Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net
1027-5606
1607-7938
11
4
2007
10.5194/hess-11-1501-2007
http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/1501/2007/
http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/1501/2007/hess-11-1501-2007.html
http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/11/1501/2007/hess-11-1501-2007.pdf
1501
1513
2007-08-20
Towards a hydrological classification of European soils: preliminary test of its predictive power for the base flow index using river discharge data
M. K. Schneider
manuel.schneider@eawag.ch
F. Brunner
J. M. Hollis
C. Stamm
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Eawag, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Independent consultant, 58 St.Annes Rd., London Colney, St. Albans, AL2 1LJ, UK
Predicting discharge in ungauged catchments or contaminant movement through soil requires knowledge of the
distribution and spatial heterogeneity of hydrological soil properties.
<br><br>
Because hydrological soil information is not available at a European scale,
we reclassified the Soil Geographical Database of Europe (SGDBE) at 1:1
million in a hydrological manner by adopting the Hydrology Of Soil Types
(HOST) system developed in the UK. The HOST classification describes dominant
pathways of water movement through soil and was related to the base flow
index (BFI) of a catchment (the long-term proportion of base flow on total
stream flow). In the original UK study, a linear regression of the coverage
of HOST classes in a catchment explained 79% of BFI variability.
<br><br>
We found that a hydrological soil classification can be built based on the
information present in the SGDBE. The reclassified SGDBE and the regression
coefficients from the original UK study were used to predict BFIs for 103
catchments spread throughout Europe. The predicted BFI explained around
65% of the variability in measured BFI in catchments in Northern Europe,
but the explained variance decreased from North to South. We therefore
estimated new regression coefficients from the European discharge data and
found that these were qualitatively similar to the original estimates from
the UK. This suggests little variation across Europe in the hydrological
effect of particular HOST classes, but decreasing influence of soil on BFI
towards Southern Europe.
<br><br>
Our preliminary study showed that pedological information is useful for
characterising soil hydrology within Europe and the long-term discharge
regime of catchments in Northern Europe. Based on these results, we draft a
roadmap for a refined hydrological classification of European soils.
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