Hydrologic investigations of radar-rainfall error propagation to rainfall-runoff model hydrographs

Ganesh R. Ghimire; Witold F. Krajewski; Tibebu B. Ayalew; Radoslaw Goska

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2022.104145

Hydrologic investigations of radar-rainfall error propagation to rainfall-runoff model hydrographs

Ganesh R. Ghimire, Witold F. Krajewski, Tibebu B. Ayalew, Radoslaw Goska

Water Resources Science & Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rainfall is arguably the most important yet most variable input for rainfall-runoff hydrologic models. In this study, the authors search for the characteristics of radar-rainfall estimates that are most important for skillful streamflow predictions. They perform comprehensive hydrologic investigations of radar-rainfall characteristics, including spatiotemporal resolution, radar range visibility, statistical characterization of rainfall variability, all vis-a-vis basin characteristics such as size and river network topology. Since the true rainfall fields are unknown, the authors exploit a paradigm of using two independently constructed radar-rainfall products i.e., Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor and IFC-ZR used operationally by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC). Using the distributed hydrologic model called the Hillslope-Link Model for the domain of the state of Iowa, they evaluate streamflow prediction at 140 USGS gauge stations that monitor rivers in Iowa. Through spatial and temporal rainfall aggregation experiments, the authors show that the impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall is significant typically for smaller basins while starts reducing significantly for basins larger than 1,000 km². Other rainfall characteristics they explored do not reveal a strong signature in the relationship of rainfall differences between the two products and hydrograph errors. However, exploring the product similarities rather than differences reveals that the basin-wide rainfall volume has the most significant effect on streamflow prediction. The results from this study are generalizable for all rainfall observing systems.

Original language	English
Article number	104145
Journal	Advances in Water Resources
Volume	161
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2022.104145
State	Published - Mar 2022

Funding

The authors acknowledge the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa where this study was conducted. The Iowa Flood Center provided financial support for this work. The first author acknowledges the support from the Ballard and Seashore fellowship. The second author is grateful for the support of the Rose & Joseph Summers endowment. The University of Iowa High-Performance Computing group provided resources required for our numerical experiments with the HLM.

Keywords

Basin-wide rainfall volume error
IFC
MRMS
Radar-rainfall error
Resolution
Width function

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10.1016/j.advwatres.2022.104145

Cite this

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title = "Hydrologic investigations of radar-rainfall error propagation to rainfall-runoff model hydrographs",

abstract = "Rainfall is arguably the most important yet most variable input for rainfall-runoff hydrologic models. In this study, the authors search for the characteristics of radar-rainfall estimates that are most important for skillful streamflow predictions. They perform comprehensive hydrologic investigations of radar-rainfall characteristics, including spatiotemporal resolution, radar range visibility, statistical characterization of rainfall variability, all vis-a-vis basin characteristics such as size and river network topology. Since the true rainfall fields are unknown, the authors exploit a paradigm of using two independently constructed radar-rainfall products i.e., Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor and IFC-ZR used operationally by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC). Using the distributed hydrologic model called the Hillslope-Link Model for the domain of the state of Iowa, they evaluate streamflow prediction at 140 USGS gauge stations that monitor rivers in Iowa. Through spatial and temporal rainfall aggregation experiments, the authors show that the impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall is significant typically for smaller basins while starts reducing significantly for basins larger than 1,000 km2. Other rainfall characteristics they explored do not reveal a strong signature in the relationship of rainfall differences between the two products and hydrograph errors. However, exploring the product similarities rather than differences reveals that the basin-wide rainfall volume has the most significant effect on streamflow prediction. The results from this study are generalizable for all rainfall observing systems.",

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Hydrologic investigations of radar-rainfall error propagation to rainfall-runoff model hydrographs

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Keywords

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