Quantification of node importance in rain gauge network: influence of temporal resolution and rain gauge density

Abstract

Rain gauge network is important for collecting rainfall information effectively and efficiently. Rain gauge networks have been studied for several decades from a range of hydrological perspectives, where rain gauges with unique or non-repeating information are considered as important. However, the problem of quantification of node importance and subsequent identification of the most important nodes in rain gauge networks have not yet been extensively addressed in the literature. In this study, we use the concept of the complex networks to evaluate the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) monitored 692 rain gauge in the Ganga River Basin. We consider the complex network theory-based Degree Centrality (DC), Clustering Coefficient (CC) and Mutual Information (MI) as the parameters to quantify the rainfall variability associated with all the rain gauges in the network. Multiple rain gauge network scenario with varying rain gauge density (i.e. Network Size (NS) = 173, 344, 519, and 692) and Temporal Resolution (i.e. TR = 3 hours, 1 day, and 1 month) are introduced to study the effect of rain gauge density, gauge location and temporal resolution on the node importance quantification. Proxy validation of the methodology was done using a hydrological model. Our results indicate that the network density and temporal resolution strongly influence a node’s importance in rain gauge network. In addition, we concluded that the degree centrality along with clustering coefficient is the preferred parameter than the mutual information for the node importance quantification. Furthermore, we observed that the network properties (spatial distribution, DC, Collapse Correlation Threshold (CCT), CC Range distributions) associated with TR = 3 hours and 1 day are comparable whereas TR = 1 month exhibit completely different trends. We also found that the rain gauges situated at high elevated areas are extremely important irrespective of the NS and TR. The encouraging results for the quantification of nodes importance in this study seem to indicate that the approach has the potential to be used in extreme rainfall forecasting, in studying changing rainfall patterns and in filling gaps in spatial data. The technique can be further helpful in the ground-based observation network design of a wide range of meteorological parameters with spatial correlation.

Application of PCSWMM for the 1-D and 1-D–2-D Modeling of Urban Flooding in Damansara Catchment, Malaysia

“…An extreme precipitation event in December 2015 was reproduced using the rainfall data (at 5-min intervals) from six rainfall stations within the Damansara catchment, as listed in Table 2. A relatively simple, nearest neighbor-based method [42] was adopted, in which each sub-catchment was assigned rainfall input data from the nearest rainfall station to the sub-catchment's centroid (Figure A1).…”

Design of a monitoring network: from macro to micro design

“…Regarding methods for obtaining an 'optimal' network, given the potential locations and a number of locations limited by the available budget, several authors have reported their findings (e.g. Fu et al, 2016;Lei & Schilling, 1993;Rodríguez-Iturbe & Mejía;Shaghaghian & Abedini, 2013;Tiwari et al, 2020). These methods are very diverse in nature and most of them require a substantial background knowledge on mathematical optimization methods, which is beyond the scope of this book to discuss in any detail.…”

Identification of the rain gauge stations for the participatory flood and landslide mitigation in the Serayu river basin, Central Java

“…Rainfall data are used for a variety of water resources management tasks, such as analysing and assessing the water budget, analysing and predicting the frequency of floods, estimating the flow of a stream, and designing hydraulic structures [1,2]. A rain gauge network is essential for properly and efficiently collecting rainfall data [3]. A reliable network of rain gauges can give accurate and up-todate information about rainfall, which is important for making flood control structures that work well and do not cost too much.…”