Application of the Regression-Augmented Regionalization Approach for BTOP Model in Ungauged Basins

Autor: Ying Zhu, Lingxue Liu, Fangling Qin, Li Zhou, Xing Zhang, Ting Chen, Xiaodong Li, Tianqi Ao
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Water, Vol 13, Iss 16, p 2294 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2073-4441
DOI: 10.3390/w13162294
Popis: Ten years after the Predictions in Ungauged Basins (PUB) initiative was put forward, known as the post-PUB era (2013 onwards), reducing uncertainty in hydrological prediction in ungauged basins still receives considerable attention. This integration or optimization of the traditional regionalization approaches is an effective way to improve the river discharge simulation in the ungauged basins. In the Jialing River, southwest of China, the regression equations of hydrological model parameters and watershed characteristic factors were firstly established, based on the block-wise use of TOPMODEL (BTOP). This paper explored the application of twelve regionalization approaches that were combined with the spatial proximity, physical similarity, integration similarity, and regression-augmented approach in five ungauged target basins. The results showed that the spatial proximity approach performs best in the river discharge simulation of the studied basins, while the regression-augmented regionalization approach is satisfactory as well, indicating a good potential for the application in ungauged basins. However, for the regression-augmented approach, the number of watershed characteristic factors considered in the regression equation impacts the simulated effect, implying that the determination of optimal watershed characteristic factors set by the model parameter regression equation is a crux for the regression-augmented approach, and the regression strength may also be an influencing factor. These findings provide meaningful information to establish a parametric transfer equation, as well as references for the application in data-sparse regions for the BTOP model. Future research should address the classification of the donor basins under the spatial distance between the reference basin and the target basin, and build regression equations of model parameters adopted to regression-augmented regionalization in each classification group, to further explore this approach’s potential.
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