Journal article

Optimization of a similarity measure for estimating ungauged streamflow

JPC Reichl, AW Western, NR McIntyre, FHS Chiew

WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH | AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION | Published : 2009

Abstract

One approach to predicting streamflow in an ungauged catchment is to select an ensemble of hydrological models previously identified for similar gauged catchments, where the similarity is based on some combination of important physical catchment attributes. The focus of this paper is the identification of catchment attributes and optimization of a similarity measure to produce the best possible ungauged streamflow predictions given a data set and a conceptual model structure. As a case study, the SimHyd rainfall-runoff model is applied to simulate monthly streamflow in 184 Australian catchments. Initial results show that none of 27 catchment attributes can be safely said to consistently give..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

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Funding Acknowledgements

This study was assisted by the eWater CRC (www.ewatercrc.com.au), which provided project and travel funding, and by a University of Melbourne Research Scholarship. The authors appreciate the significant efforts of three anonymous reviewers, Associate Editor Demetris Koutsoyiannis, and Editor Scott Tyler, whose comments were very helpful in improving the paper.