scholarly journals Comparative assessment of predictions in ungauged basins – Part 3: Runoff signatures in Austria

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 449-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Viglione ◽  
J. Parajka ◽  
M. Rogger ◽  
J. L. Salinas ◽  
G. Laaha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Comparative Assessment ◽  
Ungauged Basins ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Low Flows ◽  
High Flows ◽  
Seasonal Runoff ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Predictions In Ungauged Basins ◽  
Runoff Model

Abstract. In a three-part paper we assess the performance of runoff predictions in ungauged basins in a comparative way. While Parajka et al. (2013) and Salinas et al. (2013) assess the regionalisation of hydrographs and hydrological extremes through a literature review, in this paper we assess prediction of a range of runoff signatures for a consistent dataset. Daily runoff time series are predicted for 213 catchments in Austria by a regionalised rainfall–runoff model and by Top-Kriging, a geostatistical interpolation method that accounts for the river network hierarchy. From the runoff timeseries, six runoff signatures are extracted: annual runoff, seasonal runoff, flow duration curves, low flows, high flows and runoff hydrograph. The predictive performance is assessed by the bias, error spread and proportion of unexplained spatial variance of statistical measures of these signatures in cross-validation mode. Results of the comparative assessment show that the geostatistical approach (Top-Kriging) generally outperforms the regionalised rainfall–runoff model. The predictive performance increases with catchment area for both methods and all signatures, while the dependence on climate characteristics is weaker. Annual and seasonal runoff can be predicted more accurately than all other signatures. The spatial variability of high flows is the most difficult to capture followed by the low flows. The relative predictive performance of the signatures depends on the selected performance measures. It is therefore essential to report performance in a consistent way by more than one performance measure.

scholarly journals Comparative assessment of predictions in ungauged basins – Part 3: Runoff signatures in Austria

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2263-2279 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Viglione ◽  
J. Parajka ◽  
M. Rogger ◽  
J. L. Salinas ◽  
G. Laaha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Comparative Assessment ◽  
Ungauged Basins ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
High Flows ◽  
Seasonal Runoff ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Predictions In Ungauged Basins ◽  
Runoff Model

Abstract. This is the third of a three-part paper series through which we assess the performance of runoff predictions in ungauged basins in a comparative way. Whereas the two previous papers by Parajka et al. (2013) and Salinas et al. (2013) assess the regionalisation performance of hydrographs and hydrological extremes on the basis of a comprehensive literature review of thousands of case studies around the world, in this paper we jointly assess prediction performance of a range of runoff signatures for a consistent and rich dataset. Daily runoff time series are predicted for 213 catchments in Austria by a regionalised rainfall–runoff model and by Top-kriging, a geostatistical estimation method that accounts for the river network hierarchy. From the runoff time-series, six runoff signatures are extracted: annual runoff, seasonal runoff, flow duration curves, low flows, high flows and runoff hydrographs. The predictive performance is assessed in terms of the bias, error spread and proportion of unexplained spatial variance of statistical measures of these signatures in cross-validation (blind testing) mode. Results of the comparative assessment show that, in Austria, the predictive performance increases with catchment area for both methods and for most signatures, it tends to increase with elevation for the regionalised rainfall–runoff model, while the dependence on climate characteristics is weaker. Annual and seasonal runoff can be predicted more accurately than all other signatures. The spatial variability of high flows in ungauged basins is the most difficult to estimate followed by the low flows. It also turns out that in this data-rich study in Austria, the geostatistical approach (Top-kriging) generally outperforms the regionalised rainfall–runoff model.

scholarly journals Can a Calibration-Free Dynamic Rainfall‒Runoff Model Predict FDCs in Data-Scarce Regions? Comparing the IDW Model with the Dynamic Budyko Model in South India

Hydrology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nag ◽  
Biswal
Keyword(s):  
Model Performance ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Ungauged Basins ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Discharge Data ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Calibration Free ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Runoff Model ◽  
Free Dynamic

Construction of flow duration curves (FDCs) is a challenge for hydrologists as most streams and rivers worldwide are ungauged. Regionalization methods are commonly followed to solve the problem of discharge data scarcity by transforming hydrological information from gauged basins to ungauged basins. As a consequence, regionalization-based FDC predictions are not very reliable where discharge data are scarce quantitatively and/or qualitatively. In such a scenario, it is perhaps more meaningful to use a calibration-free rainfall‒runoff model that can exploit easily available meteorological information to predict FDCs in ungauged basins. This hypothesis is tested in this study by comparing a well-known regionalization-based model, the inverse distance weighting (IDW) model, with the recently proposed calibration-free dynamic Budyko model (DB) in a region where discharge observations are not only insufficient quantitatively but also show apparent signs of observational errors. The DB model markedly outperformed the IDW model in the study region. Furthermore, the IDW model’s performance sharply declined when we randomly removed discharge gauging stations to test the model in a variety of data availability scenarios. The analysis here also throws some light on how errors in observational datasets and drainage area influence model performance and thus provides a better picture of the relative strengths of the two models. Overall, the results of this study support the notion that a calibration-free rainfall‒runoff model can be chosen to predict FDCs in discharge data-scarce regions. On a philosophical note, our study highlights the importance of process understanding for the development of meaningful hydrological models.

Exploring signatures-based calibration of hydrological models for prediction in ungauged basins.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Dal Molin ◽  
Dmitri Kavetski ◽  
Mario Schirmer ◽  
Fabrizio Fenicia
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Accurate Estimation ◽  
Ungauged Basins ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Approximate Bayesian ◽  
Correct Estimation ◽  
Runoff Model

<p>One of the open challenges in catchment hydrology is prediction in ungauged basins (PUB), i.e. being able to predict catchment responses (typically streamflow) when measurements are not available. One of the possible approaches to this problem consists in calibrating a model using catchment response statistics (called signatures) that can be estimated at the ungauged site.<br>An important challenge of any approach to PUB is to produce reliable and precise predictions of catchment response, with an accurate estimation of the uncertainty. In the context of PUB through calibration on regionalized streamflow signatures, there are multiple sources of uncertainty that affect streamflow predictions, which relate to:</p><ul><li>The use streamflow signatures, which, by synthetizing the underlying time series, reduce the information available for model calibration;</li> <li>The regionalization of streamflow signatures, which are not observed, but estimated through some signature regionalization model;</li> <li>The use of a rainfall-runoff model, which carries uncertainties related to input data, parameter values, and model structure.</li> </ul><p>This study proposes an approach that separately accounts for the uncertainty related to the regionalization of the signatures from the other types; the implementation uses Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) to infer the parameters of the rainfall-runoff model using stochastic streamflow signatures. <br>The methodology is tested in six sub-catchments of the Thur catchment in Switzerland; results show that the regionalized model produces streamflow time series that are similar to the ones obtained by the classical time-domain calibration, with slightly higher uncertainty but similar fit to the observed data. These results support the proposed approach as a viable method for PUB, with a focus on the correct estimation of the uncertainty.</p>

Overcoming the challenges of using a rainfall–runoff model to estimate the impacts of groundwater extraction on low flows in an ephemeral stream

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Ivkovic ◽  
B. F. W. Croke ◽  
R. A. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
River System ◽  
Groundwater Extraction ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Low Flows ◽  
Water Accounting ◽  
River Reach ◽  
Streamflow Data ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Runoff Model ◽  
Modelling Approach

Simple modelling approaches such as a spatially lumped, rainfall–runoff model offer a number of advantages in the management of water resources including the relative ease with which groundwater and surface water accounts can be evaluated at the river-reach scale in data-poor areas. However, rainfall–runoff models are generally not well suited for use in ephemeral river systems because of their inability to simulate abrupt transitions from flow to no-flow periods and the highly non-linear rainfall–runoff relationships that exist in low yielding catchments. This paper discusses some of the challenges of using a rainfall–runoff model to assess the impacts of groundwater extraction on low flows within an ephemeral river system and demonstrates how these challenges were overcome during the development of the IHACRES_GW (Identification of Hydrographs And Component flows from Rainfall, Evaporation and Streamflow data – with Ground Water store) model. Details on the model algorithms, calibration, validation and objective function fits are provided. The performance of the IHACRES_GW model in Cox's Creek (Namoi Valley, Australia), and 13 additional areas investigated, suggests that this simple modelling approach may be of considerable utility for water accounting, especially when attempting to evaluate the impacts of groundwater extraction on low flows in similar systems.

scholarly journals Step wise Multi-criteria Performance Evaluation of Rainfall-Runoff Models using WETSPRO

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
PC Shakti ◽  
NK Shrestha ◽  
P Gurung
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Peak Flows ◽  
Low Flows ◽  
Flow Components ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Runoff Model

This paper illustrates a methodology to evaluate model’s performance of rainfall runoff model using a tool called WETSPRO (Water Engineering Time Series PROcessing tool). Simulated results of physically based semidistributed model - SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) for Kliene Nete watershed (581 km2), Belgium are considered in this study. Paper presents a series of sequential time series processing tasks to be performed to evaluate model’s performance thoroughly. The problem of serial dependence and heteroscedasticity is addressed and model performance evaluation on different flow components (peak flows, low flows and volume) and flow volume is carried. Performance evaluation of both flow components on their extremes is also performed. Two most commonly used goodness-fit-statistics (Mean Square Error – MSE and Nash Sutcliff Efficiency − NSE) are used with number of complementary graphical plots for evaluation propose. Results indicated model’s robust performance on peak flows although base flows are slightly underestimated especially for lower return periods. Cumulative flow volumes tend to be overestimated. Based upon the study, some recommendations are summarized to enhance model’s ability to simulate the flows events. Keywords: Rainfall runoff model; SWAT; WETSPRO; Kliene Nete; peak flows; low flows. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jhm.v7i1.5613 JHM 2010; 7(1): 18-29

Identification of rainfall-runoff model for improved baseflow estimation in ungauged basins

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos Samuel ◽  
Paulin Coulibaly ◽  
Robert A. Metcalfe
Keyword(s):  
Ungauged Basins ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Runoff Model

scholarly journals Constraining a lumped rainfall-runoff model with piezometry to improve low-flow simulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Pelletier ◽  
Vakzen Andréassian
Keyword(s):  
Flow Simulation ◽  
Daily Rainfall ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Low Flow ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Rainfall Runoff ◽  
Low Flows ◽  
Sample Test ◽  
Rainfall Runoff Model ◽  
Runoff Model

<p>Most lumped hydrological models are focused on the rainfall-runoff relationship, since climatic conditions are the driving force of the hydrological behaviour of a catchment. Many hydrological models, like the ones used by the French national PREMHYCE platform, only take climatic variables as inputs – daily rainfall and potential evaporation – to simulate and forecast low-flows. Yet, a hydrological drought is generally a medium- to long-term phenomenon, which is the consequence of long records of dry climatic conditions. Daily lumped hydrological models often struggle to integrate these records to reproduce catchment memory.</p><p>In many French catchments, it was observed that this memory of past hydroclimatic conditions is well represented in piezometric signals that are broadly available over the national territory. Indeed, aquifers, especially the large ones, do store water on the long, feeding rivers during droughts: aquifers are not only <em>water carriers</em> – the etymology for the word <em>aquifer </em>– they are also <em>memory carriers</em>. A dataset of 108 catchments, each of them being associated with one or several piezometers, was used to investigate whether the GR6J daily lumped rainfall-runoff model could be constrained by piezometric time series to improve low-flow simulations. We found that a particular state of the model, the exponential store, is particularly well correlated with piezometry in most studied catchments.</p><p>In order to get a univocal relationship between the exponential store and piezometry, a multi-objective calibration approach was implemented, optimising both (i) flow simulation with a criterion focused on low-flows and (ii) affine correspondence between the exponential store level and piezometry. For that purpose, a new parameter was added to the model. The modified calibration was then evaluated through a split-sample test and the performance in simulating particular drought events. The calibrated store-piezometry relationship can now be used for data assimilation to improve low-flow forecasting.</p>

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