Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1002/hyp.70154
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) Spatial and temporal variability of river water quality
Autor Schauer, L.S. ORCID logo ; Jawitz, J.W.; Cohen, M.J.; Musolff, A.
Quelle Hydrological Processes
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
Department HDG
Band/Volume 39
Heft 5
Seite von e70154
Sprache englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Daten-/Softwarelinks https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.a42addcbd59a466a9aa56472dfef8721
https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.26e8238f0be14fa1a49641cd8a455e29
Supplements https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2Fhyp.70154&file=hyp70154-sup-0001-Supinfo.docx
Keywords landscape heterogeneity; monitoring networks; river; spatial variability; temporal variability; water quality
Abstract The deterioration of stream water quality threatens ecosystems and human water security worldwide. Effective risk assessment and mitigation requires spatial and temporal data from water quality monitoring networks (WQMNs). However, it remains challenging to quantify how well current WQMNs capture the spatiotemporal variability of stream water quality, making their evaluation and optimisation an important task for water management. Here, we investigate the spatial and temporal variability of concentrations of three constituents, representing different input pathways: anthropogenic (NO3), geogenic (Ca2+) and biogenic (total organic carbon, TOC) at 1215 stations in three major river basins in Germany. We present a typology to classify each constituent on the basis of magnitude, range and dominance of spatial versus temporal variability. We found that mean measures of spatial variability dominated over those for temporal variability for NO3 and Ca2+, while for TOC they were approximately equal. The observed spatiotemporal patterns were robustly explained by a combination of local landscape composition and network-scale landscape heterogeneity, as well as the degree of spatial auto-correlation of water quality. Our analysis suggests that river network position systematically influences the inference of spatial variability more than temporal variability. By employing a space–time variance framework, this study provides a step towards optimising WQMNs to create water quality data sets that are balanced in time and space, ultimately improving the efficiency of resource allocation and maximising the value of the information obtained.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=30752
Schauer, L.S., Jawitz, J.W., Cohen, M.J., Musolff, A. (2025):
Spatial and temporal variability of river water quality
Hydrol. Process. 39 (5), e70154 10.1002/hyp.70154