Annual shifts of flow regime alteration: new insights from the Chaishitan Reservoir in China

Reservoir regulation is variable for flow regime alterations and mainly depends on operational objectives and hydro-meteorological conditions. In this study, the flow regime metrics (i.e., magnitude, variability and frequency, duration, timing and rate of change) are adopted to describe variations in both long-term inflow and outflow series of the Chaishitan Reservoir in China. Deviations between the inflow and outflow metrics are calculated to assess the flow regime alterations at annual scale. Further, dimensions of both time and flow regimes are reduced by multivariate statistical analysis, and the regulation patterns and their annual shifts are identified. Results show that: four regulation patterns are identified from 2004 to 2015. The regulation is gradually enhanced over time with typical features of different hydrological years. In dry years, the pattern is slightly regulated flow regimes with slightly discharging stored water and flattening outflow, moderate stability and intermittency. In normal years, the pattern is slightly regulated flow regimes with extremely increasing flow magnitude in the pre-nonflood season, high stability and slight intermittency. In wet years, the pattern is moderately regulated flow regimes with moderately decreasing flow magnitude in the flood season but extremely increasing flow magnitude in the nonflood season, slight stability and high intermittency.