| Title: | Performance assessment of spatial interpolation of precipitation for hydrological process simulation in Three Gorges Basin |
| Authors: | Cheng, M., Y. Wang, B. Engel, W. Zhang, H. Peng, X. Chen and H. Xia |
| Year: | 2017 |
| Journal: | Water |
| Volume (Issue): | 9(11) |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 836 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/w9110838 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | climate data effects |
| Secondary Application Category: | hydrologic assessment |
| Watershed Description: | 5,173 km^2 Pengxi River, a tributary of the Yangtze River located in the Three Gorges Reservoir drainage area in central China. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Accurate assessment of spatial and temporal precipitation is crucial for simulating
hydrological processes in basins, but is challenging due to insufficient rain gauges. Our study aims to
analyze different precipitation interpolation schemes and their performances in runoff simulation
during light and heavy rain periods. In particular, combinations of different interpolation estimates
are explored and their performances in runoff simulation are discussed. The study was carried out
in the Pengxi River basin of the Three Gorges Basin. Precipitation data from 16 rain gauges were
interpolated using the Thiessen Polygon (TP), Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), and Co-Kriging (CK)
methods. Results showed that streamflow predictions employing CK inputs demonstrated the best
performance in the whole process, in terms of the Nash–Sutcliffe Coefficient (NSE), the coefficient of
determination (R2), and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) indices. The TP, IDW, and CK methods
showed good performance in the heavy rain period but poor performance in the light rain period
compared with the default method (least sophisticated nearest neighbor technique) in Soil and Water
Assessment Tool (SWAT). Furthermore, the correlation between the dynamic weight of one method
and its performance during runoff simulation followed a parabolic function. The combination of CK
and TP achieved a better performance in decreasing the largest and lowest absolute errors compared
to any single method, but the IDW method outperformed all methods in terms of the median absolute
error. However, it is clear from our findings that interpolation methods should be chosen depending
on the amount of precipitation, adaptability of the method, and accuracy of the estimate in different
rain periods. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | precipitation interpolation; runoff simulation; SWAT; the Three Gorges Basin |