Streamflow Regime Changes in Canada

Streamflow regime types are identified for the 105 natural Canadian stations using Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) algorithm. The stations are extracted from Reference Hydrometric Basin Network (RHBN, Water Survey of Canada, 2017, http://www.wsc.ec.gc.ca/) for the period of 1966-2010 to classify streams into a set of six overlapping regime types during the common period. These streamflow regime classes include (1) slow-response/warm-season peak (2) fast-response/warm-season peak (3) slow-response/freshet peak (4) fast-response/freshet peak (5) slow-response/cold-season peak (6) fast-response/cold-season peak. Here, we visualize the shapes of annual hydrographs in the six archetype streams during the baseline period of 1966-1975 and show how they evolve to the last decadal period of 2001-2010. More information on how the six flow regime types are derived and a detailed description of each regime type can be found in Zaerpour et al. (2020). Zaerpour, M., Hatami, S., Sadri, J., and Nazemi, A.: A novel algorithmic framework for identifying changing streamflow regimes: Application to Canadian natural streams (1966–2010), Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2020-334, in review, 2020.