Investigating storage‐discharge relations in a lowland catchment using hydrograph fitting, recession analysis, and soil moisture data

Abstract

[1] The relation between storage and discharge is an essential characteristic of many rainfall-runoff models. The simple dynamical systems approach, in which a rainfall-runoff model is constructed from a single storage-discharge relation, has been successfully applied to humid catchments. Here we investigate (1) if and when the less humid lowland Hupsel Brook catchment also behaves like a simple dynamical system by hydrograph fitting, and (2) if system parameters can be inferred from streamflow recession rates or more directly from soil moisture storage observations. Only 39% of the fitted monthly hydrographs yielded Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies above 0.5, from which we can conclude that the Hupsel Brook catchment does not always behave like a simple dynamical system. Model results were especially poor in summer, when evapotranspiration is high and the thick unsaturated zone attenuates the rainfall input. Using soil moisture data to obtain system parameters is not trivial, mainly because there is a discrepancy between local and catchment storage. Parameters obtained with direct storage-discharge fitting led to a strong underestimation of the response of runoff to rainfall, while recession analysis leads to an overestimation.Citation: Brauer, C. C., A. J. Teuling, P. J. J. F. Torfs, and R. Uijlenhoet (2013), Investigating storage-discharge relations in a lowland catchment using hydrograph fitting, recession analysis, and soil moisture data, Water Resour. Res., 49,[4257][4258][4259][4260][4261][4262][4263][4264]

Evaluation of storage–discharge relationships and recession analysis-based distributed hourly runoff simulation in large-scale, mountainous and snow-influenced catchment

“…This result do not comply with that of Brauer et al (2013), who found that for a less-humid catchment in the Netherlands parameter calibration for a power-law storage-discharge relationship led to a strong underestimation of the response of runoff to rainfall while parameter estimation from recession analysis lead to an overestimation.…”

“…The differences may arise due to the difference between the polynomial relationship derived from the recession analysis in this study and the pre-determined power-law relationship in Brauer et al (2013), and the differences in the calibration and the runoff routing algorithms.…”

“…(2010) noted low performance of the 'catchments as simple dynamical system' approach for dry conditions compared to wet conditions for a Swiss prealpine catchment and Brauer et al (2013) reported low performance of the approach based on the power-law relation (Brutsaert and Nieber 1977) for a less humid lowland catchment (6.5 km 2 ) in the Netherlands. Hence, the performance of the model, which are based on the prevailing assumptions, needs assessment across catchments in different climate regimes, landscape features and catchment sizes.…”

Assessing the simple dynamical systems approach in a Mediterranean context: application to the Ardèche catchment (France)

“…Teuling et al (2010) also applied this approach to the Prealpine Rietholzbach catchment (3.31 km 2 ) getting good results in wet periods and poor model performance during dry periods. The study of Brauer et al (2013) showed similar results for the Dutch lowland Hupsel Brook catchment (6.5 km 2 ) where discharge results were correctly reproduced only in certain periods. Melsen et al (2014) determined the minimum amount of data required to find robust parameter values for a simple Kirchner (2009) model with two parameters in the Prealpine Rietholzbach catchment (3.31 km 2 ).…”

“…A single value of measured discharge is used to initialize the simulation. In addition, Kirchner (2009) Brauer et al (2013) used a parameter f that takes into account the difference between potential and actual evapotranspiration on a monthly basis.…”