Title
Effect of spatial distribution of daily rainfall on interior catchment response of a distributed hydrological model
Author
Schuurmans, J.M.
Bierkens, M.F.P.
TNO Bouw en Ondergrond
Publication year
2006
Abstract
We investigate the effect of spatial variability of daily rainfall on soil moisture, groundwater level and discharge using a physically-based, fully-distributed hydrological model. We focus on the effect of rainfall spatial variability on day-to-day variability of the interior catchment response, as well as on its effect on the general hydrological behavior of the catchment. The study is performed in a flat rural catchment (135 km2) in The Netherlands, where climate is semi-humid (average precipitation 800 mm/year, evapotranspiration 550 mm/year) and rainfall is predominantly stratiform. Both range-corrected radar data (resolution 2.5×2.5 km2) as well as data from a dense network of 30 raingauges are used, observed for the period March-October 2004. Eight different rainfall scenarios, either spatially distributed or spatially uniform, are used as input for the hydrological model. The main conclusions from this study are: (i) using a single raingauge as rainfall input carries a great risk for the prediction of discharge, groundwater level and soil moisture, especially if the raingauge is situated outside the catchment; (ii) taking into account the spatial variability of rainfall instead of using areal average rainfall as input for the model is needed to get insight into the day-to-day spatial variability of discharge, groundwater level and soil moisture content; (iii) to get insight into the general behavior of the hydrological system it is sufficient to use correct predictions of areal average rainfall over the catchment.
Subject
Geosciences
catchment
discharge
groundwater
hydrological modeling
hydrological response
precipitation intensity
prediction
raingauge
soil moisture
spatial distribution
spatial variation
water table
Benelux
Eurasia
Europe
Netherlands
Western Europe
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http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4f323178-d545-45f7-86cc-01f77788d667
TNO identifier
239688
ISSN
1812-2108
Source
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 3 (4), 2175-2208
Document type
article