| Title: | Evaluating global reanalysis datasets as input for hydrological modelling in the Sudano-Sahel Region |
| Authors: | Nkiaka, E., N.R. Nawaz and J.C. Lovett |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Journal: | Hydrology |
| Volume (Issue): | 4 |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 13 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/hydrology4010013 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | climate data effects |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 86,500 km^2 Logone River, which drains portions of northeast Cameroon, Southwest Chad and northwest Central African Republic. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | : This paper investigates the potential of using global reanalysis datasets as input
for hydrological modelling in the data-scarce Sudano-Sahel region. To achieve this, we used
two global atmospheric reanalyses (Climate Forecasting System Reanalysis and European Center for
Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim) datasets and one global meteorological
forcing dataset WATCH Forcing Data methodology applied to ERA-Interim (WFDEI). These datasets
were used to drive the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in the Logone catchment in the Lake
Chad basin. Model performance indicators after calibration showed that, at daily and monthly
time steps, only WFDEI produced Nash Sutcliff Efficiency (NSE) and Coefficient of Determination
(R2
) values above 0.50. Despite a general underperformance compared to WFDEI, CFSR performed
better than the ERA-Interim. Model uncertainty analysis after calibration showed that more than
60% of all daily and monthly observed streamflow values at all hydrometric stations were bracketed
within the 95 percent prediction uncertainty (95PPU) range for all datasets. Results from this study
also show significant differences in simulated actual evapotranspiration estimates from the datasets.
Overall results showed that biased corrected WFDEI outperformed the two reanalysis datasets;
meanwhile CFSR performed better than the ERA-Interim. We conclude that, in the absence of gauged
hydro-meteorological data, WFDEI and CFSR could be used for hydrological modelling in data-scarce
areas such as the Sudano-Sahel region. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | reanalysis; SWAT; CFSR; ERA-Interim; WFDEI; Logone catchment; Sudano-Sahel |