The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Zheng Duan

Senior lecturer

photo of Zheng Duan on Lund webpage

Hydrological evaluation of open-access precipitation and air temperature datasets using SWAT in a poorly gauged basin in Ethiopia

Author

  • Zheng Duan
  • Ye Tuo
  • Junzhi Liu
  • Hongkai Gao
  • Xianfeng Song
  • Zengxin Zhang
  • Lei Yang
  • Dagnenet Fenta Mekonnen

Summary, in English

Precipitation and air temperature are key drivers of watershed models. Currently there are many open-access gridded precipitation and air temperature datasets at different spatial and temporal resolutions over global or quasi-global scale. Motivated by the scarcity and substantial temporal and spatial gaps in ground measurements in Africa, this study evaluated the performance of three open-access precipitation datasets (i.e. CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data), TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) and CFSR (Climate Forecast System Reanalysis)) and one air temperature dataset (CFSR) in driving Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in simulation of daily and monthly streamflow in the upper Gilgel Abay Basin, Ethiopia. The “best” available measurements of precipitation and air temperature from sparse gauge stations were also used to drive SWAT model and the results were compared with those using open-access datasets. After a comprehensive comparison of a total of eight model scenarios with different combinations of precipitation and air temperature inputs, we draw the following conclusions: (1) using measured precipitation from even sparse available stations consistently yielded better performance in streamflow simulation than using all three open-access precipitation datasets; (2) using CFSR air temperature yielded almost identical performance in streamflow simulation to using measured air temperature from gauge stations; (3) among the three open-access precipitation, overall CHIRPS yielded best performance. These results suggested that the CHIRPS precipitation available at high spatial resolution (0.05°) together with CFSR air temperature can be a promising alternative open-access data source for streamflow simulation in this data-scarce area in the case of limited access to desirable gauge data.

Publishing year

2019-02-01

Language

English

Pages

612-626

Publication/Series

Journal of Hydrology

Volume

569

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources

Keywords

  • Blue Nile
  • Climate Forecast System Reanalysis
  • Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data
  • Satellite precipitation
  • SWAT
  • Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0022-1694