Towards affordable 3D physics-based river flow rating: application over the Luangwa River basin

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), affordable precise global navigation satellite system hardware, multi-beam echo sounders, open-source 3D hydrodynamic modelling software, and freely available satellite data have opened up opportunities for a robust, affordable, physics-based approach to monitoring river flows. Traditional methods of river...

Evaluating low-cost topographic surveys for computations of conveyance

Rapid modern technological advancements have led to significant improvements in river monitoring using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), photogrammetric reconstruction software, and low-cost real-time kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System (RTK GNSS) equipment. UAVs allow for the collection of dry bathymetric data in environments that are...

Improved Understanding of the Link Between Catchment-Scale Vegetation Accessible Storage and Satellite-Derived Soil Water Index

The spatiotemporal dynamics of water volumes stored in the unsaturated root zone are a key control on the response of terrestrial hydrological systems. Robust, catchment-scale root-zone soil moisture estimates are thus critical for reliable predictions of river flow, groundwater recharge, or evaporation. Satellites provide estimates of near...

Evaluation and improvement of remote sensing-based methods for river flow management

Rapid advancements in technologies open up possibilities for water resource authorities to increase their ability to accurately, safely and efficiently establish river flow observation through remote and non-intrusive observation methods. Low-cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS) in combination with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) can...

Using altimetry observations combined with GRACE to select parameter sets of a hydrological model in a data-scarce region

Limited availability of ground measurements in the vast majority of river basins world-wide increases the value of alternative data sources such as satellite observations in hydrological modelling. This study investigates the potential of using remotely sensed river water levels, i.e. altimetry observations, from multiple satellite missions...

Variations in canopy cover and its relationship with canopy water and temperature in the miombo woodland based on satellite data

Understanding the canopy cover relationship with canopy water content and canopy temperature in the Miombo ecosystem is important for studying the consequences of climate change. To better understand these relationships, we studied the satellite data-based land surface temperature (LST) as proxy for canopy temperature, leaf area index (LAI),...

Influence of soil and climate on root zone storage capacity

Root zone storage capacity ( S r ) is an important variable for hydrology and climate studies, as it strongly influences the hydrological functioning of a catchment and, via evaporation, the local climate. Despite its importance, it remains difficult to obtain a well-founded catchment representative estimate. This study tests the hypothesis that...

Influence of soil and climate on root zone storage capacity

A framework to assess the realism of model structures using hydrological signatures

The use of flexible hydrological model structures for hypothesis testing requires an objective and diagnostic method to identify whether a rainfall-runoff model structure is suitable for a certain catchment. To determine if a model structure is realistic, i.e. if it captures the relevant runoff processes, both performance and consistency are...

A framework to assess the realism of model structures using hydrological signatures

On the calibration of hydrological models in ungauged basins: A framework for integrating hard and soft hydrological information

This paper presents a calibration framework based on the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) that can be used to condition hydrological model parameter distributions in scarcely gauged river basins, where data is uncertain, intermittent or nonconcomitant. At the heart of this framework is the conditioning of the model parameters...

The design of an optimal filter for monthly GRACE gravity models

Constraining model parameters on remotely sensed evaporation: Justification for distribution in ungauged basins?

OA-fund In this study, land surface related parameter distributions of a conceptual semi-distributed hydrological model are constrained by employing time series of satellite-based evaporation estimates during the dry season as explanatory information. The approach has been applied to the ungauged Luangwa river basin (150 000 (km)2) in Zambia....

A Comparison of Global and Regional GRACE Models for Land Hydrology

When using GRACE as a tool for hydrology, many different gravity field model products are now available to the end user. The traditional spherical harmonics solutions produced from GRACE are typically obtained through an optimization of the gravity field data at the global scale, and are generated by a number of processing centers around the...

The bias in GRACE estimates of continental water storage variations

Assessment of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) temporal signature over the upper Zambezi

The temporal signature of terrestrial storage changes inferred from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) has been assessed by comparison with outputs from a calibrated hydrological model (lumped elementary watershed (LEW)) of the upper Zambezi and surroundings and an inspection of the within?month ground track coverage of GRACE...

Comparison of two model approaches in the Zambezi river basin with regard to model reliability and identifiability