Characterizing operational signatures of reservoirs with the SWOT satellite by comparing natural lake and reservoir dynamics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15552134 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ryan Riggs (0000-0001-6834-9469, United States Geological Survey, corresponding author), Jesse E Dickinson (0000-0002-0048-0839, United States Geological Survey), Craig Brinkerhoff (0000-0001-6701-4835, Yale University), Md Safat Sikder (0000-0002-1910-1800, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Jida Wang (0000-0003-3548-8918, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Huilin Gao (0000-0001-7009-8005, Texas A&M University), George H Allen (0000-0001-8301-5301, Virginia Tech) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 044008-044008 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-09 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/ae436e |
| OpenAlex | W7128502319 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 76 |
Due to a lack of management operations data, hydrological models may represent reservoirs as natural lakes, leading to poor discharge predictions in regulated basins. To parse seasonal operational signatures, we compare the dynamics of natural lake and reservoir systems across North America using Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite observations and derived discharge estimates. Overall, reservoirs and their adjacent river reaches exhibit significantly greater variability (in standard deviation) than their natural counterparts across almost all SWOT observed (e.g. water surface elevation) and inferred (e.g. discharge) variables. Natural lakes show strong same-day correlations between inflow and outflow discharge (median Spearman R = 0.8), whereas 76% of reservoirs exhibit maximum correlation when outflow is lagged, suggesting operations buffer seasonal flow variability. Our findings indicate operations not only affect reservoir dynamics themselves but also have upstream and downstream consequences, which, when integrated into models, will offer more realistic hydrologic conditions
Discharge · Hydrology (agriculture · Inflow · Natural (archaeology · Outflow · Satellite · Surface water · SWOT Analysis · Fish Ecology and Management Studies · Flood Risk Assessment and Management · Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies
| Highly cited | No |
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