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Evaluation of water resources in a high-mountain basin in Serra da Estrela, Central Portugal, using a semi-distributed hydrological model

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Abstract

High-mountain basins provide a source of valuable water resources. This paper presents hydrological models for the evaluation of water resources in the high-mountain Zêzere river basin in Serra da Estrela, Central Portugal. Models are solved with VISUAL BALAN v2.0, a code which performs daily water balances in the root zone, the unsaturated zone and the aquifer and requires a small number of parameters. A lumped hydrological model fails to fit measured stream flows. Its limitations are overcome by considering the dependence of the temperature and precipitation data with elevation and the spatial variability in hydrogeomorphological variables with nine sub-basins of uniform parameters. Model parameters are calibrated by fitting stream flow measurements in the Zêzere river. Computed stream flows are highly sensitive to soil thickness, whereas computed groundwater recharge is most sensitive to the interflow and percolation recession coefficients. Interflow is the main component of total runoff, ranging from 41 to 55% of annual precipitation. High interflows are favored by the steep relief of the basin, by the presence of a high permeability soil overlying the fractured low permeability granitic bedrock and by the extensive subhorizontal fracturing at shallow depths. Mean annual groundwater recharge ranges from 11 to 15% of annual precipitation. It has a significant uncertainty due to uncertainties in soil parameters. This methodology proves to be useful to handle the research difficulties regarding a complex mountain basin in a context of data scarcity.

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Acknowledgments

This study was performed within the scope of the HIMOCATCH R&D Project granted by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and FEDER EU funds, contract POCTI/CTA/44235/02. Funding for the development of VISUAL BALAN was provided by the Spanish Interministerial Commission on Science and Technology Project REN 2003-8882. JMC and HIC were supported by Labcarga-IPP-ISEP|PAD’2007/08. The authors would like to thank A. Pires for drawing Fig. 6. We acknowledge the anonymous referees for the constructive reviews that helped to improve the clarity of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dep. de Geociências, Ambiente e Ordenamento do Território, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Centro de Geologia da Universidade do Porto (CGUP), Rua do Campo Alegre, 687, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal

    J. Espinha Marques & F. Sodré Borges

  2. E.T.S. de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad de La Coruña, La Coruña, Spain

    J. Samper, B. Pisani & D. Alvares

  3. Laboratório de Cartografia e Geologia Aplicada (LABCARGA), Dep. de Engenharia Geotécnica, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto and Centro GeoBioTec|UA, Porto, Portugal

    J. M. Carvalho & H. I. Chaminé

  4. Dep. de Engenharia de Minas e Georrecursos, Centro de Petrologia e Geoquímica (CEPGIST), Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    J. M. Marques

  5. Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    G. T. Vieira & C. Mora

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  1. J. Espinha Marques
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  2. J. Samper
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  6. H. I. Chaminé
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  7. J. M. Marques
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  9. C. Mora
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  10. F. Sodré Borges
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Correspondence to J. Espinha Marques.

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Espinha Marques, J., Samper, J., Pisani, B. et al. Evaluation of water resources in a high-mountain basin in Serra da Estrela, Central Portugal, using a semi-distributed hydrological model. Environ Earth Sci 62, 1219–1234 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-010-0610-7

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