Evaluation of drainage-area ratio method used to estimate streamflow for the Red River of the North Basin, North Dakota and Minnesota

Abstract

The drainage-area ratio method commonly is used to estimate streamflow for sites where no streamflow data were collected. To evaluate the validity of the drainage-area ratio method and to determine if an improved method could be developed to estimate streamflow, a multiple-regression technique was used to determine if drainage area, main channel slope, and precipitation were significant variables for estimating streamflow in the Red River of the North Basin. A separate regression analysis was performed for streamflow for each of three seasons-winter, spring, and summer. Drainage area and summer precipitation were the most significant variables. However, the regression equations generally overestimated streamflows for North Dakota stations and underestimated streamflows for Minnesota stations. To correct the bias in the residuals for the two groups of stations, indicator variables were included to allow both the intercept and the coefficient for the logarithm of drainage area to depend on the group. Drainage area was the only significant variable in the revised regression equations. The exponents for the drainage-area ratio were 0.85 for the winter season, 0.91 for the spring season, and 1.02 for the summer season.

Performance-weighted methods for estimating monthly streamflow at ungauged sites

“…For example, Emerson et al (2005) and Asquith et al (2006) showed that more-advanced calibration of variants of the DAR method are promising, while Shu and Ouarda (2012) showed that the use of multiple index sites may be valuable. Furthermore, it may be possible to improve Step 2, regional characterization of streamflow records, to reduce both the bias and variance of resulting flow estimates at the ungauged site.…”

“…Instead, the most common approach is used for Step 1, that of choosing the nearest gauge to a site of interest as the index gauge. Though this method is suggested by the work of Emerson et al (2005), Asquith et al (2006) and Mohamoud (2008), and many others, recent publications have found other, more promising criteria for selecting index gauges. For example, Archfield and Vogel (2010) found that the correlation between two streamflow records provides a promising metric for evaluation of hydrologic similarity between an index gauge and a site of interest.…”

“…The use of DAR is appealing because it requires no additional information other than the streamflows at an index site and the drainage areas of the index and ungauged sites, making it the easiest possible method that one could consider. The DAR method is often the default choice simply because other methods are too complicated, require too much data or have yet to be developed for the regions of interest (Emerson et al, 2005). Surprisingly, the DAR method has rarely been compared with other more rigorous methods (that require more inputs) for estimation of streamflow series at ungauged sites.…”

Development of monthly naturalized flow using Water Rights Analysis Package (WRAP)-based methods

“…The ratios of mean naturalized flows for specified periods in Eq. (1) were applied in the same manner that conventional drainage area ratios are applied routinely in many other studies (Emerson and Dressler, 2002;Emerson et al, 2005;Guenthner et al, 1990;Hirsch, 1979;Mohamoud, 2008). Mean flow ratios replace drainage area ratios.…”

Reservoirs override seasonal variability of phytoplankton communities in a regulated Mediterranean river

“…These data were obtained from the Ebro Basin Authority (CHE) website. Discharge estimates in the other sites were performed by using discharge values at nearby stations and sub-basin total drainage areas as described by the Drainage-Area Ratio Method (Emerson et al, 2005).…”