IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agiwat/v289y2023ics0378377423004390.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Will extreme drought impact the reservoir water quality? A 30-year observational study

Author

Listed:
  • Lin, Yu-I
  • Pan, Shu-Yuan
  • Chang, Hui-Hsien
  • Yu, Mei-Siang
  • Lin, Wei-Lung

Abstract

Climate change affects the security of the global water supply. However, only a few studies on the effects of drought on water quality in Asia have been published. In 2021, Taiwan faced its most severe water crisis in the past 56 years. The Te-Chi reservoir, situated at an elevation exceeding 1420 m, stands out as significantly affected by hydrologic variability. Overcoming geographical challenges, we captured an exceptional climatic period to sample and analyze water quality. Subsequently, we investigated multivariate long-term water quality data incorporating climate and hydrological information to evaluate the effect of climate change on the reservoir. The results showed the annual average temperature had risen by about 1.4 °C while total annual rainfall declined over the past 18 years. 30-year water quality data from 1993 to 2022 was analyzed to examined the long-term water quality change. There was an observed upward trend in the electrical conductivity of the reservoir water. The concentration of dissolved oxygen showed a decreasing trend, which may be attributed to the increase of temperature due to climate change. Besides, as the water level dropped during the drought, we found that the concentration of total phosphorus, total nitrogen and electrical conductivity in Te-Chi reservoir tended to increase, while the transparency of the water decreased. Consequently, we further explored the potential pollution sources during extreme drought by multivariate statistical methods, such as Pearson’s correlations, principal component analysis, and factor analysis. We found that four varimax rotated principal components collectively explain 82% of the variation in water quality data of the Te-Chi reservoir with the reservoir water level, signifying their representativeness in interpreting the monitoring data. We also assessed the contribution of each factor to specific water parameters, which can aid in better management of water resources during such challenging conditions. In conclusion, this study provides evidence and raises awareness on the effect of climate change by long-term water quality data with multiple parameters. The water quality components in the reservoir are affected by extreme weather, which is predicted to occur more frequently in the future and thus could affect energy scarcity, public health and food safety for sustainable reservoir operation. The study underscores adaptive management, mitigation strategies and the future research direction.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Yu-I & Pan, Shu-Yuan & Chang, Hui-Hsien & Yu, Mei-Siang & Lin, Wei-Lung, 2023. "Will extreme drought impact the reservoir water quality? A 30-year observational study," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:289:y:2023:i:c:s0378377423004390
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108574
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377423004390
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agwat.2023.108574?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan Butcher & Daniel Nover & Thomas Johnson & Christopher Clark, 2015. "Sensitivity of lake thermal and mixing dynamics to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 295-305, March.
    2. Zixiong Wang & Tianxiang Wang & Xiaoli Liu & Suduan Hu & Lingxiao Ma & Xinguo Sun, 2020. "Water Level Decline in a Reservoir: Implications for Water Quality Variation and Pollution Source Identification," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-18, April.
    3. G. Tsakiris & H. Vangelis, 2004. "Towards a Drought Watch System based on Spatial SPI," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 18(1), pages 1-12, February.
    4. Firoozeh Azadi & Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh & Hugo A. Loáiciga, 2019. "Reservoir Water-Quality Projections under Climate-Change Conditions," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(1), pages 401-421, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shabnam Salehi & Mojtaba Ardestani, 2024. "Investigating Changes of Water Quality in Reservoirs based on Flood and Inflow Fluctuations," Papers 2403.05671, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    2. Jian Zhou & Peter R. Leavitt & Kevin C. Rose & Xiwen Wang & Yibo Zhang & Kun Shi & Boqiang Qin, 2023. "Controls of thermal response of temperate lakes to atmospheric warming," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Dibike, Yonas & Marshall, Rebecca & de Rham, Laurent, 2024. "Climatic sensitivity of seasonal ice-cover, water temperature and biogeochemical cycling in Lake 239 of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), Ontario, Canada," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 489(C).
    4. Sebastiano Piccolroaz & Marco Toffolon, 2018. "The fate of Lake Baikal: how climate change may alter deep ventilation in the largest lake on Earth," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 181-194, October.
    5. Mahboubeh Khorsandi & Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh & Firoozeh Azadi & Xuefeng Chu, 2022. "Multi-Objective Firefly Integration with the K-Nearest Neighbor to Reduce Simulation Model Calls to Accelerate the Optimal Operation of Multi-Objective Reservoirs," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(9), pages 3283-3304, July.
    6. Sayani Dey & Andrew Barton & Harpreet Kandra & Adil Bagirov & Kym Wilson, 2021. "Analysis of Water Quantity and Quality Trade-Offs to Inform Selective Harvesting of Inflows in Complex Water Resource Systems," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(12), pages 4149-4165, September.
    7. Guoshuai Qin & Jianwei Liu & Shiguo Xu & Ya Sun, 2021. "Pollution Source Apportionment and Water Quality Risk Evaluation of a Drinking Water Reservoir during Flood Seasons," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Shahram Missaghi & Miki Hondzo & William Herb, 2017. "Prediction of lake water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and fish habitat under changing climate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 141(4), pages 747-757, April.
    9. Sergio Vicente-Serrano, 2006. "Differences in Spatial Patterns of Drought on Different Time Scales: An Analysis of the Iberian Peninsula," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 20(1), pages 37-60, February.
    10. Parvin Golfam & Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh & Taher Rajaee & Xuefeng Chu, 2019. "Prioritization of Water Allocation for Adaptation to Climate Change Using Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM)," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(10), pages 3401-3416, August.
    11. Ratté-Fortin, Claudie & Chokmani, Karem & El Alem, Anas & Laurion, Isabelle, 2022. "A regional model to predict the occurrence of natural events: Application to phytoplankton blooms in continental waterbodies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 473(C).
    12. Farrell, Kaitlin J. & Ward, Nicole K. & Krinos, Arianna I. & Hanson, Paul C. & Daneshmand, Vahid & Figueiredo, Renato J. & Carey, Cayelan C., 2020. "Ecosystem-scale nutrient cycling responses to increasing air temperatures vary with lake trophic state," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 430(C).
    13. Kosar Ebrahimzadeh Azbari & Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh & Parvin Golfam & Hugo A. Loáiciga, 2022. "Ranking of wastewater reuse allocation alternatives using a variance-based weighted aggregated sum product assessment method," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 2497-2513, February.
    14. Firoozeh Azadi & Parisa-Sadat Ashofteh & Hugo A. Loáiciga, 2019. "Reservoir Water-Quality Projections under Climate-Change Conditions," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(1), pages 401-421, January.
    15. Laura Melo Vieira Soares & Maria Calijuri & Talita Fernanda Silva & Evlyn Marcia Leão Novo, 2021. "Climate change enhances deepwater warming of subtropical reservoirs: evidence from hydrodynamic modelling," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 1-19, May.
    16. R. Iestyn Woolway, 2023. "The pace of shifting seasons in lakes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    17. Fang Yang & Weiying Feng & Leppäranta Matti & Yu Yang & Ioanna Merkouriadi & Rui Cen & Yangwei Bai & Changyou Li & Haiqing Liao, 2020. "Simulation and Seasonal Characteristics of the Intra-Annual Heat Exchange Process in a Shallow Ice-Covered Lake," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:289:y:2023:i:c:s0378377423004390. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agwat .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.