Abstract
This study investigates the influence of rainfall variability in time and space, as well as the location of storm center, on catchment outflow hydrograph. Synthetic data of over 600 rainfall events were generated for the Walnut Gulch catchment in Arizona using two rainfall generation models. After calibrating the distributed MIKE-SHE rainfall-runoff model for a sub-catchment in the basin, we subsequently used it to simulate the entire catchment behavior by employing the generated synthetic rainfall data with predetermined characteristics. The findings demonstrate that the storm center location has a significant impact on the characteristics of the outflow hydrograph, with closer proximity to the outlet resulting in increased peak magnitude and decreased time to peak. The spatiotemporal resolution of the monitoring network also affects the hydrograph characteristics, particularly the peak magnitude, with lower resolutions leading to underestimation of peak and overestimation of time to peak. The impact of spatial resolution on hydrograph characteristics increases as the correlation of rainfall events in space decreases. However, the effect of rainfall temporal resolution on catchment response remains almost consistent regardless of temporal correlation. Ultimately, the results imply that accurate estimation of the outflow hydrograph requires a monitoring network with relatively high spatial and temporal resolutions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Abbott MB, Bathurst JC, Cunge J, O’Connell P, Rasmussen J (1986) An introduction to the European Hydrological System — Systeme Hydrologique Europeen, “SHE”, 1: History and philosophy of a physically-based, distributed modelling system. J Hydrol 87(1–2):45–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1694(86)90114-9
Arnaud P, Lavabre J, Fouchier C, Diss S, Javelle P (2011) Sensitivity of hydrological models to uncertainty in rainfall input. Hydrol Sci J 56(3):397–410. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2011.563742
Aronica G, Freni G, Oliveri E (2005) Uncertainty analysis of the influence of rainfall time resolution in the modelling of urban drainage systems. Hydrol Process 19(5):1055–1071. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.5645
Attar M, Abedini MJ, Akbari R (2020) Point versus block ordinary kriging in rain gauge network design using artificial bee colony optimization. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civil Eng 45(3):1805–1817. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-020-00484-9
Bell VA, Moore RJ (2000) The sensitivity of catchment runoff models to rainfall data at different spatial scales. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 4(4):653–667. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-4-653-2000
Beven KJ (ed) (2012) Rainfall-runoff modeling: The primer. John Wiley and Sons, New York, pp 360
Beven KJ, Hornberger GM (1982) Assessing the effect of spatial pattern of precipitation in modeling stream flow hydrographs. J Am Water Resour Assoc 18(5):823–829. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.1982.tb00078.x
Blöschl G et al (2019) Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH)- A community perspective. Hydrol Sci J 64(11):1141–1158. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2019.1620507
Bras RL, Rodríguez-Iturbe I (1976) Rainfall generation: A nonstationary time-varying multidimensional model. Water Resour Res 12(3):450–456. https://doi.org/10.1029/wr012i003p00450
Bruni G, Reinoso R, van de Giesen NC, Clemens FHLR, ten Veldhuis JAE (2015) On the sensitivity of urban hydrodynamic modelling to rainfall spatial and temporal resolution. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 19(2):691–709. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-691-2015
Butts MB, Payne JT, Kristensen M, Madsen H (2004) An evaluation of the impact of model structure on hydrological modelling uncertainty for streamflow simulation. J Hydrol 298(1–4):242–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.03.042
Caracciolo D, Arnone E, Noto LV (2014) Influence of spatial precipitation sampling on hydrological response at the catchment scale. J Hydrol Eng 19(3):544–553. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)he.1943-5584.0000829
Carvalho RC, Woodroffe CD (2015) Rainfall variability in the Shoalhaven River catchment and its relation to climatic indices. Water Resour Manag 29(14):4963–4976. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-015-1098-4
Chen G, Hou J, Hu Y et al (2023) Simulated investigation on the impact of spatial–temporal variability of rainstorms on flash flood discharge process in small watershed. Water Resour Manag 37:995–1011. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-022-03398-5
Chow MF, Haris H, Leong XY (2021) The effect of temporal resolution of input rainfall data in hydrological modelling at urban catchment. AIP Conf Proc 2339:020074. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0044479
Chow VT, Maidment DR, Mays LW (1988) Applied hydrology, 2nd edn. McGraw–Hill Book Co., New York, pp 572
Cristiano E, Veldhuis M, Wright DB, Smith JA, Giesen N (2019) The influence of rainfall and catchment critical scales on urban hydrological response sensitivity. Water Resour Res 55(4):3375–3390. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018wr024143
Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI) (2014a) Modelling system for rivers and channels Reference Manual, Hørsholm, Denmark
Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI) (2014b) MIKE-SHE User Manual, Vol. 1 & 2: User & Reference Guide, Hørsholm, Denmark
Eagleson PS (1970) Dynamic hydrology. McGraw-Hill, New York
Gabellani S, Boni G, Ferraris L, von Hardenberg J, Provenzale A (2007) Propagation of uncertainty from rainfall to runoff: A case study with a stochastic rainfall generator. Adv Water Resour 30(10):2061–2071. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2006.11.015
Hohmann C, Kirchengast G, Sungmin O, Rieger W, Foelsche U (2021) Small catchment runoff sensitivity to station density and spatial interpolation: hydrological modeling of heavy rainfall using a dense rain gauge network. Water 13(10):1381. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13101381
Hou J, Wang N, Guo K, Li D, Jing H, Wang T, Hinkelmann R (2020) Effects of the temporal resolution of storm data on numerical simulations of urban flood inundation. J Hydrol 589:125100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125100
Huang Y, Bárdossy A, Zhang K (2019) Sensitivity of hydrological models to temporal and spatial resolutions of rainfall data. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 23(6):2647–2663. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2647-2019
Keppel RV, Renard KG (1962) Transmission losses in ephemeral stream beds. J Hydraul Div 88(3):59–68. https://doi.org/10.1061/jyceaj.0000734
Kim C, Kim D (2020) Effects of rainfall spatial distribution on the relationship between rainfall spatiotemporal resolution and runoff prediction accuracy. Water 12(3):846. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12030846
Krajewski WF, Lakshmi V, Georgakakos KP, Jain SC (1991) A Monte Carlo Study of rainfall sampling effect on a distributed catchment model. Water Resour Res 27(1):119–128. https://doi.org/10.1029/90wr01977
Li X, Huang S, He R, Wang G, Tan ML, Yang X, Zhang Z (2020) Impact of temporal rainfall resolution on daily streamflow simulations in a large-sized river basin. Hydrol Sci J 65(15):2630–2645. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2020.1836374
Li X, Wang L, Zhou H, Wang Y, Niu K, Li L (2022) The compound effect of spatial and temporal resolutions on the accuracy of urban flood simulation. Comput Intell Neurosci 2022:1–12. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3436634
Lin R, Zheng F, Yi M, Duan H, Chu S, Deng Z (2022) Impact of spatial variation and uncertainty of rainfall intensity on urban flooding assessment. Water Resour Manag 36(14):5655–5673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-022-03325-8
Liu Y, Li Z, Liu Z, Luo Y (2021) Impact of rainfall spatiotemporal variability and model structures on flood simulation in semi-arid regions. Stoch Env Res Risk Assess 36(3):785–809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-021-02050-9
Lobligeois F, Andréassian V, Perrin C, Tabary P, Loumagne C (2014) When does higher spatial resolution rainfall information improve streamflow simulation? An evaluation using 3620 flood events. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 18(2):575–594. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-575-2014
Lopes VL (1996) On the effect of uncertainty in spatial distribution of rainfall on catchment modelling. CATENA 28(1–2):107–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0341-8162(96)00030-6
Lyu H, Ni G, Cao X, Ma Y, Tian F (2018) Effect of temporal resolution of rainfall on simulation of urban flood processes. Water 10(7):880. https://doi.org/10.3390/w10070880
Meselhe EA, Habib EH, Oche OC, Gautam S (2009) Sensitivity of conceptual and physically based hydrologic models to temporal and spatial rainfall sampling. J Hydrol Eng 14(7):711–720. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1084-0699(2009)14:7(711)
Michaud JD, Sorooshian S (1994) Effect of rainfall-sampling errors on simulations of desert flash floods. Water Resour Res 30(10):2765–2775. https://doi.org/10.1029/94wr01273
Michelon A, Benoit L, Beria H, Ceperley N, Schaefli B (2021) Benefits from high-density rain gauge observations for hydrological response analysis in a small alpine catchment. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 25(4):2301–2325. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2301-2021
Nicótina L, Alessi Celegon E, Rinaldo A, Marani M (2008) On the impact of rainfall patterns on the hydrologic response. Water Resour Res 44(12). https://doi.org/10.1029/2007wr006654
Ochoa-Rodriguez S, Wang LP, Gires A, Pina RD, Reinoso-Rondinel R, Bruni G, Ichiba A, Gaitan S, Cristiano E, van Assel J, Kroll S, Murlà-Tuyls D, Tisserand B, Schertzer D, Tchiguirinskaia I, Onof C, Willems P, ten Veldhuis MC (2015) Impact of spatial and temporal resolution of rainfall inputs on urban hydrodynamic modelling outputs: A multi-catchment investigation. J Hydrol 531:389–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.05.035
Paschalis A, Fatichi S, Molnar P, Rimkus S, Burlando P (2014) On the effects of small scale space–time variability of rainfall on basin flood response. J Hydrol 514:313–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.04.014
Pechlivanidis IG, McIntyre N, Wheater HS (2017) The significance of spatial variability of rainfall on simulated runoff: an evaluation based on the Upper Lee catchment. UK Hydrol Res 48(4):1118–1130. https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2016.038
Pilgrim DH, Cordery I (1975) Rainfall temporal patterns for design floods. J Hydr Engrg Div, ASCE 101(1):81–95
Porcu E, Furrer R, Nychka D (2020) 30 Years of space–time covariance functions. WIREs Comput Stat 13(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/wics.1512
Rafieeinasab A, Norouzi A, Kim S, Habibi H, Nazari B, Seo DJ, Lee H, Cosgrove B, Cui Z (2015) Toward high-resolution flash flood prediction in large urban areas – Analysis of sensitivity to spatiotemporal resolution of rainfall input and hydrologic modeling. J Hydrol 531:370–388. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.08.045
Sapriza-Azuri G, Jódar J, Navarro V, Slooten LJ, Carrera J, Gupta HV (2015) Impacts of rainfall spatial variability on hydrogeological response. Water Resour Res 51(2):1300–1314. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014wr016168
Schuurmans JM, Bierkens MFP (2007) Effect of spatial distribution of daily rainfall on interior catchment response of a distributed hydrological model. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 11(2):677–693. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-11-677-2007
Segond ML, Wheater HS, Onof C (2007) The significance of spatial rainfall representation for flood runoff estimation: A numerical evaluation based on the Lee catchment, UK. J Hydrol 347(1–2):116–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2007.09.040
Senan S, Thomas J, Vema VK, Jainet PJ, Nizar S, Sivan S, Sudheer KP (2022) A study of the influence of rainfall datasets’ spatial resolution on stream simulation in Chaliyar River Basin, India. J Water Clim Chang 13(12):4234–4254. https://doi.org/10.2166/wcc.2022.273
Shahidi M, Abedini MJ (2018) Optimal selection of number and location of rain gauge stations for areal estimation of annual rainfall using a procedure based on inverse distance weighting estimator. Paddy Water Environ 16(3):617–629. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-018-0654-y
Singh VP (2016) Handbook of applied hydrology, (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Education
Smith MB, Koren VI, Zhang Z, Reed SM, Pan JJ, Moreda F (2004) Runoff response to spatial variability in precipitation: an analysis of observed data. J Hydrol 298(1–4):267–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2004.03.039
Soroush F, Abedini MJ (2019) Optimal selection of number and location of pressure sensors in water distribution systems using geostatistical tools coupled with genetic algorithm. J Hydroinf 21(6):1030–1047. https://doi.org/10.2166/hydro.2019.023
Stone JJ, Nichols MH, Goodrich DC, Buono J (2008) Long-term runoff database, Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona. United States. Water Resour Res 44(5). https://doi.org/10.1029/2006wr005733
Terink W, Leijnse H, Van Den Eertwegh G, Uijlenhoet R (2018) Spatial resolutions in areal rainfall estimation and their impact on hydrological simulations of a lowland catchment. J Hydrol 563:319–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.05.045
Wilson CB, Valdes JB, Rodriguez-Iturbe I (1979) On the influence of the spatial distribution of rainfall on storm runoff. Water Resour Res 15(2):321–328. https://doi.org/10.1029/wr015i002p00321
Younger PM, Freer JE, Beven KJ (2009) Detecting the effects of spatial variability of rainfall on hydrological modelling within an uncertainty analysis framework. Hydrol Process 23(14):1988–2003. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7341
Zhang J, Han D (2017) Assessment of rainfall spatial variability and its influence on runoff modelling: A case study in the Brue catchment, UK. Hydrol Process 31(16):2972–2981. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.11250
Zhang J, Han D, Song Y, Dai Q (2018) Study on the effect of rainfall spatial variability on runoff modelling. J Hydroinf 20(3):577–587. https://doi.org/10.2166/hydro.2018.129
Zhou W, Zhu Z, Xie Y, Cai Y (2021) Impacts of rainfall spatial and temporal variabilities on runoff quality and quantity at the watershed scale. J Hydrol 603:127057. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.127057
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Consent for Publication
During the preparation of this work the authors used ChatGPT in order to make the manuscript readable and easy to follow. After using this tool/service, the authors reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.
Competing Interests
The authors have no relevant financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ziaee, P., Abedini, M.J. Investigating the Effect of Spatial and Temporal Variabilities of Rainfall on Catchment Response. Water Resour Manage 37, 5343–5366 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-023-03610-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-023-03610-0