Hydrological Similarity-Based Parameter Regionalization under Different Climate and Underlying Surfaces in Ungauged Basins

• Published in: Water (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 18; p. 2508
• Main Authors: Wang, Huaijun, Cao, Lei, Feng, Ru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2021
• Subjects: Basins; Climate; Correlation; Discharge measurement; Efficiency; Environmental factors; GR model; Humidity; Hydrologic data; Hydrologic models; hydrological similarity; hydrological simulation; Hydrology; Lake basins; Lakes; Mathematical models; Methods; parameter transfer; Parameters; Precipitation; Principal components analysis; River basins; Rivers; Seasons; Similarity; Snowmelt; Spring (season); Topography; ungauged basins; Vegetation; Watersheds; China; Poyang Lake; Yangtze River
• ISSN: 2073-4441; 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w13182508

Hydrological similarity-based parameter regionalization is the dominant method used for runoff prediction in ungauged basin. However, the application of this approach depends on assessing hydrological similarity between basins. This study used data for runoff, climate, and the underlying surface of the Hulan River Basin and Poyang Lake Basin to construct a novel physical hydrological similarity index (HSI). The index was used to compare the efficiency of transfer of the parameters of commonly used regionalization methods and to finally apply parameters to ungauged basins. The results showed that: (1) Precipitation is the main climatic factor regulating magnitude of runoff in the Poyang Lake Basin. Spring runoff in Hulan River Basin was regulated by precipitation and temperature. (2) The GR4J and CemaNeigeGR4J models achieved reasonable simulations of runoff of Poyang Lake Basin and Hulan River Basin. Although CemaNeigeGR4J considers snowmelt, the model simulations of spring runoff in the Hulan River Basin were not accurate. (3) There was a significant correlation between climate, the underlying surface, and hydrological model parameters. There were fewer significant correlations between environmental factors and between environmental factors and hydrological model parameters in the Hulan River Basin compared to those in the Poyang Lake Basin, possibly due to less sub-basins in the Hulan River Basin. (4) The HSI based on a combination of principal component analysis and the entropy method efficiently identified the most similar gauged basin for an ungauged basin. A significant positive correlation existed between the HSI and parameter transfer efficiency. The relationship between the HSI and transfer efficiency could be represented by logistic regression and linear regression in the Poyang Lake Basin and Hulan River Basin, respectively. The HSI was better able to quantify the hydrological similarity between basins in terms of climate and underlying surface and can provide a scientific reference for the transfer of hydrological model parameters in an ungauged basin.