Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Impact of ENSO on River Flows in Guyana

  • Published:
Water Resources Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon is a natural part of the global climate system resulting from the interactions between large-scale ocean atmospheric circulation processes in the equatorial Pacific and Indian Oceans. In Guyana, for all the adverse weather and extreme hydrological events, the blame goes to El Niño or La Niña. This paper investigates the relationship between ENSO and three Guyanese river flows; the Demarara, Essequibo and Mazaruni. This work sheds some light on the effects of this phenomenon on these river flows which may be useful for the adaptation policies dealing with the impacts of ENSO.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abtew W, Trimble P (2010) El Niño–southern oscillation link to south Florida hydrology and water management applications. Water Res Manag 24:4255–4271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aceituno P (1988) On the functioning of the southern oscillation in the south American sector. Am Meteorol Soc 116:505–524

    Google Scholar 

  • Bischoff SA, García NO, Vargas WM, Jones PD, Conway D (2000) Climatic variability and Uruguay river flows. Water Int 25(3):446–456

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiew F, Whetton P, Mcmahon T, Pittock A (1995a) Simulation of the impacts of climate change on runoff and soil moisture in Australian catchments. J Hydrol 167:121–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiew F, Whetton P, McMahon T (1995b) Detection of climate change in recorded runoff volumes in south-east Australian rivers. Int J Climatol 13:643–653

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiew F, Peel MC,Western AW(2002) Application and testing of the simple rainfall-runoff model SIMHYD. In: V.P. Singh and D.K Frevert (eds) Mathematical models of small watershed hydrology and applications. Water Resources Publication Littleton, Colorado, pp 335–367

  • Cluis D, Laberge C (2002) Analysis of the El Niño effect on the discharge of selected rivers in the Asia-pacific region. Water Int 27(2):279–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Country Assessment Report for Guyana (2009) Enhancing gender visibility in disaster risk management and climate change in the Caribbean for United Nations Development Programme

  • Dettinger MD, Diaz HF (2000) Global characteristics of stream flow seasonality and variability. J Hydrometeorol 1:289–310. doi:10.1175/1525-7541(2000)001<0289:GCOSFS>2.0.CO;2

    Google Scholar 

  • Diaz H, 1994. Is the hydrologic cycle changing? Contribution to IPCC (1995) Chapter 7, Scientific Assessment of Climate Change

  • GNC: Guyana National Communication (2010): monitoring and understanding climate change and impacts (accessed 25th September 2010) Available from World Wide Webhttp://www.guyanaclimate.org

  • Gupta SP (2008) Statistical Methods. 37th Revised Edition, Educational publishers, New Delhi

  • Guyana Country Report (2003) Status of hazard maps vulnerability assessment and digital map by the Caribbean disaster emergency response agency

  • Hastenrath S (1990) Diagnostics and prediction of anomalous river discharge in northern south America. J Clim 3:1080–1096

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane RP (1997) Prediction of droughts in north-east Brazil: role of ENSO and use of periodicities. Int J Climatolology 17:655–665

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane RP (1999) Rainfall extremes in some selected parts of Central and South America: ENSO and other relationships reexamined. Int J Climatol 19:423–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiem A, Franks S (2001) On the identification of ENSO-induced rainfall and runoff variability: a comparison of methods and indices. Hydrol Sci-J-des Sci Hydrol 46(5):715–727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiladis GN, Diaz HF (1989) Global climatic anomalies associated with extremes in the Southern Oscillation. J Climate 2:1069–1090

    Google Scholar 

  • Kousky VE, Kango MT, Cavalcanti IFA (1984) A review of the southern oscillation, oceanic-atmospheric circulation changes and related rainfall anomalies. Tellus 36(A):490–504

    Google Scholar 

  • Lim HS, Boochabun K, Ziegler AD (2012) Modifiers and Amplifiers of High and low Flows on the Ping River in Northern Thailand (1921– 2009): The Roles of Climatic Events and Anthropogenic Activity. Water Resource Management. doi:10.1007/s11269-012-0140-z

    Google Scholar 

  • Marengo J (1992) Interannual variability of surface climate in the Amazon basin. Int J Climatol 12:853–863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marengo AJ (1995) Variations and change in South American streamflow. Clim Chang 31:99–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marengo J, Druyan L, Hastenrath S (1993) Observational and modelling studies of Amazonia interannual climate variability. Climate Change 23:267–286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mechoso C, Iribarren G (1992) Stream flow in southeastern south America and the southern oscillation. J Clim 5:1535–1539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Molion L, Moraes J (1987) OscilaçaoSul de descarga de riosna America do Sul tropicana, Rev. Bras. Eng. Caderno de Hidrologia 5(1):53–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Philander, SGH (1990) El Niño, La Niña, and the Southern Oscillation.Academic Press 293

  • Poveda G, Mesa O (1996) Las fasesextremasdel ENSO – El Niño y la Niña – y suinfluenciasobre la hidrología de Colombia. RevistaIngenieríaHidráulica 11(1):21–37

  • Poveda G, Jaramillo A, Gil M, Quiceno N, Mantilla R (2001) Seasonality in ENSO-related precipitation, river discharges, soil moisture, and vegetation index in Colombia. Water Resour Res 37(8):2169–2178

    Google Scholar 

  • Proveda G, Mesa OJ (1997) Feedbacks between hydrological processes in tropical south America and large-scale ocean-atmospheric phenomena. J Clim 10:2690–2701

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richey H, Nobre C, Deser C (1989) Amazon river discharge and climate variability. Science, New Series 246(4926):101–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson DE, Wang QJ (2013) Seasonal forecasts of unregulated inflows into the Murray river, Australia. Water Resour Manag. doi:10.1007/s11269-013-0313-4

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers JC (1988) Precipitation variability over the Caribbean and tropical Americas associated with the southern oscillation. J Clim 1:172–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ropelewski CF, Halpert MS (1987) Global and regional scale precipitation patterns associated with the El Nino/Southern Oscillation. Mon Weather Rev 115:1606–1626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ropelewski CF, Halpert MS (1989) Precipitation patterns associated with the high index phase of the Southern Oscillation. J Clim 2:268–284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ropelewski CF, Halpert MS (1996) Quantifying Southern Oscillation-precipitation relationships. J Climate 9:1043–1059

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward PJ, Beets W, Bouwer LM, Aerts JCJH, Renssen H (2010) Sensitivity of river discharge to ENSO. Geophys Res Lett 37, L12402. doi:10.1029/2010GL043215

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Guyana Hydro-meteorological Service for providing river flow data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to D. S. Arya.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Misir, V., Arya, D.S. & Murumkar, A.R. Impact of ENSO on River Flows in Guyana. Water Resour Manage 27, 4611–4621 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-013-0430-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-013-0430-0

Keywords

Navigation