Hydrologic Alteration Associated with Dam Construction in a Medium-Sized Coastal Watershed of Southeast China

Sustainable water resource management requires dams operations that provide environmental flow to support the downstream riverine ecosystem. However, relatively little is known about the hydrologic impact of small and medium dams in the smaller basin in China. Flow duration curve, indicators of hydrologic alteration andrange of variability approach were coupled in this study to evaluate the pre- and post-impact hydrologic regimes associated with dam construction using 44 years (1967–2010) of hydrologic data in the Jiulong River Watershed (JRW), a medium-sized coastal watershed of Southeast China, which suffered from intensive cascade damming. Results showed that the daily streamflow decreased in higher flow while daily streamflow increased in lower flow in both two reaches of the JRW. The dams in the North River tended to store more water while the dams in the West River tended to release more water. The mean daily streamflow increased during July to January while decreased during February to May after dam construction in both two reaches of the JRW. After dam construction, the monthly streamflow changed more significantly and higher variability of monthly streamflow exhibited in the West River than in the North River. The homeogenizing variability of monthly streamflow was observed in both two reaches of the JRW. The earlier occurrence time of extreme low streamflow event and later occurrence time of extreme high streamflow event exhibited after dams construction. The extreme low and high streamfow both decreased in the North River while both increased in the West River of the JRW. All of the indicators especially for the low pulse count (101.8%) and the low pulse duration (−62.1%) changed significantly in the North River. The high pulse count decreased by 37.1% in the West River and the count of low pulse increased abnormally in the North River. The high pulse duration in the post-impact period increased in the two reaches of JRW. The rise rate decreased by 26.9% and 61.0%,and number of reversals increased by 40.7% and 46.4% in the North River and West River, respectively. Suitable ranges of streamflow regime in terms of magnitude, rate, and frequency were further identified for environmental flow management in the North River and West River. This research advances our understanding of hydrologic impact of small and medium dams in the medium-sized basin in China.