Technical note: An improved discharge sensitivity metric for young water fractions

Recent virtual and experimental investigations have shown that the young water fraction Fyw (i.e. the proportion of catchment outflow younger than circa 2–3 months) increases with discharge in most catchments. The discharge sensitivity of Fyw has been defined as the rate of increase in Fyw with increasing discharge (Q) and has been estimated by the linear regression slope between Fyw and Q, hereafter called DS(Q). The combined use of both metrics, Fyw and DS(Q), provides a promising method for catchment inter-comparison studies that seek to understand streamflow generation processes. Here we explore the discharge sensitivity of Fyw in the intensively sampled small Mediterranean research catchment Can Vila. Intensive sampling of high flows at Can Vila allows young water fractions to be estimated for the far upper tail of the flow frequency distribution. These young water fractions converge toward 1 at the highest flows, illustrating a conceptual limitation in the linear regression method for estimating DS(Q) as a metric of discharge sensitivity: Fyw cannot grow with discharge indefinitely, since the fraction of young water in discharge can never be larger than 1. Here we propose to quantify discharge sensitivity by the parameter of an exponential-type equation that expresses how Fyw varies with discharge. The exponential parameter (Sd) approximates DS(Q) at moderate discharges where Fyw is well below 1; however, the exponential equation and its discharge sensitivity metric better capture the non-linear relationship between Fyw and Q and are robust with respect to changes in the range of sampled discharges, allowing comparisons between catchments with strongly contrasting flow regimes.This research was supported by the projects TransHyMed (CGL2016-75957-R AEI/FEDER, UE) and Drought-CH (National Research Programme NRP 61 by the Swiss National Science Foundation). We are grateful to Carles Cayuela, Gisela Bertràn, Maria Roig-Planasdemunt and Elisenda Sánchez for their support during field work at the Can Vila catchment and to Michael Eaude for his English style improvements. Financial support. This research has been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Spain) (grant no. CGL2016‐75957‐R AEI/FEDER, UE) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (Switzerland) (National Research Programme NRP 61).Peer reviewe