Novel techniques for characterizing complex water use patterns within a network based statistical hydrological model

Information on the magnitude and variability of flow regimes at the river reach scale is a central component of most aspects of water resource and water quality management. Within the UK, river stretches with permanent gauging stations represent less than one percent of the total number of river stretches mapped at a scale of 1:50,000 and fewer than 20% of gauged catchments can be regarded as having natural flow regimes. This paper is the second of two papers that describe the development and application of hydrological models for estimating the variability and magnitude of natural and artificially influenced flow regimes at ungauged sites. The development of the models for estimating statistical descriptions of both the natural and artificially influenced flow regimes at ungauged river reaches is described by Young et al. (Young AR, Gustard A, Bullock A, Sekulin AE, Croker KM. Sci Total Environ 2000: this issue). This paper describes a pragmatic approach for applying the model to a complex river basin and characterizing the impacts of water use in the basin through example. The basin selected for the application contains the Aire and the Calder catchments within south Yorkshire.