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- Title
Why do our rainfall–runoff models keep underestimating the peak flows?
- Authors
Bárdossy, András; Anwar, Faizan
- Abstract
In this paper, the question of how the interpolation of precipitation in space by using various spatial gauge densities affects the rainfall–runoff model discharge if all other input variables are kept constant is investigated. The main focus was on the peak flows. This was done by using a physically based model as the reference with a reconstructed spatially variable precipitation model and a conceptual model calibrated to match the reference model's output as closely as possible. Both models were run with distributed and lumped inputs. Results showed that all considered interpolation methods resulted in the underestimation of the total precipitation volume and that the underestimation was directly proportional to the precipitation amount. More importantly, the underestimation of peaks was very severe for low observation densities and disappeared only for very high-density precipitation observation networks. This result was confirmed by using observed precipitation with different observation densities. Model runoffs showed worse performance for their highest discharges. Using lumped inputs for the models showed deteriorating performance for peak flows as well, even when using simulated precipitation.
- Subjects
RUNOFF models; INTERPOLATION spaces; CONCEPTUAL models; INTERPOLATION
- Publication
Hydrology & Earth System Sciences, 2023, Vol 27, Issue 10, p1987
- ISSN
1027-5606
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/hess-27-1987-2023