Assessment of the Effects of Climate Variability and Land-Use Changes on the Hydrology of the Meuse River Basin: PhD: UNESCO-IHE Institute, Delft

Anthropogenic climate change may lead to intensification of the global hydrological cysle and to increased flooding risk of rivers across Europe. A series of extreme floods in European rivers in the last decades have stimulated discussions about the possible effects of climate variability/change and human interventions in river basins. A synoptic-climatological analysis was carried out to elucidate the observed precipitation change in the Meuse basin, in northwestern Europe. The findings of this research will be valuable to those developing improved flood protection strategies, as well as those engaged in water resource management in river basins similar to the Meuse.

Table of Contents:
ABSTRACT 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Problem definition 1.2 General review 1.3 Research objectives and methodologies 1.4 Structure of the thesis 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1 Brief description of the Meuse basin 2.2 Inventory of hydrological and meteorological data 2.3 Reconstruction of the discharge records 2.4 Estimation of the areal precipitation 2.5 Estimation of potential evapotranspiration 2.6 Synoptic data 2.7 Observed changes resulting from human activities 2.8 Statistical trend detection methods 3 CHANGES IN THE DISCHARGE REGIMES 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Change in the mean flows 3.3 Change in the high flows 3.4 Change in the peaks-over-threshold 3.5 Change in the low flows 3.6 Discussion 3.7 Concluding remarks 4 CHANGES IN THE PRECIPITATION REGIMES 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Change in the precipitation totals 4.3 Change in the precipitation extremes 4.4 Change in the frequency of precipitation events 4.5 Discussion 4.6 Concluding remarks 5 LINKING PRECIPITATION VARIABILITY TO LARGE-SCALE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Grosswetterlagen system 5.3 North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index 5.4 Discussion 5.5 Concluding remarks 6 ASSESSMENT OF THE RAINFALL-RUNOFF RELATIONSHIPS 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Changes in the rainfall-runoff relations 6.3 Effect of antecedent precipitation on the flood peaks 6.4 Effects of precipitation and evapotranspiration on the low flows 6.5 Hydrological simulation of the influence of forest type change 6.6 Discussion 6.7 Concluding remarks 7 EFFECTS OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES ON THE DISCHARGE REGIMES. 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Effects on the mean flows 7.3 Effects on the flood flows 7.4 Effects on the low flows 7.4.3 Meuse river 7.5 Synthesis 7.6 Concluding remarks 8 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

About the Author :
Tu Min was born in Hubei Province, China in 1969. Following a B.Sc. degree in Geography, she studied for an M.Sc. in Pedology, and went on to work in environmental impact assessment of large-scale water projects in China. She has carried out research in the Netherlands. Her interests are in climate variability, hydrology and statistics and modelling.