3. Evaluate the literature to determine other rivers in Australia that have documented impacts of climate change on flow frequency or water yield.

4. Further, evaluate the literature to determine other rivers globally that have documented impacts of climate change on flow frequency and sediment load to the end of fluvial systems. What are some implications of this?

As a result, the report has two components; 1) data analysis and 2) synthesis with the literature.

Data Analysis -

You need to analyse 1 stream gauge in the Illawarra (Macquarie Rivulet) using the NSW Water Info site for the gauge/discharge data.

You are expected to download daily data (i.e. you should download stream level and stream discharge separately). We are going to use the flood-frequency analysis similar to the prac undertaken in Week 9 to look at the frequency of events > 2 yr recurrence interval. The aim of this section is to assess any potential changes in the frequency of large events so you should firstly:

• Plot peak daily discharge through time (all days of data).
• Calculate the number of events > than the predicted 2 year flood that occur in every year. Plot the frequency of these events through time.
• Repeat for the frequency of events > the predicted 20 year recurrence interval.
• Repeat for the frequency of events > the predicted 50 year recurrence interval.
• We then want to assess changes in water yield so download total annual flow and plot through time.

Note: you have to be careful and not to count the same flood twice (this will appear in the data as consecutive days). Please see me if you need assistance in this stage.

Scientific Paper Format -

Your paper should have an Abstract (this summarises the results in one paragraph), a short Introduction, a brief methods section, a Results section where you present the compiled/analysed data (e.g simply describe the results). In your results section you would present the daily and annual streamflow separately. You will then have a Discussion where you outline and discuss the changes in frequency of events and whether there are other examples across eastern Australia where clear changes have been documented. Finally, you are expected to then comment on how climate change is impacting streamflow with examples from Australia and overseas.

Your paper should also have a short Conclusion. You are encouraged to use figures and additional material wherever suitable. You should expect to have no less than 15 scientific publications used within this paper.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar