Streamflow projections were estimated for river basins of relevance to the Brazilian hydroelectric sector from monthly precipitation projections from global models of the fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC-AR5 from 2010 to 2098 for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. Streamflow were computed using the Soil Moisture Accounting Procedure (SMAP) hydrological model, which was forced by bias-corrected precipitation from the monthly rain data of the Climatic Research Unit and by the estimation of potential evapotranspiration according to the Penman–Monteith method. The impacts on average annual streamflow were analyzed for the periods 2010–2039, 2040–2069 and 2070–2098 in comparison with the observational record (historical experiment) from 1950 to 1999. Most IPCC-AR5 models agree in terms of the impact on the electrical sector in the southeastern/midwestern and northern regions, showing that streamflow may be reduced up to 15% in each 30-year period on Furnas basin and approximately 30% by the end of the century in Tucuruí basin under RCP8.5 scenario. In the northeastern sector, the divergence of the models suggests great uncertainty, emphasized in the Xingó basin. In the southern sector, results show increasing streamflow over southernmost Brazil and decreasing over intersection between southern and southeastern regions.
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Research Article|
October 31 2016
Streamflow projections for the Brazilian hydropower sector from RCP scenarios Available to Purchase
Cleiton da Silva Silveira;
1Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira – UNILAB, Rodovia BR 116 2555 – KM06 GP13, Acarapé, Ceará, Brazil
E-mail: [email protected]
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Francisco de Assis de Souza Filho;
Francisco de Assis de Souza Filho
2Departamento de Engenharia Hidraúlica Ambiental, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Campus do Pici, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
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Francisco das Chagas Vasconcelos Júnior
Francisco das Chagas Vasconcelos Júnior
2Departamento de Engenharia Hidraúlica Ambiental, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Campus do Pici, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
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Journal of Water and Climate Change (2017) 8 (1): 114–126.
Article history
Received:
February 10 2016
Accepted:
September 02 2016
Citation
Cleiton da Silva Silveira, Francisco de Assis de Souza Filho, Francisco das Chagas Vasconcelos Júnior; Streamflow projections for the Brazilian hydropower sector from RCP scenarios. Journal of Water and Climate Change 1 March 2017; 8 (1): 114–126. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wcc.2016.052
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