Case study: Assessment of radar-based and ground precipitation data during the flood situation in May 2021 in the Upper Hron River basin in Slovakia

Rok, strany: 2023, 242 - 253

Precipitation is a major factor influencing the results of rainfall-runoff modelling. Errors in precipitation propagate to other phases of water quantity and quality analysis. In the field of operational hydrology, the primary focus is on simulated and predicted discharges. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of radar-estimated precipitation in comparison with precipitation obtained from rain gauge stations during the monthly period when flooding occurred in the Upper Hron River basin in central Slovakia. The precipitation is analysed from the point of view of its further use in the HBV hydrological model applied for hydrological forecasts in the operational hydrological service of the SHMU. Even though, there are high correlation coefficients between measured and radar precipitation, the underestimation of radar precipitation was investigated, with a clear west-east trend. The radar product generally recorded more hours of rain. Low intensities up to 3 mm hr-1 prevailed, while precipitation with higher intensities (above 5 mm hr-1) was detected less frequently compared to ground data. Hydrological evaluation of radar precipitation has shown that bias correction methods applied to precipitation data prior to input to the model can enhance subsequent discharge simulation. The improvement was observed mainly in upstream subbasines, especially in the Čierny Hron subbasin. The NSE was calculated at 0.915. The error in peak flow was also reduced, but the underestimation of the maximum discharge was still observed. The assessment included one month's data, therefore more site-specific situations would need to be analysed for more general conclusions.

ISO 690:

Hrušková, K., Hlaváčiková, H. 2023. Case study: Assessment of radar-based and ground precipitation data during the flood situation in May 2021 in the Upper Hron River basin in Slovakia. In Acta Hydrologica Slovaca, vol. 24, no.2, pp. 242-253. 2644-4690. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/ahs-2023-0024.02.0027

APA:

Hrušková, K., Hlaváčiková, H. (2023). Case study: Assessment of radar-based and ground precipitation data during the flood situation in May 2021 in the Upper Hron River basin in Slovakia. Acta Hydrologica Slovaca, 24(2), 242-253. 2644-4690. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/ahs-2023-0024.02.0027

Vydavateľ: Institute of Hydrology SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9, 841 05 Bratislava, Slovakia

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License