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Hydrological evaluation of global gridded precipitation datasets in a heterogeneous and data-scarce basin in Iran

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Abstract

Accurate estimation of the precipitation characteristics, including the value, temporal pattern, and spatial distribution, plays a significant role in the input uncertainty reduction for rainfall-runoff models. In many basins, the improper spatial distribution of rain gauge stations or their limited historical recorded data causes many challenges, especially in heterogeneous catchments which due to the impact of the drastic geographical alterations on the rainfall distribution pattern, the cover of the ground stations cannot estimate the actual precipitation rate. This challenge can be potentially solved by adopting rainfall products as alternative or complementary data sources. In this research, three rainfall products (PERSIANN-CCS, CMORPH and ERA-Interim), were compared against rain gauge stations for calibration of a daily conceptual lumped rainfall-runoff model (CRFM) in a data-scarce and heterogeneous basin located in southwestern Iran. The results indicated that ERA-Interim has the best performance among other datasets. Better performance of this dataset compared to the in-situ data also suggests a better estimation of the basin average as well as the temporal pattern of precipitation. The KGE value was obtained as 0.8 and 0.74, respectively, for a rainfall-runoff model that utilized the ERA-Interim as input in the calibration and validation periods. The results showed that the performance of satellite-based data of CMORPH and PERSIANN-CCS is not acceptable in simulating the daily flow. Also, the seasonal assessment showed that ERA-Interim has a better performance compared to other datasets, during fall and winter. However, in the spring, the performance of all datasets significantly reduces, and the range of BIAS variation increases. Generally, all datasets were shown to perform better in simulating the flow in terms of the transition from dry to wet periods, rather than wet to dry periods.

Highlights

  • Three rainfall products (PERSIANN-CCS, CMORPH and ERA-Interim), were compared against rain gauge stations for calibration of a daily conceptual lumped rainfall-runoff model in a data-scarce and heterogeneous basin located in southwestern Iran

  • ERA-Interim has the best performance among other datasets and suggests a better estimation of the basin average as well as the temporal pattern of precipitation

  • The performance of satellite-based data of CMORPH and PERSIANN-CCS is not acceptable in simulating the daily flow

  • The performance of all datasets significantly reduces in spring

  • All datasets were shown to perform better in simulating the flow in terms of the transition from dry to wet periods, rather than wet to dry periods

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Water and Hydraulic Structures, Faculty of Water Science Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

    M Khoshchehreh & M Ghomeshi

  2. Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, Faculty of Water Science Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran

    A Shahbazi

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  1. M Khoshchehreh
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  2. M Ghomeshi
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  3. A Shahbazi
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Correspondence to M Khoshchehreh.

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Communicated by N V Chalapathi Rao

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Author statement

Mostafa Khoshchehreh: Study design, statistical analysis, data interpretation, manuscript preparation, literature search, Prof. Mehdi Ghomeshi: Study design, data collection, data interpretation and Dr. Ali Shahbazi: Study design, statistical analysis, literature search.

Appendix

Table A1 Model parameters for daily streamflow simulation for four different precipitation datasets of Sezar sub-basin in the calibration period (July 21, 2009–March 21, 2012).
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Table A2 Model parameters for daily streamflow simulation for four different precipitation datasets of Bakhtiari sub-basin in the calibration period (July 21, 2009–March 21, 2012).
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Khoshchehreh, M., Ghomeshi, M. & Shahbazi, A. Hydrological evaluation of global gridded precipitation datasets in a heterogeneous and data-scarce basin in Iran. J Earth Syst Sci 129, 201 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01462-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01462-5

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