Trends in Flow Intermittence for 452 European and Mediterranean Rivers

Yves Tramblay from Laboratoire HydroSciences Montpellier analyzed trends in intermittence for 452 rivers in Europe and Mediterranean countries. The dataset includes annual and seasonal zero-flow days, maximum dry spell duration, and mean event dates, with relationships to climate indices like SPEI. Results indicate increasing zero-flow days, particularly in Southern Europe, suggesting heightened water stress.

Use Cases

• Modeling river intermittence trends based on annual and seasonal zero-flow day counts
• Investigating relationships between flow cessation and climate indices like the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI)
• Assessing spatial variability of seasonal intermittence patterns across European catchments
• Analyzing the timing of zero-flow events and maximum dry spell durations for water resource planning

Strengths

• Analysis covers 452 rivers across Europe and Mediterranean countries, providing a broad spatial scope
• Includes multiple intermittence metrics: zero-flow days, dry spell duration, and event timing
• Investigates relationships with six large-scale atmospheric circulation indices and the SPEI climate index

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified

Provenance

Source

Laboratoire HydroSciences Montpellier

Collection Method

Trend analysis performed on a database of river intermittence characteristics.

Geography

Europe and Mediterranean countries outside Europe