Uncertainty Related to Processed Gridded Meteorological Data: Implications for Hydrological Modelling

Spatial interpolation is a procedure for estimating the value of a variable of interest at unsampled sites within an area covered by existing observations. The output of spatial interpolation is an integrated data set in which meteorologi- cal data are arranged along an evenly spaced matrix (gridded...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Juan Alberto Velázquez-Zapata, Rodrigo Dávila-Ortiz
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:México
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí
Repositorio:Redalyc-UASLP
OAI Identifier:oai:redalyc.org:40450393007
Acceso en línea:https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=40450393007
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ingeniería
GR4J
Uncertainty
precipitation
hydrological modelling
Descripción
Sumario:Spatial interpolation is a procedure for estimating the value of a variable of interest at unsampled sites within an area covered by existing observations. The output of spatial interpolation is an integrated data set in which meteorologi- cal data are arranged along an evenly spaced matrix (gridded data). This work evaluates the uncertainty related to meteorological gridded data in the simulation of daily streamflow over two Mexican basins. The use of gridded data is an alternative to direct observations in those Mexican regions with low density of gauging stations. First, two me - teorological data sets (observed and processed gridded data) were compared. Results show that gridded data under- estimate precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature, despite the relative good agreement in the annual cycle for the latter variable. Second, the lumped conceptual rainfall-runoff model GR4J was fed with meteorological data from both data sets in order to evaluate the error that gridded data translate to simulated daily streamflow. Results show that the hydrological model can be calibrated with both data sets, leading to a good performance for medium and high flows in terms of the Nash- Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient; nevertheless, low flows are overestima - ted when gridded meteorological data are used. The analysis of the GR4J optimized parameters shows that the hy - drological model increases the contribution of groundwater exchange to compensate for the underestimated precipitation, leading to a misrepresentation of the hydrological response of the study basins. All in all, gridded processed meteorological data should be evaluated before its use on hydrological risk assessment and climate chan- ge impact studies on water resources.