Contrasting hydrologic response in the cuesta landscapes of Luxembourg

Abstract

The Attert River basin in Luxembourg is characterised by a large variety of clean and mixed physiogeographical settings (i.e. topography, soil types, land use, bedrock geology, etc.). This in turn generates manifold configurations of rainfall-runoff transformation processes. Here, we provide experimental data from more than a decade of hydro-meteorological observations carried out in a nested catchment set-up, and develop on past and ongoing research on fundamental hydrological functions of catchments: water collection, storage and release. In a first section, we detail the characteristics of the Attert River basin and a set of 9 nested sub-catchments. The second section provides insights into the seasonal and spatial variability of hydrological responses along a wide range of landuse, soil and bedrock settings. The analysis of double-mass curves between precipitation and discharge provided insights into how certain physiogeographic characteristics control hydrological responses. In the third section, we develop on dynamic catchment storage and how it differs between catchments with contrasted landuse and lithology. The fourth section provides insights into the spatial and temporal variability of forest canopy and forest floor storage capacity. Given the considerable amount of precipitation that is intercepted at annual scale, the process is likely to have a substantial influence on catchment storage dynamics.