@article{KormannFranckeRenneretal.2015,
  author    = {Kormann, Christoph and Francke, Till and Renner, M. and Bronstert, Axel},
  title     = {Attribution of high resolution streamflow trends in Western Austria - an approach based on climate and discharge station data},
  series = {Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS},
  volume    = {19},
  journal   = {Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {Copernicus},
  address   = {G{\"o}ttingen},
  issn      = {1027-5606},
  doi       = {10.5194/hess-19-1225-2015},
  pages     = {1225 -- 1245},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The results of streamflow trend studies are often characterized by mostly insignificant trends and inexplicable spatial patterns. In our study region, Western Austria, this applies especially for trends of annually averaged runoff. However, analysing the altitudinal aspect, we found that there is a trend gradient from higher-altitude to lower-altitude stations, i.e. a pattern of mostly positive annual trends at higher stations and negative ones at lower stations. At mid-altitudes, the trends are mostly insignificant. Here we hypothesize that the streamflow trends are caused by the following two main processes: on the one hand, melting glaciers produce excess runoff at higher-altitude watersheds. On the other hand, rising temperatures potentially alter hydrological conditions in terms of less snowfall, higher infiltration, enhanced evapotranspiration, etc., which in turn results in decreasing streamflow trends at lower-altitude watersheds. However, these patterns are masked at mid-altitudes because the resulting positive and negative trends balance each other. To support these hypotheses, we attempted to attribute the detected trends to specific causes. For this purpose, we analysed trends of filtered daily streamflow data, as the causes for these changes might be restricted to a smaller temporal scale than the annual one. This allowed for the explicit determination of the exact days of year (DOYs) when certain streamflow trends emerge, which were then linked with the corresponding DOYs of the trends and characteristic dates of other observed variables, e.g. the average DOY when temperature crosses the freezing point in spring. Based on these analyses, an empirical statistical model was derived that was able to simulate daily streamflow trends sufficiently well. Analyses of subdaily streamflow changes provided additional insights. Finally, the present study supports many modelling approaches in the literature which found out that the main drivers of alpine streamflow changes are increased glacial melt, earlier snowmelt and lower snow accumulation in wintertime.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KormannFranckeBronstert2015,
  author    = {Kormann, Christoph and Francke, Till and Bronstert, Axel},
  title     = {Detection of regional climate change effects on alpine hydrology by daily resolution trend analysis in Tyrol, Austria},
  series = {Journal of water and climate change},
  volume    = {6},
  journal   = {Journal of water and climate change},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {IWA Publ.},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2040-2244},
  doi       = {10.2166/wcc.2014.099},
  pages     = {124 -- 143},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Owing to average temperature increases of at least twice the global mean, climate change is expected to have strong impacts on local hydrology and climatology in the Alps. Nevertheless, trend analyses of hydro-climatic station data rarely reveal clear patterns concerning climate change signals except in temperature observations. However, trend research has thus far mostly been based on analysing trends of averaged data such as yearly, seasonal or monthly averages and has therefore often not been able to detect the finer temporal dynamics. For this reason, we derived 30-day moving average trends, providing a daily resolution of the timing and magnitude of trends within the seasons. Results are validated by including different time periods. We studied daily observations of mean temperature, liquid and solid precipitation, snow height and runoff in the relatively dry central Alpine region in Tyrol, Austria. Our results indicate that the vast majority of changes are observed throughout spring to early summer, most likely triggered by the strong temperature increase during this season. Temperature, streamflow and snow trends have clearly amplified during recent decades. The overall results are consistent over the entire investigation area and different time periods.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{KormannBronstertFranckeetal.2017,
  author    = {Kormann, Christoph and Bronstert, Axel and Francke, Till and Recknagel, Thomas and Gr{\"a}ff, Thomas},
  title     = {Model-Based attribution of high-resolution streamflow trends in two alpine basins of Western Austria},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-400641},
  pages     = {21},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Several trend studies have shown that hydrological conditions are changing considerably in the Alpine region. However, the reasons for these changes are only partially understood and trend analyses alone are not able to shed much light. Hydrological modelling is one possible way to identify the trend drivers, i.e., to attribute the detected streamflow trends, given that the model captures all important processes causing the trends. We modelled the hydrological conditions for two alpine catchments in western Austria (a large, mostly lower-altitude catchment with wide valley plains and a nested high-altitude, glaciated headwater catchment) with the distributed, physically-oriented WaSiM-ETH model, which includes a dynamical glacier module. The model was calibrated in a transient mode, i.e., not only on several standard goodness measures and glacier extents, but also in such a way that the simulated streamflow trends fit with the observed ones during the investigation period 1980 to 2007. With this approach, it was possible to separate streamflow components, identify the trends of flow components, and study their relation to trends in atmospheric variables. In addition to trends in annual averages, highly resolved trends for each Julian day were derived, since they proved powerful in an earlier, data-based attribution study. We were able to show that annual and highly resolved trends can be modelled sufficiently well. The results provide a holistic, year-round picture of the drivers of alpine streamflow changes: Higher-altitude catchments are strongly affected by earlier firn melt and snowmelt in spring and increased ice melt throughout the ablation season. Changes in lower-altitude areas are mostly caused by earlier and lower snowmelt volumes. All highly resolved trends in streamflow and its components show an explicit similarity to the local temperature trends. Finally, results indicate that evapotranspiration has been increasing in the lower altitudes during the study period.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchattanBaroniOswaldetal.2017,
  author    = {Schattan, Paul and Baroni, Gabriele and Oswald, Sascha and Schoeber, Johannes and Fey, Christine and Kormann, Christoph and Huttenlau, Matthias and Achleitner, Stefan},
  title     = {Continuous monitoring of snowpack dynamics in alpine terrain by aboveground neutron sensing},
  series = {Water resources research},
  volume    = {53},
  journal   = {Water resources research},
  publisher = {American Geophysical Union},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {0043-1397},
  doi       = {10.1002/2016WR020234},
  pages     = {3615 -- 3634},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {The characteristics of an aboveground cosmic-ray neutron sensor (CRNS) are evaluated for monitoring a mountain snowpack in the Austrian Alps from March 2014 to June 2016. Neutron counts were compared to continuous point-scale snow depth (SD) and snow-water-equivalent (SWE) measurements from an automatic weather station with a maximum SWE of 600 mm (April 2014). Several spatially distributed Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS)-based SD and SWE maps were additionally used. A strong nonlinear correlation is found for both SD and SWE. The representative footprint of the CRNS is in the range of 230-270 m. In contrast to previous studies suggesting signal saturation at around 100 mm of SWE, no complete signal saturation was observed. These results imply that CRNS could be transferred into an unprecedented method for continuous detection of spatially averaged SD and SWE for alpine snowpacks, though with sensitivity decreasing with increasing SWE. While initially different functions were found for accumulation and melting season conditions, this could be resolved by accounting for a limited measurement depth. This depth limit is in the range of 200 mm of SWE for dense snowpacks with high liquid water contents and associated snow density values around 450 kg m(-3) and above. In contrast to prior studies with shallow snowpacks, interannual transferability of the results is very high regardless of presnowfall soil moisture conditions. This underlines the unexpectedly high potential of CRNS to close the gap between point-scale measurements, hydrological models, and remote sensing of the cryosphere in alpine terrain.},
  language  = {en}
}