Analysis of Baseflow Contribution to Streamflow at Several Flow Stations

Streamflow is typically divided into two components that are direct runoff and baseflow, it is required to analyze and estimate behaviors of those two flow components to understand watershed characteristics so that watershed management plan can be effective in pollutant reductions. Since pollutant load behaviors in a stream or river are variable by flow component behaviors, best management practices need to be applied in a watershed based on the pollutant load behaviors varying with flow components. Thus, baseflow behaviors were analyzed separating baseflow from streamflow data collected from fifteen streamflow gaging stations in the 4 major river watersheds which are the Han river, Nakdong river, Guem river, and Yeongsan Somjin river watersheds. Moreover, precipitation trends throughout the 4 River Systems were investigated, thus daily precipitation data were collected from sixty-five locations. The Hank river watershed displayed the largest precipitation (925.2 mm) in summer but the lowest precipitation (71.8 mm) in winter, indicating the watershed has the most fluctuating precipitation characteristic. While the precipitation trends in the Four River Systems varied, a distinct feature in baseflow trends was not found, moreover baseflow percentages to streamflow were typically greater than 50% in the Four River Systems. As shown in this study, it would be expected significant amount of pollutants could be contributed to the stream in the form of baseflow at the watershed.