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Climatological and hydrological patterns and verified trends in precipitation and streamflow in the basins of Brazilian hydroelectric plants

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Abstract

This study focuses on investigating possible changes in hydrometeorological behavior on important Brazilian river basins for power generation purposes. Thereby, this research analyzes the historical averages and observed trends regarding rainfall and streamflow and their impact on the hydrological regime. Ten river basins were selected for the assessment of alterations in the precipitation and streamflow series throughout descriptive measures and statistical significance tests (Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope). These data are available over different time spans, but most of the records include information from 1961 to 2006. As long as these river basins are subjected to different climate types, their corresponding rainfall and streamflow patterns vary accordingly the basin location in the country, in addition to the season. Most of the country has a predominantly tropical climate, with a wet period concentrated between October and March and a dry period between April and September. Some exceptions are the Northeastern region, where the climate is semi-arid, besides the Southern region, where there is abundant precipitation throughout the year. According to the obtained results, it could be noted that the streamflow response to precipitation is faster in the smaller river basins, what can be due especially to the water travel time. It was found that Belo Monte basin, in Northern Brazil, presents a statistically significant reduction in the annual rainfall. Furthermore, a significant decrease in the annual streamflow was also identified in Xingó and Sobradinho basins, in the Northeastern region. In contrast, Itaipu basin, located in Southern Brazil, showed increasing statistically significant trends in annual rainfall and streamflow during the second half of the twentieth century. Relevant decreasing trends were also identified in the minimum streamflows of the Brazilian Northern and Northeastern basins and increasing ones in the maximum streamflows in the Southern region basins. The results obtained in this work will support the assessment of the impact of rainfall and streamflow future scenarios in regulating capacity of the hydroelectric power plant reservoirs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Civil Engineering Program of the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research in Engineering (COPPE), part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), for their support, particularly offered through the Laboratory of Water Resources and Environmental Studies (LABH2O). And, finally, the authors also thank the Brazilian National Water Agency (ANA) for the data availability and the Electric Energy Research Center (CEPEL) for the scientific and technological support granted to this work.

Funding

The authors would also like to recognize the support of National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), which helped fund this work through CNPq Call No. 12/2016: Proceeding No. 306944/2016-2 and Foundation for Research of the Rio de Janeiro State (FAPERJ), which helped fund this work through Project FAPERJ Pensa Rio: Call 34/2014 (2014-2018); E-26/010.002980/2014; FAPERJ E_12/2015; and FAPERJ E-22/2016

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electric Energy Research Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Wanderson Luiz Silva, Luciano Nóbrega Rodrigues Xavier & Maria Elvira Piñeiro Maceira

  2. Civil Engineering Program, Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research in Engineering (COPPE), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Wanderson Luiz Silva & Otto Corrêa Rotunno

  3. Rio de Janeiro State University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Maria Elvira Piñeiro Maceira

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  1. Wanderson Luiz Silva
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Correspondence to Wanderson Luiz Silva.

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Luiz Silva, W., Xavier, L.N.R., Maceira, M.E.P. et al. Climatological and hydrological patterns and verified trends in precipitation and streamflow in the basins of Brazilian hydroelectric plants. Theor Appl Climatol 137, 353–371 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-018-2600-8

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