scholarly journals Russian Rivers Streamflow Forecasting Using Hydrograph Extrapolation Method

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sergei Borsch ◽  
Yuri Simonov ◽  
Andrei Khristoforov ◽  
Natalia Semenova ◽  
Valeria Koliy ◽  
...  

This paper presents a method of hydrograph extrapolation, intended for simple and efficient streamflow forecasting with up to 10 days lead time. The forecast of discharges or water levels is expressed by a linear formula depending on their values on the date of the forecast release and the five previous days. Such forecast techniques were developed for more than 2700 stream gauging stations across Russia. Forecast verification has shown that this method can be successfully applied to large rivers with a smooth shape of hydrographs, while for small mountain catchments, the accuracy of the method tends to be lower. The method has been implemented into real-time continuous operations in the Hydrometcentre of Russia. In the territory of Russia, 18 regions have been identified with a single dependency of the maximum lead time of good forecasts on the area and average slope of the catchment surface for different catchments of each region; the possibilities of forecasting river streamflow by the method of hydrograph extrapolation are approximately estimated. The proposed method can be considered as a first approximation while solving the problem of forecasting river flow in conditions of a lack of meteorological information or when it is necessary to quickly develop a forecasting system for a large number of catchments.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
S.V. Borsch ◽  
◽  
V.M/ Koliy ◽  
N.K. Semenova ◽  
Yu.A., Simonov ◽  
...  

Forecasting the flow of Russian rivers by hydrograph extrapolation / Borsch S.V., Koliy V.M., Semenova N.K., Simonov Yu.A., Khristoforov A.V. // Hydrometeorological Research and Forecasting, 2021, no. 2 (380), pp. 77-94. An automated system has been developed based on the hydrograph extrapolation method, which allows the year-round daily forecasting of water level and streamflow for the Russian rivers with up to 10-day lead time. The forecast of discharges or water levels is expressed by a linear formula depending on their values on the date of the forecast issue and five previous days. The forecasting scheme limits the possible minimum and maximum values of the discharge or water level based on historical data. Forecast schemes were obtained for 2776 river gauges. The time period from 2010 to 2019 with daily observations of discharge and water level was used. The forecast verification shows that this method can be successfully applied to large rivers with smooth hydrographs. Keywords: daily discharge and water levels, short- and medium-term forecasts, hydrograph extrapolation method, forecast verification, maximum lead time of satisfactory forecasts, self-learning of an automated system for preparing and issuing forecasts


Author(s):  
Ganesh R. Ghimire ◽  
Witold F. Krajewski ◽  
Felipe Quintero

AbstractIncorporating rainfall forecasts into a real-time streamflow forecasting system extends the forecast lead time. Since quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) are subject to substantial uncertainties, questions arise on the trade-off between the time horizon of the QPF and the accuracy of the streamflow forecasts. This study explores the problem systematically, exploring the uncertainties associated with QPFs and their hydrologic predictability. The focus is on scale dependence of the trade-off between the QPF time horizon, basin-scale, space-time scale of the QPF, and streamflow forecasting accuracy. To address this question, the study first performs a comprehensive independent evaluation of the QPFs at 140 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitored basins with a wide range of spatial scales (~10 – 40,000 km2) over the state of Iowa in the Midwestern United States. The study uses High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) and Global Forecasting System (GFS) QPFs for short and medium-range forecasts, respectively. Using Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) quantitative precipitation estimate (QPE) as a reference, the results show that the rainfall-to-rainfall QPF errors are scale-dependent. The results from the hydrologic forecasting experiment show that both QPFs illustrate clear value for real-time streamflow forecasting at longer lead times in the short- to medium-range relative to the no-rain streamflow forecast. The value of QPFs for streamflow forecasting is particularly apparent for basin sizes below 1,000 km2. The space-time scale, or reference time (tr) (ratio of forecast lead time to basin travel time) ~ 1 depicts the largest streamflow forecasting skill with a systematic decrease in forecasting accuracy for tr > 1.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2359-2373 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Dutra ◽  
F. Di Giuseppe ◽  
F. Wetterhall ◽  
F. Pappenberger

Abstract. Vast parts of Africa rely on the rainy season for livestock and agriculture. Droughts can have a severe impact in these areas, which often have a very low resilience and limited capabilities to mitigate drought impacts. This paper assesses the predictive capabilities of an integrated drought monitoring and seasonal forecasting system (up to 5 months lead time) based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The system is constructed by extending near-real-time monthly precipitation fields (ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis and the Climate Anomaly Monitoring System–Outgoing Longwave Radiation Precipitation Index, CAMS-OPI) with monthly forecasted fields as provided by the ECMWF seasonal forecasting system. The forecasts were then evaluated over four basins in Africa: the Blue Nile, Limpopo, Upper Niger, and Upper Zambezi. There are significant differences in the quality of the precipitation between the datasets depending on the catchments, and a general statement regarding the best product is difficult to make. The generally low number of rain gauges and their decrease in the recent years limits the verification and monitoring of droughts in the different basins, reinforcing the need for a strong investment on climate monitoring. All the datasets show similar spatial and temporal patterns in southern and north-western Africa, while there is a low correlation in the equatorial area, which makes it difficult to define ground truth and choose an adequate product for monitoring. The seasonal forecasts have a higher reliability and skill in the Blue Nile, Limpopo and Upper Niger in comparison with the Zambezi. This skill and reliability depend strongly on the SPI timescale, and longer timescales have more skill. The ECMWF seasonal forecasts have predictive skill which is higher than using climatology for most regions. In regions where no reliable near-real-time data is available, the seasonal forecast can be used for monitoring (first month of forecast). Furthermore, poor-quality precipitation monitoring products can reduce the potential skill of SPI seasonal forecasts in 2 to 4 months lead time.


Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Valdés-Pineda ◽  
Juan B. Valdés ◽  
Sungwook Wi ◽  
Aleix Serrat-Capdevila ◽  
Tirthankar Roy

The combination of Hydrological Models and high-resolution Satellite Precipitation Products (SPPs) or regional Climatological Models (RCMs), has provided the means to establish baselines for the quantification, propagation, and reduction in hydrological uncertainty when generating streamflow forecasts. This study aimed to improve operational real-time streamflow forecasts for the Upper Zambezi River Basin (UZRB), in Africa, utilizing the novel Variational Ensemble Forecasting (VEF) approach. In this regard, we describe and discuss the main steps required to implement, calibrate, and validate an operational hydrologic forecasting system (HFS) using VEF and Hydrologic Processing Strategies (HPS). The operational HFS was constructed to monitor daily streamflow and forecast them up to eight days in the future. The forecasting process called short- to medium-range (SR2MR) streamflow forecasting was implemented using real-time rainfall data from three Satellite Precipitation Products or SPPs (The real-time TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis TMPA-RT, the NOAA CPC Morphing Technique CMORPH, and the Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed data using Artificial Neural Networks, PERSIANN) and rainfall forecasts from the Global Forecasting System (GFS). The hydrologic preprocessing (HPR) strategy considered using all raw and bias corrected rainfall estimates to calibrate three distributed hydrological models (HYMOD_DS, HBV_DS, and VIC 4.2.b). The hydrologic processing (HP) strategy considered using all optimal parameter sets estimated during the calibration process to increase the number of ensembles available for operational forecasting. Finally, inference-based approaches were evaluated during the application of a hydrological postprocessing (HPP) strategy. The final evaluation and reduction in uncertainty from multiple sources, i.e., multiple precipitation products, hydrologic models, and optimal parameter sets, was significantly achieved through a fully operational implementation of VEF combined with several HPS. Finally, the main challenges and opportunities associated with operational SR2MR streamflow forecasting using VEF are evaluated and discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 2470-2483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tushar Sinha ◽  
A. Sankarasubramanian ◽  
Amirhossein Mazrooei

Abstract Despite considerable progress in developing real-time climate forecasts, most studies have evaluated the potential in seasonal streamflow forecasting based on ensemble streamflow prediction (ESP) methods, utilizing only climatological forcings while ignoring general circulation model (GCM)-based climate forecasts. The primary limitation in using GCM forecasts is their coarse resolution, which requires spatiotemporal downscaling to implement land surface models. Consequently, multiple sources of errors are introduced in developing real-time streamflow forecasts utilizing GCM forecasts. A set of error decomposition metrics is provided to address the following questions: 1) How are errors in monthly streamflow forecasts attributed to various sources such as temporal disaggregation, spatial downscaling, imprecise initial hydrologic conditions (IHCs), climatological forcings, and imprecise forecasts? and 2) How do these errors propagate with lead time over different seasons? A calibrated Variable Infiltration Capacity model is used over the Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee in the southeastern United States. The model is forced with a combination of daily precipitation forcings (temporally disaggregated observed precipitation, spatially downscaled and temporally disaggregated observed precipitation, ESP, ECHAM4.5 forecasts, and observed) and IHCs [simulated and climatological ensemble reverse ESP (RESP)] but with observed air temperature and wind speed at ⅛° resolution. Then, errors in forecasting monthly streamflow at up to a 3-month lead time are decomposed by comparing the forecasted streamflow to simulated streamflow under observed forcings. Results indicate that the errors due to temporal disaggregation are much higher than the spatial downscaling errors. During winter and early spring, the increasing order of errors at a 1-month lead time is spatial downscaling, model, temporal disaggregation, RESP, large-scale precipitation forecasts, and ESP.


Author(s):  

Methods of the maximum river flow forecasting of the Mzymta, Sochi, Zapadnyi Dagomys, Kuapse, Tuapse and Vulan rivers have been developed in order to prevent the flood risk on the rivers of the Black Sea coast. Approach of sufficiently accurate and efficient forecasting of maximum discharges and water levels with a lead time of one day has been developed on the basis of a hydrological model of snowmelt and rainfall runoff formation. A scheme for the computation of daily critical precipitation amount at the meteorological stations causing the exceeding with a given probability of critical flow rates and water levels during the expected day was proposed. Techniques of dangerous flooding probability computation during the next day and next five days depending on the initial hydro/meteorological data available on the forecast issue date of hydro/meteorological information have been developed. The proposed methods can be implemented in the operational automated flood forecasting system and used for warning of dangerous floods on the rivers of the Black Sea coast.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 115-130
Author(s):  
S.V. Borsch ◽  
◽  
V.M. Koliy ◽  
N.K. Semenova ◽  
Yu.A. Simonov ◽  
...  

The predictability of river runoff is determined by the maximum lead time of satisfactory forecasts of water discharge obtained by the hydrograph extrapolation method. This indicator characterizes the smoothness of changes in water discharge over time and determines a possibility of using the Hydrometcentre of Russia’s automated system for preparation and daily streamflow forecasting all year long. The dependency between the predictability of river runoff and the main factors of its formation and regime is investigated. In total 18 regions within the territory of Russia are identified; for each of them a dependence between the streamflow predictability indicator and the area and average slope of the catchment is obtained. These regions cover 79% of the entire country. Calculated regional dependencies made it possible to estimate threshold values of the area and average slope of the catchment beyond which satisfactory forecasts are possible with a sufficiently long lead time (8–10 days), or only with a short lead time (1–2 days), or are impossible at all. Keywords: streamflow predictability, hydrograph extrapolation method, maximum forecast lead time, morphometric characteristics of catchment, calculated regional dependencies


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Annis ◽  
Fernando Nardi ◽  
Fabio Castelli

Abstract. Hydro-meteo hazard Early Warning Systems (EWSs) are operating in many regions of the world to mitigate nuisance effects of floods. EWSs performances are majorly impacted by the computational burden and complexity affecting flood prediction tools, especially for ungauged catchments that lack adequate river flow gauging stations. Earth Observation (EO) systems may surrogate to the lack of fluvial monitoring systems supporting the setting up of affordable EWSs. But, EO data, constrained by spatial and temporal resolution limitations, are not sufficient alone, especially at medium-small scales. Multiple sources of distributed flood observations need to be used for managing uncertainties of flood models, but this is not a trivial task for EWSs. In this work, a near real-time flood modelling approach is developed and tested for the simultaneous assimilation of both water level observations and EO-derived flood extents. An integrated physically-based flood wave generation and propagation modelling approach, that implements a Ensemble Kalman Filter, a parsimonious geomorphic rainfall-runoff algorithm (WFIUH) and a Quasi-2D hydraulic algorithm, is proposed. A data assimilation scheme is tested that retrieves distributed observed water depths from satellite images to update 2D hydraulic modelling state variables. Performances of the proposed approach are tested on a flood event for the Tiber river basin in central Italy. The selected case study shows varying performances depending if local and distributed observations are separately or simultaneously assimilated. Results suggest that the injection of multiple data sources into a flexible data assimilation framework, constitute an effective and viable advancement for flood mitigation tackling EWSs data scarcity, uncertainty and numerical stability issues.


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