Abstract
Environmental flow is an important indicator of river health as it maintains the natural flow pattern of riverine ecosystem. Although numerous researches for analyzing the hydrological alterations are there, still insightful investigation of site specific knowledge should be required for riverine ecosystem protection. In this study, the objective is to analyze the hydrological status of the Sone river basin in Bihar region, India. This study also focuses to develop a flow duration curve (FDC) to show the time duration–frequency of low-flow events. The hydrological status of the basin was analyzed using indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA). Low flows were estimated using period of record flow duration curve (POR FDC), and design environmental flow was assessed for 10-year and 100-year return period using stochastic flow duration curve (stochastic FDC). Daily discharge data collected from Koelwar station of Sone river for 1990–2020 period were used for the hydrological analysis. Depending on the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the hydrological alterations, it was found that the hydrological status of the river basin is in a "very altered" state. The POR FDC analyzed 7-day mean discharge values (7dQ) appropriate for determining low flows, and discharge values corresponding to 95% probability of exceedance (Q95) were considered as low flow for 7dQ. Stochastic FDCs generated 7-day mean flow duration curves for 10-year (7Q10) and 100-year (7Q100) recurrence intervals. Discharge values corresponding to 95% probability of exceedance for 7Q10 range from 120 to 125 cumec and those for 7Q100 range from 135 to 140 cumec. The methodology proposed in this work to design environmental flow considering the effects of hydrological alteration can help in making the long-term strategies to protect the riverine ecosystem in Sone river basin.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig1_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig2_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig3_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig4_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig5_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig6_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig7_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig8_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig9_HTML.png)
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs11600-022-00946-w/MediaObjects/11600_2022_946_Fig10_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alaouze CM (1989) Reservoir releases to uses with different reliability requirements. Water Resour Bull 25(6):1163–1168
Brouziyne Y, Belaqziz S, Benaabidate L, Aboubdillah A, Bilali AE, Elbeltagi A, Tzoraki O, Chehbouni A (2022) Modeling long term response of environmental flow attributes to future climate change in a North African watershed (Bouregreg water shed, Morocco). Ecohydrol Hydrobiol 22:155–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecohyd.2021.08.005
Brisbane Declaration (2007) The Brisbane Declaration: environmental flows are essential for freshwater ecosystem health and human well-being. In: 10th International River Symposium, Brisbane
Henriksen HJ, Jakobsen A, Pasten-Zapata E, Troldborg L, Sonnenborg TO (2021) Assessing the impacts of climate change om hydrological regimes and fish EQR in two Danish catchments. J Hydrol Reg Stud 34:100798
Higgs G, Petts G (1988) Hydrological changes and river regulation in the UK. River Res Appl 2:349–368
Huang W, Duan W, Chen Y (2021) Rapidly declining surface and terrestrial water resources in Central Asia driven by socio-economic and climatic changes. Sci Total Environ 784:147193
Jha R, Sharma KD, Singh VP (2008) Critical appraisal of methods for the assessment of environmental flows and their application in two river systems of India. KSCE J Civ Eng 12(3):213–219
Jian J, Ryu D, Wang QJ (2021) A water-level based calibration of rainfall-runoff models constrained by regionalized discharge indices. J Hydrol 603:126937
Joshi KD, Jha DN, Alam A, Srivastava SK, Kumar V, Sharma AP (2014) Environmental flow requirements of river Sone: impacts of low discharge on fisheries. Curr Sci 107(3):478–488
Kubiak-Wójcicka K, Zelenáková M, Blištan P, Simonovác D, Pilarska A (2021) Influence of climate change on low flow conditions. Case study Laborec River, Eastern Slovakia. Ecohydrol Hydrobiol 21(4):570–583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecohyd.2021.04.001
Kumar S, Roshni T (2019) NDVI-rainfall correlation and irrigation water requirement of different crops in the Sone river-command. Bihar MAUSAM 70(2):339–346
Kumar S, Roshni T, Kahya E, Ghorbani MA (2020) Climate change projections of rainfall and its impact on the cropland suitability for rice and wheat crops in the Sone river command. Bihar Theor Appl Climatol 142:433–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03319-9
Lu W, Lei H, Yang D, Tang L, Miao Q (2018) Quantifying the impacts of small dam construction on hydrological alterations in the Jiulong River basin of Southeast China. J Hydrol 567:382–392
Maharana C, Tripathi JK (2018) The Indian Rivers. J Hydrogeol. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2984-4_15
Monico V, Solera A, Bergillos RJ, Paredes-Arquiola J, Andreu J (2022) Effects of environmental flows on hydrological alteration and reliability of water demands. Sci Total Environ 810:151630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151630
Nruthya K, Srinivas VV (2015) Evaluating methods to predict streamflow at ungauged sites using regional flow duration curves: a case study. Aquat Procedia 4:641–648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aqpro.2015.02.083
Petts GE (1996) Water allocation to protect river ecosystems. River Res Appl 12:353–365
Poff NL, Richter BD, Arthington AH, Bunn SE, Naiman RJ, Kendy E, Acreman M, Apse C, Bledsoe BP, Freeman MC, Henriksen J, Jacobson RB, Kennen JG, Merritt DM, O’Keeffe JH, Olden JD, Rogers K, Tharme RE, Warner A (2010) The ecological limits of hydrological alteration (ELOHA): a new framework for develo** regional environmental flow standards. Freshw Biol 55:147–170. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2009.02204.x
Reiser DW, Wesche TA, Estes C (1989) Status of instream flow legislation and practices in North America. Fisheries 14:22–28
Richter BD, Baumgartner JV, Powell J, Braun DP (1996) A method for assessing hydrologic alteration within ecosystems. Conserv Biol 10(4):1163–1174
Richter BD, Baumgartner JV, Wigington R, Braun DP (1997) How much water does a river need? Freshw Biol 37(1):231–249
Richter BD, Baumgartner JV, Braun DP, Powell J (1998) A spatial assessment of hydrologic alteration within a river network. River Res Appl 14:329–340
Smakhtin VU (2001) Low flow hydrology: a review. J Hydrol 240:147–186
Smakhtin VU, Toulouse M (1998) Relationships between low flow characteristics of South African streams. Water SA 24:107–112
Stewardson MJ, Gippel CJ (2003) Incorporating flow variability into environmental flow regimes using the flow events method. River Res Appl 19:459–472
Sugiyama H, Vudhivanich V, Whitaker AC, Lorsirirat K (2003) Stochastic flow duration curves for evaluation of flow regimes of rivers. J Am Water Resour Assoc 39(1):47–58
Tharme RE (2003) A global perspective on environmental flow assessment: emerging trends in the development and application of environmental flow methodologies for rivers. River Res Appl 19:397–441. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.736
The Nature Conservancy (2009) Indicators of hydrologic alteration version 7.1 user's manual
Verma RK, Murthy S, Verma S, Mishra SK (2017) Design flow duration curves for environmental flows estimation in Damodar River basin. India Appl Water Sci 7:1283–1293
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the CWC Patna for providing the data to carry out the analysis for the research work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
AR was responsible for writing the original draft, formal analysis, methodology, validation, investigation, data curation, conceptualization and supervision. RT was involved in conceptualization, supervision and project administration.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors state that they have no known competing financial interests or personal ties that could have influenced the research presented in this study.
Additional information
Edited by Prof. Stefano Pagliara (ASSOCIATE EDITOR) / Dr. Michael Nones (CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF).
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ranjan, A., Roshni, T. Analysis of hydrological alteration and environmental flow in Sone river basin. Acta Geophys. 71, 949–960 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-022-00946-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-022-00946-w