Reversing hydrology: Estimation of sub-hourly rainfall time-series from streamflow

A novel solution to the estimation of catchment rainfall at a sub-hourly resolution from measured streamflow is introduced and evaluated for two basins with markedly different flow pathways and rainfall regimes. It combines a continuous-time transfer function model with regularised derivative estima...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental modelling & software : with environment data news 2014-10, Vol.60, p.290-301
Main Authors: Kretzschmar, Ann, Tych, Wlodek, Chappell, Nick A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Computer programs
Continuous time
Data-based mechanistic modelling
Derivative estimation
Derivatives
Estimates
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects. Techniques
Hydrograph
Hydrology
Hyetograph
Input estimation
Inverse modelling
Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...)
Modelling
Rainfall
Regularisation
Software
Transfer function
Transfer functions
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Summary:A novel solution to the estimation of catchment rainfall at a sub-hourly resolution from measured streamflow is introduced and evaluated for two basins with markedly different flow pathways and rainfall regimes. It combines a continuous-time transfer function model with regularised derivative estimates obtained using a recursive method with capacity for handling missing data. The method has general implications for off-line estimation of unknown inputs as well as robust estimation of derivatives. It is compared with an existing approach using a range of model metrics, including residuals analysis and visuals; and is shown to recover the salient features of the observed, sub-hourly rainfall, sufficient to produce a precise estimate of streamflow, indistinguishable from the output of the catchment model in response to the observed rainfall data. Results indicate potential for use of this method in environment-related applications for periods lacking sub-hourly rainfall observations. •Catchment models inverted using parsimonious models of dominant dynamic modes.•Regularisation compares favourably with direct inverse transfer function approach.•Methods compared using two contrasting catchments and rainfall regimes.•Regularised inversion captures dominant hydrograph shaping rainfall attributes.
ISSN:1364-8152
1873-6726
DOI:10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.06.017