Analysis of Trends in Low-Flow Time Series of Canadian Rivers - Hydrologic Time Series Analysis: Theory and Practice - page 207

10.3 A Case Study of Trend Analysis in Time Series of
Annual and Seasonal Low Flows
10.3.1 Study Area and Data
Canada is a vast country with various distinct climatic regions. Hare and
Thomas (1979) delimited Canadian territory into eleven major homogenous
ecoclimatic regions, based on similarity in physiography, i.e., land formation,
climate, currents and distribution of flora and fauna within a region. These
ecoclimatic regions include the luxuriant Pacific rainforest region with warm,
humid Mediterranean climate on the west coast, the Maritimes with Maritime
climate of the Atlantic on the east coast, the Arctic consisting of frozen,
windswept, treeless polar deserts in the north and the Prairies (sun-drenched
grain fields and grasslands) and boreal forests on the south (Yue and Pilon,
2005). Canada has more lakes than any other country and some of the largest
freshwater reserves in the world. Typically, spring melt alone or spring melt
with rain generates spring floods that are several orders of magnitude larger
than the winter and summer low flows. Spring high flows are followed by a
decline in flow which is revived occasionally by summer/fall rainstorms. In
Fig. 10.4. Location and seasonal classification of 201 RHBN gauging stations.
Empty circles, asterisks and filled diamonds correspond to stations where annual
7-day minimum flows were observed during the winter season only, during the
summer season only and during both winter and summer seasons, respectively.
The two letter abbreviations are: YT-Yukon Territory, NT-Northwest Territories,
NU-Nunavut, BC-British Columbia, AB-Alberta, SK-Saskatchewan, MB-
Manitoba, ON-Ontario, QC-Quebec, NB-New Brunswick, NS-Nova Scotia,
PE-Prince Edward Island and NL-Newfoundland. Source: Khaliq et al. (2008).