MD-WERP Theme: Climate Adaptation
MD-WERP Theme 1 Project: Climate Adaptation Foundational Science
Research Lead: CSIRO
Hydrological non-stationarity refers to changes in the statistical characteristics of catchment rainfall or runoff or the relationship between the two. The origins of hydrological non-stationarities include global warming, vegetation change, water resources development activities, and the cumulative impact of interactions between changing surface and sub-surface processes. Considerable past research has involved diagnosing non-stationarity in hydrological time series and simulations of rainfall-runoff models.
This study provides insights into the likely impacts of hydrologic non-stationarity on runoff projections for the Basin, through two investigations assessing:
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the sensitivity of runoff projections to the period used to calibrate conceptual rainfall-runoff models
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the extent to which an approach to adapt existing hydrological models to better reflect catchment rainfall-runoff process alters the model sensitivity of runoff to changes in rainfall.