Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 1, 2025
09:49
Visualizing Hyporheic Flow Through Bedforms Using Dye Experiments and Simulation
Published on: November 18, 2015
12.3K
High-resolution surface water dynamics in Earth's small and medium-sized reservoirs
Gennadii Donchyts1,2, Hessel Winsemius3,4, Fedor Baart3,4
1Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands. gennadii.donchyts@deltares.nl.
Scientific Reports
|August 12, 2022
Summary
Global monitoring of small and medium reservoirs reveals higher variability in smaller water bodies, indicating greater vulnerability to climate extremes for dependent communities. This new satellite data approach aids in tracking water scarcity and food insecurity.
Area of Science:
- Hydrology and Remote Sensing
- Climate Change Adaptation
- Water Resource Management
Background:
- Small and medium-sized reservoirs are critical for water management, social development, and climate adaptation, yet global data on their dynamics is scarce.
- Existing research primarily focuses on large dams, neglecting the significant role of smaller reservoirs in water systems worldwide.
- These reservoirs face challenges from climate variability and anthropogenic pressures, necessitating effective monitoring strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To globally map and monitor small (10-100 ha) to medium-sized (>100 ha) artificial water reservoirs for the first time.
- To reconstruct and analyze the surface water area dynamics of these reservoirs using satellite data.
- To assess the vulnerability of communities reliant on these water resources to climate extremes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized multi-annual, multi-sensor satellite data combined with cloud analytics to identify and monitor 71,208 small to medium-sized reservoirs.
- Developed and applied a novel method to reconstruct surface water area changes from satellite imagery.
- Validated the satellite-derived data against in-situ water level and storage measurements, achieving high correlation (r² > 0.7 for 67% of reservoirs).
Main Results:
- Small reservoirs exhibit significantly higher inter-annual and intra-annual surface water area variability compared to medium-sized reservoirs globally.
- Geographical distribution of long-term changes in reservoir dynamics is uneven across different regions.
- Surface water area dynamics serve as a reliable proxy for water storage dynamics in many small to medium-sized reservoirs.
Conclusions:
- Communities dependent on small reservoirs are more susceptible to climate extremes due to higher water variability.
- The developed satellite monitoring technology can effectively track water scarcity and food insecurity, facilitating transboundary cooperation.
- This approach provides crucial operational information for ungauged basins, promoting equitable water resource information globally.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:21Design Example: Creating a Hydraulic Model of a Dam Spillway
284
Scaled hydraulic models of dam spillways provide a practical way to replicate and study the intricate flow dynamics of these structures. Often built to a 1:15 ratio, these models allow for observing critical water behavior, such as velocity distribution, flow patterns, and energy dissipation.
284
01:00The Water Cycle
24.8K
The Earth’s hydrosphere includes all of the areas where the storage and movement of water occurs. Since water is the basis of all living processes, the cycling of water is extremely important to ecosystem dynamics.
24.8K
01:30Typical Model Studies
433
Fluid mechanics model studies often utilize scaled-down systems to predict fluid behavior in full-scale environments, such as river flows, dam spillways, and structures interacting with open surfaces. Maintaining Froude number similarity in river models is crucial, as it replicates surface flow features like wave patterns and velocities.
433
01:22Surface Tension of Fluid
452
Surface tension is a fundamental property of fluids, occurring at the boundary between a liquid and a gas or between two immiscible liquids. This phenomenon arises from the cohesive forces between molecules at the fluid's surface, creating an effect similar to a stretched elastic membrane. Inside each fluid, molecules are equally attracted in all directions by neighboring molecules, but surface molecules experience a net inward force, resulting in surface tension.
Surface tension varies...
Surface tension varies...
452
01:24Rapidly Varying Flow
132
Rapidly varying flow (RVF) in open channels is characterized by abrupt changes in flow depth over a short distance, with the rate of depth change relative to distance often approaching unity. These flows are inherently complex due to their transient and multi-dimensional nature, making exact analysis difficult. However, approximate solutions using simplified models provide valuable insights into their behavior.Key Features of Rapidly Varying FlowRVF is commonly observed in scenarios involving...
132
01:26Regulation of Water Output
383
The human body predominantly expels water through the urinary system. On average, an individual generates around 1.5 liters of urine each day. This amount can fluctuate based on how well a person is hydrated, but a critical minimum quantity of urine must be produced to ensure the body's proper functioning. Daily, the kidneys remove 600 to 1200 milliosmoles of dissolved substances, effectively excreting excess minerals and water-soluble toxins such as creatinine, urea, and uric acid from the...
383